Jesus' Compassionate Power, Part 2
Luke 8:49-56
The great privilege is mine week after week to prepare, to preach, to prepare really to preach the lessons that are before us in the gospel of Luke. I...I can't even measure the value of this and the joy of this in my own life because I have the privilege of being face-to-face with the person of Jesus Christ, which, of course, is the highest, most wonderful privilege that anybody could ever have. The challenge for me is to spend the week thinking, contemplating, studying, examining, exegeting, expositing these various pictures of Jesus Christ which fill my mind, and then to come and tell you some small part of what I have learned and what I have gained. The richness comes not just in the assimilation of the information, but in the communion that goes on because as life goes on and as my teaching goes on, I accumulate more and more knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ. I see more and more His glory and His magnificence. And I think it's fair to say that in the intensity of teaching through a book like this, and having done that for many, many years, your mind is so flooded with the images of Jesus Christ, with the words of Christ, with the actions and attitudes of Jesus Christ that it's virtually on your mind all the time. I'm still thinking about things I have learned from Him and from passages about Him in past weeks and past month. I'm looking ahead and thinking of what it is that I'm going to be doing when I get to chapter 9 and looking at the glimpses that are coming, and then I'm deeply involved in what it is that we're actually going to be getting ready for this particular Lord's day. And it's just a...it's just a living of life in the...in a situation where you're just flooded with the reality of Jesus Christ. And that is an immense privilege, that is a great, great joy. And I am extremely thankful for that, to be able in one week to prepare a message on Luke chapter 8 which takes us into the wonders of the person of Jesus Christ, and at the same time be preparing from 1 John chapter 2 another message that deals with Him as our divine defense attorney, which I'll preach tonight. It is to be so profoundly enriched, I only wish I could share with you a small portion of the richness of understanding that comes to my own heart. It seems like the more I know about these things, the more I long to know. And so this becomes for me the greatest of joys. I hope it is for you, as well.
We come to this glimpse of Christ provided for us in the eighth chapter of Luke, starting in verse 40 and ending at the end of the chapter in verse 56. Luke 8:40 through 56. Let me just remind you of the passage as far as we went last time by reading it, starting in verse 40.
"Behold, there came a man..." we'll go back up to verse 40, "As Jesus returned, the multitude welcomed Him for they had all been waiting for Him. And behold, there came a man named Jairus and he was an official of the synagogue. And he fell at Jesus' feet and began to entreat Him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter about twelve years old and she was dying. But as He went, the multitudes were pressing against Him and a woman who had a hemorrhage for twelve years and could not be healed by anyone, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak and immediately her hemorrhage stopped. And Jesus said, 'Who is the one who touched Me?' And while they were all denying it, Peter said, 'Master, the multitudes are crowding and pressing upon You.' But Jesus said, 'Someone did touch Me, for I was aware that power had gone out of Me.' And when the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before Him and declared in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched Him and how she had been immediately healed. And He said to her, 'Daughter, your faith has made you well, your faith has saved you. Go in peace.' While He was still speaking, someone came from the house of the synagogue official saying, 'Your daughter has died, do not trouble the teacher anymore.' But when Jesus heard this, He answered him, 'Do not be afraid any longer, only believe and she shall be made well.' When He had come to the house, He did not allow anyone to enter with Him except Peter and John and James and the girl's father and mother. Now they were all weeping and lamenting for her, but He said, 'Stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep.' And they began laughing at Him, knowing that she had died. He, however, took her by the hand and called saying, 'Child, arise," and her spirit returned and she rose immediately and He gave orders for something to be given to her to eat. And her parents were amazed, but He instructed them to tell no one what had happened.'"
Of all the fears and all the phobias and all the elements of dread in human life, the ultimate fear is the fear of death. Death is the most certain fact of life. People naturally have an intense dread of death and do everything they can to push it as far away as possible. If you are looking for a religion and a religious leader, you would be wise to find one who has power over that great enemy, power over death. The tombs of the world's religious leaders are occupied with one exception, and that is the tomb of the Lord Jesus Christ which has been empty since three days after He was placed there. The ultimate distinguishing mark of Jesus Christ, the ultimate proof that He is God, the true Messiah and Savior of the world, is His power over death...which power was demonstrated not only in His own resurrection with unmistakable, inarguable finality, but a power which was demonstrated in His ability to raise others from the dead.
We see it again right here. Here's the story of the raising of a twelve-year-old girl who was the daughter of a synagogue official. She was dead. And He made her live. The book of Hebrews records that Jesus came in human form, the Son of God into the world, to destroy him who had the power of death, and to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. The whole human race understands that. The whole human race is their whole lifetime subject to the bondage of death, the fear of death. Jesus came to destroy that fear. Jesus came to end your fear of death, to make you view death as a friend.
Our Lord Jesus showed His power to conquer the forces of nature in this very chapter. He stopped the wind and the water. He showed His power over demons, casting several thousand demons out of a maniac. He showed His power over disease, healing the woman with the hemorrhage which had lasted for twelve years. And now as we look back at the same text, we're going to see His power over death. All of that Luke provides for us in this one section from verse 22 to the end of the chapter, thus telling us without question Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior of the world, God in human flesh, the one who has power over nature, power over demons, power over disease and power over death. The one who can bring the promised Kingdom, conquering sin, conquering death and conquering Satan, conquering hell. Satan is the one who brought death into the world in his temptation, killing the whole human race, making them all subject to the bondage of death for all their life. They lived then in the whole of life in the fear of the unavoidable, inevitable reality of death. Jesus came to destroy that. Jesus came to give us eternal life, to take the sting out of death, Paul tells us.
Now, Luke has already recorded for us Jesus' power over death back in chapter 7. Jesus stopped a funeral by touching the coffin. And He said, "Young man, I say to you, arise." And the dead man sat up and began to speak. Here then is a second account of a resurrection. There were more, there were others, for sure, that are not recorded because you will remember that the disciples of John the Baptist came to Jesus, chapter 7 verse 19, they said, "Are You the expected one or do we look for someone else?" We want to know if You are the Messiah, the Savior, the Promised One. And He answered and said to them in verse 22, "Go report to John what you have seen and heard, the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up." You go tell John that I have this power, power to give sight to the blind, to make the lame walk, to heal the lepers, to give hearing to the deaf, to raise the dead, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. You go tell John I preach the good news of divine forgiveness, I bring the forgiveness of God and I demonstrate the power of God.
Our Lord has been doing this all along in His Galilean ministry. He's been healing people. He's been casting out demons. He's been showing His power over nature. And He has been conquering death. The town of Capernaum was sort of the center of His operations. Capernaum, the town at the very northern tip of the Sea of Galilee, no longer there, by the way, because of its failure to believe in the Messiah, received the curse of God and went out of existence. And if you go there today, you won't find any town at all. The town of Capernaum saw many, many miracles, perhaps in the thousands. And here Luke provides for us another one of those miracles, the miracle of raising a dead girl.
In the middle of that miracle, by the way, from verses 43 to 48, was an interlude miracle in which Jesus healed the woman with a hemorrhage of blood. And we saw that last time. We learned from that that Jesus was accessible and He was available and He was interruptible and He was inexhaustible in dealing with people's needs. We closed out the story of that woman in verse 48 by listening to the words of Jesus when He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well, go in peace." And I said that not only did this woman receive physical restoration when her issue of blood was immediately healed, but she received a social restoration because, you remember, that any woman who had an issue of blood, according to Old Testament law, was considered to be unclean. She couldn't be touched by her husband. She couldn't be touched by her children. She couldn't be touched by any family or friends, anybody in the community. She couldn't come to the synagogue. She couldn't go to the temple. Consequently she was like a leper, she was an utter and complete outcast. And once she was healed, Jesus wanted her to give public testimony, pulled her out of the crowd and made her make a confession and tell about her testimony so that everybody would know that she had been healed in order that she might be restored socially. This is something of the inexhaustible interest of Jesus in people, restoring her physically, He restored her socially, and then finally we noted in verse 48 that He restored her spiritually. He spoke of her faith, her faith in Him which had saved her, sozo. There are times in the New Testament when Jesus says your faith has made you...made you whole or made you well, when it's referring to salvation. That would be true, for example, back in chapter 7 verse 50, the prostitute who came in verse 48, He forgave her sins, there's no healing here at all. He forgave her sins and in verse 50, "Your faith has saved you," same word. Your faith has made you whole. And then He says the same thing He said to the woman with the issue of blood, "Go in peace." So this was something Jesus said to people who had been forgiven, who had not just been healed physically, and restored socially, but restored to God spiritually.
I think there's every reason to believe that the statement here does refer to her salvation...to her salvation. Whereas down in verse 50 when speaking of the daughter and Jesus promises she shall be made well, He there is referring to a physical resurrection, not a spiritual salvation of that girl. The word has then to be determined as to its meaning by its context. But you look what's around verse 48, just to remind you of it. He calls her "daughter," The only time in the New Testament record that Jesus identifies someone in this fashion which indicates that He accepted her into His Kingdom as a daughter. I think that's an identifying title for one in the family of God. He speaks of her faith having made her well, that, as I said, in chapter 7 verse 40 was exactly what He said to the forgiven woman. It is also in chapter 17 verse 19 exactly what He says to a thankful leper having been healed. You remember, ten were healed, only one came back and said thanks and He said to him, "Your faith has saved you." There were ten who were healed, there was one, He said, was saved. And I think in that same context here with the addition of the word "daughter" and then the statement, "Go in peace," that is to say God doesn't say that to anybody who hasn't established that peace with God. So I think what you have here is a true conversion. Go in peace, that is to say go, knowing that you have been restored to God. Matthew says Jesus also said to her, "Be of good courage," or, "Be confident." Another way to say everything is okay. All is well. So I believe He not only restored her physically and restored her socially, He restored her spiritually.
So He stops in the middle of this conversation with Jairus. It's noted in verses 40 to 42. Jairus' comes begging Him to come to his house because his only daughter is twelve-years-old and she has reached the prime of life, marriage age, by the way, in Israel was twelve, time to get married and have a husband and a family. This should have been the most wonderful time in the girl's life but just the contrary, she was dying. And Jesus agrees to go and He starts to go and the crowd presses and then the woman grabs Him and He goes through the interlude with the woman.
By the time He's finished with the woman, and has affirmed her restoration in all its fullness, verse 49 says, "While He was still speaking," perhaps to the woman, perhaps to the crowd, because He was primarily a teacher, He would have been always clarifying the gospel. You remember, I just quoted from the seventh chapter where Jesus said, "You go tell John the Baptist that not only are the blind given sight and the deaf given hearing, the dead raised up," and so forth, "but the poor have the gospel being preached to them." At the heart of Jesus' ministry was the preaching of the gospel...the preaching of the gospel...the teaching of forgiveness through repentance and faith in Him. And so He went on speaking, perhaps finishing up talking to the woman, but using it as an opportunity to present the message of forgiveness to the crowd that He would always do. While He was still speaking, having stopped His progress toward the house of Jairus who by now must have been even more stressed, more panicked. You remember, he had been there waiting on the shore at Capernaum for Jesus to show up. Jesus had gone over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee to Gadara and there healed the demoniac, the maniac and then come back with His disciples in a number of little boats. They had arrived at the shore in Capernaum. The crowd was all there waiting. No telling how long the girl had been sick. The father more anxious and more anxious as time goes on. Jesus comes, he gets through the crowd because of His importance, probably could get the front place, and he says to Jesus, "You've got to come...You've got to come now, my daughter is dying." Jesus starts to go, the crowd restrains and restricts. The woman stops Him in His tracks. He goes through all of that. He's teaching all the time. And Jairus' anxiety, no doubt, is being elevated at every moment.
And then the worst possible scenario occurs while He's still speaking. Verse 49 says, "Someone came from the house of the synagogue official saying, 'Your daughter has died. Do not trouble the teacher anymore.'" An unidentified messenger, we don't know who but somebody from the household. "Your daughter's died," the bad, the worst has happened, the delay has proven deadly. Jesus delaying His coming because of the pressure of the crowd, because of His concern and preoccupation with this woman has caused the worst situation possible. While Jesus was giving Himself to an outcast, the lowliest person in the crowd who shouldn't have even been in the crowd because she was an untouchable, while He was giving Himself to this lowest of people, the child of the most important person in town had died. In caring for the most rejected, He had ignored the most respected. The messenger, however, is kind in the way he expresses or she expresses because the message is, "Do not trouble the teacher anymore." He is identified as the teacher, and I love that because that's the best way to identify Jesus. Even though we're going through miracle after miracle after miracle in the record of the New Testament, know this that Jesus was never silent. He was teaching and teaching and teaching all the time. We can remember also that His miracles only took a matter of a split second long enough to say whatever words He needed to say to create whatever He needed to create to restore the person. The rest of the time He was teaching. He is called didaskalon, a title by the way of great respect, the teacher. Don't trouble the teacher anymore. The messenger is saying, "Look, don't bother Him anymore, He's got this massive crowd around Him, all these people with all these needs and all these demands and He needs to be teaching them. And He wants to be teaching them. And it's too late."
At this point, Jairus spoke to Jesus. Luke doesn't record it but Matthew does. By the way, Matthew 9, Mark 5 both give us accounts of this same event. Matthew 9:18, Jairus said this to Jesus. "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her and she will live." I like that faith, don't you? The messenger didn't believe. The messenger was kind. The messenger said don't bother Him anymore, it's too late. Jairus said she died, but You come and You put Your hand on her and she will live. There's really no equivocation in that. There's no hesitation. There's doubt about his confidence in the power of Jesus. Well after all, he was a leader of the synagogue in Capernaum where Jesus had been doing miracles for a long time. He had been there, no doubt, in the fourth chapter when Jesus had cast the demon out of the man after having an amazing conversation with the demon right in the middle of the synagogue service, and surely he had been there on number of occasions when Jesus had given sight to the blind, or hearing to deaf or made lame people to walk, or healed lepers, or maybe even raised dead people. But if he hadn't seen a resurrection, he had heard about them because he believed that Jesus had the power to raise the dead. Believe me, he was a Jew, he knew the Old Testament, he knew promises and prophecies of the Messiah. He has faith that Jesus has the power of God. That He represents God. His faith is unwavering and death does not diminish his faith.
And so he says, "Just lay Your hand on her and she'll live." As if to say, "It's easy for You, just put Your hand on her, just touch her." When Jesus heard all of this, He said to Jairus, "Don't fear, phobos, stop being anxious or fearful or phobic. Don't be afraid because there was faith but there was faith mingled with fear. "Only believe and she'll be made well." It actually uses sozo there, I believe, but in this context it's not referring about spiritual salvation because she was dead and couldn't obviously have faith. Don't be afraid, only believe. Mark says, "Keep on believing." And you combine the two and what Jesus said to him was, "You have believed, believe now. You've believed up to now, you believe I could heal her. Keep on believing." And that may be when he said, "You touch her and she will be well." We don't know exactly the sequence of those statements. But perhaps after He said, "Keep on believing," he may have said, "Touch her and she'll live." In any case, there was fixed mixed with his faith but his faith was unwavering. Jesus says, "Don't be afraid. She's going to be resurrected. She's going to be delivered, sozo, saved, brought back."
Now this is the promise that Jesus makes, the promise of resurrection, keep on believing. He doesn't make that, interestingly enough, really necessarily a condition for the resurrection, He just says, "Don't be afraid, keep believing, I'm going to raise her." Jesus healed many people who didn't believe. He healed many without faith./ He never saved any without faith, never will. But He healed many without faith. But sometimes He used faith as a channel through which He could operate. But in this case it isn't necessarily cause and effect, He doesn't say, "If you believe she'll be made well," He simply says believe, she'll be made well, she'll be restored.
So our Lord makes a promise, a promise of resurrection. That's so wonderful because this is sort of a microcosm picture of what He promises to all of us. He promises us life even though we face death. And from the promise we come to His perspective. I just think this is the most dramatic part of the picture, verse 51. In this we get a little bit of an insight into a Jewish funeral at the time. Jesus finally had come to the house. By the way, a significant time had passed. I don't know, maybe an hour, maybe two hours, I don't know however long it would take. But enough time had passed for the funeral to start. Their mourners would have been on notice that she was dying, get ready, be available because the Jews didn't embalm so they didn't leave corpses above ground very long. So they had the funerals immediately. And wen the girl died, the mourners who were already put on notice that she was dying would have been called and by the time Jesus got there, the funeral was on in full.
They came to the house and just to give you the picture a little bit, go down to verse 32. "They were all weeping and lamenting for her." He comes and they're into the full funeral, it's really going on. Matthew adds something to it. Matthew 9:23, he describes the scene. "Jesus saw the flute players and the crowd in noisy disorder."
Now let me give you just a little bit of background. You've been to funerals, probably a lot of funerals, some of you. And so to the standard decorum for a funeral is, in our society, is quiet, right? Real low, mellow, organ tones in the background, everybody sort of speaks in whispers and nobody talks very loudly and nobody moves or makes noise. It's a quiet, very sedate event. Just the opposite of the Jewish funeral in Jesus' time, absolute hysteria going on, screaming, wailing, howling, shrieking, playing dissonant notes on high-pitched flutes. That's what they did. Noisy disorder.
Can you imagine going to a funeral like that? Can you imagine coming into a funeral, walking in the backdoor and just hearing people screaming and yelling and wailing and moaning and crying and people playing dissonant music on high-pitched flutes? That's what they did. There were three ways to express grief at a Jewish funeral. One, you rip your clothes up. You tore your garments. So before you went to the funeral, you picked the one you didn't want to wear anymore. If you were the mother or the father, then you ripped it over your heart. Everybody else, you ripped near the heart. And it had to be a hole big enough to put a fist through, show, be visible. And then you could put loose threads through it and leave it that way for a month so people would see your sustained brokenheartedness. Your heart had been torn by the loss of this person. That's what was being demonstrated in that.
By the way, the Jews got so good at this particular thing that there were 39 rules for ripping your clothes. Yeah, they had a whole format for doing that. Thirty-nine regulations and forms. The tearing was always to be done while you were standing up, for example. And so forth. For women who were modest and didn't want to rip their garments in the front, could rip the garment under their outer cloak and then wear it backwards. And so the rules went.
And so they were all going through the machinations of ripping in the right place and doing whatever they needed to be doing. That would be going on. The second way of expressing grief was to hire professional women who screamed and wailed. Women are more effective at that because they have the high, shrill voices.
And they would...while they were wailing, one of the things they did was they would wail and they would name the person that died and then they would....they would find out everybody who had died in the past and they would bring their names in and wail about them. So what happened was, you had the accumulated wailing of everybody who died in the family. So all the memories of old grief were resurrected. Every tender cord was touched. Agony was magnified with loud shrieks and wailing and groaning. And then you add to that the flutes...the flutes. Again, loud dissonance somewhat shrill noises. And even the poor in Israel were required to have at least two flutes and one wailing lady. So for a ruler of a synagogue, you probably had a whole lot of flutes and a whole lot of wailing women.
Well this was all needless, absolutely needless. So when Jesus arrives, Mark paints the scene in Mark chapter 5 as the same chaotic disorder. But he also says, "He allowed no one to follow with Him except Peter, James and John and when they came to the house they beheld a commotion and people loudly weeping and wailing and entering in." What that tells us is that when Jesus left the crowd, He allowed only Peter, James and John to go, not the crowd. He stopped the crowd from following Him. He stopped the other disciples who He probably used as sort of a perimeter guard and He just took those three with Him because He knew the chaos would be there, He didn't want to add more chaos. He didn't want to drag the entire crowd into that environment. And He didn't even want all the disciples going, not even all the twelve Apostles. But just three, and this is the first occasion when Jesus separated Peter, James and John out from the rest...first time. He does it in th future numbers of times because He can't always work with that many and He always has to have an inner circle and it's these three, Peter the leader, John the lover, and James who became the first martyr. He selected these three to be His most intimate. They were the ones who reported from the disciples and apostles their concerns to Jesus and they were the ones who went back to the disciples with Jesus' concerns. Every leader has to have an intimate circle and it was these three that Jesus chose.
So from the time they left the crowd it was just the three of them and Jesus. They got to the house, it was still just the three of them and Jesus and the father, Jairus, and the mother who is unnamed. And when He came to the house, He hears this commotion, this noisy disorder, this dissonance going on. He doesn't allow anybody to enter into the house except Peter, John and James, the girl's father and mother, they go in the middle of this chaos and there's going to come a new perspective. They were all weeping and lamenting for her, but He said, "Stop weeping, stop."
You see, Jesus brings a whole different perspective to a funeral, doesn't He? "Stop, you don't need to be weeping. Why are you making such a commotion?" Matthew 9 says, Jesus also says, "Get out, the funeral is now over, get out." Uses a very strong word, the word to depart, get out. It's a very strong word in the Greek and He probably said it with some firmness. "Stop this funeral, get out, the funeral is over. It's the end of it."
We also learn, interestingly enough, that according to Mark, Jesus began putting them out, Mark 5:40. "Get out." And they probably said, "What do you mean, you know?" "Get out, the funeral is over." And He started putting them out. Matthew adds, "When the crowd had been put out, Jesus then entered the chamber where the girl was." He had to struggle to get them out of there. They were doing what they were supposed to do, what they were hired to do, what was traditional, what was cultural, what the rabbis had instructed them to do. They were following all the regulations. This is what everybody did. What do you mean? And Jesus is simply saying, "The funeral is over, and the reason is, she hasn't died, she's asleep." And in that statement, Jesus redefined death as temporary. Jesus redefined death as temporary, like sleep. This perspective then is the true perspective on death. When you say dead, she has died, people typically think that's finality, that's the end. That's permanent separation. Jesus said, "No, death is not a good word for this because it's not permanent. She's just asleep, she's just asleep."
And that's the way the Bible defines death. Even in the Old Testament it talks about those who have fallen asleep. You remember Paul's sermon in Acts 13 and Acts 13 I think it's verse 36, he's talking about David who had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep. But he whom God raised did not undergo decay. He fell asleep. Why does he talk about David's death, his body goes into the grave, he talks about his decay in the grave, that's asleep? Sure because it's temporary...it's temporary. A good way to see this is in John chapter 11 at the death of Lazarus. You remember the story because it's so familiar. And he comes, verse 11, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, he says. "But I go that I may awaken him out of sleep." Jesus redefines death as temporary. The disciples said to Him, "Lord, if he's fallen asleep, he'll wake up." I mean, they're used to the normal terminology. "Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought He was speaking of literal sleep. So Jesus therefore said to them, 'Lazarus is dead, but I'm glad for your sakes that I wasn't there so that you may believe.'" Let's go to him. I'm glad he died. I'm glad I didn't get there when he was just sick, I'm glad he's died because...He says in verse 25..."I am the resurrection and the life, who believes in Me shall live even if he dies," and He shows it to be true. In verse 43 He says to Lazarus, "Lazarus, come forth." He who had died came forth. Jesus said, "Unbind him and let him go." It was...it was true to redefine death from a permanent situation to a temporary one because that's reality. Death is just a form of sleep. In fact, it's a brief sleep, very brief. The body may sleep a little while but the spirit doesn't sleep at all. It goes into the next life, into the next world.
You know, Jesus was given the authority to raise the dead by His own Father. Some He would raise to the resurrection of life and some to the resurrection of damnation. But sleep for all people is a better definition of death because it is temporary. For believers, "We shall not all sleep," right? First Corinthians 15:51, "We shall all be changed." First Thessalonians chapter 4, the wonderful Rapture passage views believer's death as sleep. "We don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, about those who are asleep because even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say by the Word of the Lord that you who are alive and remain till the coming of the Lord shall not proceed those who have fallen asleep, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout and then the Rapture." So the Bible defines death as sleep because it emphasizes its temporary character. It's temporary for everybody. Believers can celebrate its temporary element because we know we wake up on the other side in the next life. That's why Paul says, "For me to live is Christ, to die is...what?...is gain." "Far better," 2 Corinthians 5, "to depart and be with Christ." Jesus had a different perspective on death. We see death as final separation. It is not. It is better defined as sleep and a short sleep at that from which you awake immediately in another life.
Well, they thought this was so stupid and so ridiculous that He would say she was asleep in verse 53, not having any spiritual insight at all, or faith. They began laughing at Him. You can be sure they were hired mourners if they could shift gears that fast. They began laughing at Him knowing that she had died. Everybody knew she was dead. It was obvious she was dead. Everybody was aware of the finality of that. Their view of eternal life was vague and somewhat undefined. They felt this was the end, this was the final separation. On their way out, as Jesus was putting them out, as Mark tells us, and when He had finally put them out, they were laughing on the way. Their laughter was gloating laughter over such a stupid statement showing the ignorance of Jesus about what was obvious, mocking laughter from people who had no real sorrow, people who had no confidence in Jesus. The Authorized Version says, "They laughed Him to scorn," which is a really good way to tr