They laughed him to scorn. He suffered this, in order that the actual death might be the more manifest, and that so they might the more wonder at her resurrection, and thus pass from wonder and amazement to a true faith in him who thus showed himself to be the Resurrection and the Life.
He now put them all forth; and then, with his three apostles, Peter, James, and John, and the father and the mother of the child, he went in where the child was. The common crowd were not worthy to see that in which they would not believe.
They were unworthy to witness the great reality of the resurrection; for they had been deriding him who wields this power. It is remarked by Archbishop Trench that in the same manner Elisha (2 Kings 4:33) cleared the room before he raised the son of the Shunammite.