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And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?"
- Matthew 8:18-27
In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus has just finished preaching the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5 - 7, beginning with the Beatitudes). In yesterday's reading, we were told that when He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be cleansed." Immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no one; but go your way, show yourselves to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, saying, "Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented." And Jesus said to him, "I will come and heal him." The centurion answered and said, "Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come,' and he comes; and to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, "Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel! And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you." And his servant was healed that same hour. Now when Jesus had come into Peter's house, He saw his wife's mother lying sick with a fever. So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them. When evening had come, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed. And He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."
And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. We note Jesus' traveling ministry, indicated in His command to depart for the other side -- that is, the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Furthermore, He's going away from the crowds who follow Him and throng Him at this point in His ministry. That actually gives us some great clues about Him. He's not seeking fame; in fact many times in the Gospels we find Jesus is trying to take rest with His disciples, but He's always found by people seeking Him out.
Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." My study bible says that the term Son of Man refers to the Messiah (Daniel 7:13), and it expresses both Jesus' humanity and His divinity. Here, Jesus uses it referring to His human condition: He doesn't own a home nor property, His ministry means He is continually traveling, there is not a permanent place for Him -- and this is the nature of His ministry. If the scribe is expecting anything different, it's best he be prepared for discipleship appropriately.
Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." My study bible says that Jesus isn't negating the command to honor parents. But He is teaching us to put the things of the Kingdom as the highest priority. Again, right after the Sermon on the Mount, as in yesterday's reading, we get instances in which it seems that Jesus is contradicting or contravening the Law of Moses. But the whole point of the Law, its whole aim and goal, is to create a people of God (the meaning of "Israel"). He has said He is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, and here is our direction. My study bible says that those who ignore this priority are spiritually dead.
Now when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves. But He was asleep. Then His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" But He said to them, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So the men marveled, saying, "Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" Jesus' mastery over creation is another sign of the Messiah, that He is divine. My study bible says that commands to the sea and waves can only be issued by God (Job 38:8-11; Psalms 65:5-6, 106:9). As man, however, Jesus sleeps because He needs rest. This is another one of those signs that it's not all about preaching to crowds! In His Incarnation, He is fully human, and assumes all the natural actions of the flesh -- needing sleep is one of those! This image of Christ and His disciples in a boat is a classic "icon" of the Church. My study bible says, "God both permits storms and delivers us through them, so that we can see His protection more clearly. Christ's rebuke of the storm is also an illustration of His calming the tempests in the human soul."
For most of us, from the strictly human point of view, Jesus' mastery over the elements, and His great power of healing, are what impress and awe. But if we look at Jesus' own emphasis in His words and action, He's really looking and pointing us toward something else as the highest good here, and that is faith. When He rebukes the disciples for their fear in the boat, before He commands the sea, the wind, and the waves, He first says, "Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?" His statement to the scribe who would be a disciple, that the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head, is a statement about faith and discipleship. Does the scribe really have enough faith to be that kind of disciple who would follow One who has no home, no fixed place of abode? And do we really have the kind of faith so that we can do as He says, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead?" Of everything He teaches, and everything He does, it's really faith that is the tough crux of everything, the center and highest goal, the apex of His teachings and works. Faith is the place where human and Divine meet. In that sense, He Himself is the icon of our highest good. In Himself, He manifests what we seek in faith, a union or perhaps (in the words of the theologians throughout the centuries of the Church) a synergy between ourselves and God. He is God with us ("Immanuel") and He preaches of the kingdom of God that is within us. He is our wandering minister and has no place to lay His head, appropriately to the One who teaches that we should not believe those who say He is to be found in this place or that (see Luke 17:2-21). He reminds us of Israel being born as sojourner, a wandering people in search of a home, a people who were commanded to always remember the time of sojourn, and to be good to those who are strangers in their midst. But most of all, He is the manifestation or fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, He's the One who teaches us that faith is the highest good we have, the greatest goal: we put the Kingdom first, we live the reality of the Kingdom. We can take heart when we understand this as something greater than all the miracles and signs He produces (for they don't come without faith), the one thing He puts above all else, when our faith is imperfect and as we live our lives learning what it means to "hear the word of God and do it." He has taught in the Sermon on the Mount that even those who produce signs are liable to be told, "I never knew you." The real struggle for faith is just that, our own struggle to learn and to do, to live out our faith, to come to know Him and be like Him in the ways we're called to do so. This is our road with Him, His highest good, His greatest praise, our constant goal before us. It's how we're called to worship in spirit and in truth.
