In a section that highlights Jesus' miracle-working ability and activity to demonstrate that He really is God, we discover that our natural response to King Jesus is never as wholehearted as it should be, as it needs to be. It's not enough to be Jesus' disciples on our terms, we need to submit to Him on His. Nothing else, nothing less, will do.
One of the interesting things we shall discover as we quickly read through the four Gospels is how the different authors tell the same story of Jesus in different ways. While there are clearly many parallels and overlaps between the Gospels, each author brings something very distinctive to our understanding of Jesus, who He is and what He came to do. Often, that distinctiveness is found in how the story is arranged. Matthew, for example, sandwiches five major blocks of teaching that Jesus gives between extended passages that tell us what Jesus did. For instance, in Chapters 1-4 the telling of the story begins; after that, in Chapters 5-7 Matthew records Jesus' mountain sermon; now in Chapters 8 and 9, Matthew's focus reverts back again to telling us about some more of the important things that Jesus did as his ministry extends and he becomes well known by the crowds of people following him.
In these chapters, Matthew has grouped together a series of Jesus' miracles to show his kingly authority over various types of serious sickness (8: 1-22; 9: 1-8), nature (8: 23-27), death (9: 18-26), demons (8: 28-34), and most importantly, over our lives (8: 18-22; 9: 9-13). However, Jesus' miracles do not naturally generate the response from the people that He requires of true disciples…
When two men step out of the crowd and volunteer to follow Jesus (8:18-22) His response is surprisingly unexpected: rather than welcoming their allegiance with open arms, he tests the level of their proposed commitment and finds it seriously inadequate. These "volunteers" want to follow Jesus on their terms, that is, in a way that would allow them to carry on with the rest of their lives as normal. For Jesus, that will not do. The point is clear: to properly follow Jesus as His disciple, all our other natural allegiances and commitments must be aside against our prior and primary commitment to Him.
Now this requires careful thought. Disciples of Jesus must certainly heed God's commands to honour parents, love their spouses and children and provide for their families' physical needs. Nevertheless, the supremacy of Jesus' call upon our lives cannot be allowed to have second place over these other important demands. The truth is, it is only as follow Jesus wholeheartedly (literally, with all of our hearts), that we will ever be able to love those closest to us (and others around us) as they need to be loved. Our families will not lose out if we love Jesus first; however they will, if Jesus is only second best to us. Only by putting Jesus first in our lives, will we be enabled to love and serve them properly.
The final summary of Jesus miracle-working activity at this point in His ministry (9: 35-38) concludes with a command to pray for more harvest-workers to multiply His Kingdom mission of bringing healing to a sin-sick world. Will you echo this prayer for our church, for this time? Will you hear Jesus' call and become part of the answer to your own prayers?
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