“He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.”
He said, Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping. And they laughed at him. The dismissal of the mourners and the declaration that the girl is sleeping produces laughter — the laughter of those who are confident in their assessment of finality. They laughed at him is the response of those who know death when they see it and find Jesus' reframing absurd. The sleeping language does not deny the reality of the death (the girl really died) but reframes it within the larger reality of what Jesus is about to do: what appears to be permanent death is, in the presence of Jesus, only a sleep from which awakening is possible. 1 Corinthians 15:51–52 uses the same sleep language for death in the context of resurrection.
Church Fathers on Matthew 9:24
After the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, follows the raising of the dead; 'And when Jesus was come into the ruler’s house.'
We may suppose that He proceeded slowly, and spake longer to the woman whom He had healed, that He might suffer the maid to die, and thus an evident miracle of restoring to life might be wrought. In the case of Lazarus also He waited till the third day.
For by the ancient custom minstrels were engaged to make lamentation for the dead.
Read all 17 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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