The religious leaders of Israel did not consider themselves friends of Jesus.  He was a danger to their authority over the people.  Although the Romans had conquered the country, they allowed the religious establishment to rule the Jewish society on the condition that they obeyed Roman laws, paid Roman taxes and prevented any subversion against Rome.  However, wherever Jesus went, a crowd of people followed Him and questioned the official 'spiritual authorities'.  Eventually they feared losing the right to rule if they lost control of the people - that fear led them to ask the Romans to execute Jesus (John 11:48-53).

But when a synagogue ruler’s child was very ill, he came to find Jesus.  Luke’s fuller account tells us that the man’s name was Jairus and that the child was his only daughter.  Instead of offering his own religious credentials, Jairus knelt before Jesus, submitting to His authority and begging Him to come to the girl (Luke 8:41-42).  

Even when Jairus knew she was dead, Jesus told him not to be afraid but to believe that He could bring her back to life (Luke 8:49-50).  Even though he was not supposed to bow to Jesus, he was unashamed to display his faith in the Lord even with the local crowd watching.  All he wanted was for his little girl to live, and for Jesus to act in power.  Jairus’ faith was very focussed, "... come and put your hand on her, and she will live".  And the synagogue leader was not ashamed to say it in public.

Often, we are not desperate enough to come to Jesus.  We easily adopt a faith-style which is predictable, expecting nothing much from God while we organise our lives in the best way we can.  Our prayer life may reflect that: we pray without urgency because we see nothing that we cannot deal with.  We are living in the power of the flesh.  Today's verses, and sometimes our circumstances, rebuke us.  We need the Lord far more than we know and are more loved than ever we realise.  The power of God is not just for the times of crisis and we should be much more eager to see His hand on every issue, believing that He can and will do far more than ever we might imagine (Ephesians 3:20).