Daily Readings: Psalm 42; Zechariah 8:1-17; Matthew 8:14-17, 28-34

By this time they were in front of Peter’s house. On entering, Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law sick in bed, burning up with fever. He touched her hand and the fever was gone. No sooner was she up on her feet than she was fixing dinner for him.

That evening a lot of demon-afflicted people were brought to him. He relieved the inwardly tormented. he cured the bodily ill. He fulfilled Isaiah’s well-known revelation: He took our illnesses, he carried our diseases. Matthew 8:14-17, The Message

Matthew 8 in a nutshell: Jesus healed a leper, a Roman captain’s servant, then Peter’s mother-in-law. After our passage, Jesus questioned two would-be followers and calmed a raging storm at sea. The chapter ends with Jesus ridding two possessed men of their demons, a herd of pigs plunging off a cliff when the demons possessed them, and a mob from town demanding that Jesus leave and never return.

Without the first thirteen verses and verses eighteen to twenty seven, the focus is on Jesus and his ability to heal those sick in mind, body, and spirit. But I think something vital is lost when parts of chapter eight got snipped away. Beyond our knowing Jesus as a healer, what is the message? I think verses twenty-one and twenty-two offer a glimpse…

Another follower said, “Master, excuse me for a couple of days, please. I have my father’s funeral to take care of.”

Jesus refused. “First things first. Your business is with life, not death. Follow me. Pursue life.”

Following Jesus is pursuing life. It is healing those whose illnesses keep them from a good life. It is letting go of tasks and delays that focus on death rather than on life. It is keeping company with the socially questionable. It is healing a life because someone needs it, not because society says someone deserves it.