Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?

 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 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

Yesterday we read that when Jesus had come down from the mountain, after preaching the Sermon on the Mount, 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 yourself 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 out 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.  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."  The term Son of Man refers to the Messiah and is found in Daniel 7:13.  It expression both Jesus' humanity and His divinity.  Here He uses it to refer to His human condition.  In 25:31-33 it describes His divine authority in His Resurrected state.  Jesus begins to describe the state of detachment He experiences and also commands.  He doesn't negate the command to honor parents, but rather is repeating the depth of the message about putting the things of the Kingdom first, as highest priority.  Those who ignore such priority, my study bible says, 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 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?"  In yesterday's reading, we read about varied healings that happened immediately after we were given the Sermon on the Mount.  Here another sign that Jesus is Messiah and is divine is given to us:  His mastery over creation.  Commands to natural forces such as sea and waves can only be given by God (Job 38:8-11; Psalm 65:5-6, 106:9). But again, we have clear signs of Jesus' full humanity; as a human being, he needs rest and was asleep.  In His Incarnation, my study bible points out, He assumed all the natural actions of the flesh, of which sleep is one.  The image of Christ and His disciples in a boat is traditionally used to illustrate the Church.  God both permits storms and delivers us through them, my study bible says, so that we can see God's protection more clearly.  Christ's rebuke of the storm is also an illustration of His calming the tempests in the human soul, and so is also related to His healing capacity for all of us.

What does it mean to really heal?  In some sense, everything that Jesus does is healing, and for each of us -- all of humanity.  In the personal sense, we find images in each of His actions that tell us about what is good for us, what heals.  In His teachings to those who would be His followers, He tells them of the necessary steps for each of us to really put the Kingdom first, to rearrange our priorities.  According to St. Paul,  "the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12).  What this means is that even our deepest assumptions, learned in our closest ties in the world, we may be challenged.  Things come up for questioning, and we may have that "sword" of the word of God reaching down to separate what we thought was inseparable, asserting its own priorities and values in our lives.  This is a demand for detachment, which Jesus' own human life mirrors in its realities:  "the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."   Jesus' own actions are those that teach us about not seeking the crowd, nor fame, but finding who we are in a deeper and more detached place.  He flees the multitudes with His disciples.  Even the terrifying storm is a good analogy to understanding the difficulties with which we may struggle when we put these priorities into action.  Cultivating a kind of detachment creates potentially "terrifying" scenaria whereby our own senses of security and attachment come up to dissuade us from taking steps to cultivate new values by following His teachings.  Breaking free from the crowd, from the way things have always been done, from the ways we've been taught to think, isn't a simple nor easy matter.  The long tradition of fasting and prayer takes us away from the crowds in order to more closely cement our own internal souls with the word of God and the ways God will pull us out of the conventionally "worldly."  Everything here is for our understanding of what is healthful and good, recipes for growth and personal maturity through spiritual teaching and discipline.  While the world will debate and argue and seek to conquer through all kinds of manipulation, we take time to find Christ's word for us, how we are to go forward, and how He teaches us to find His calm and the center of who we truly need to be.  This is a recipe not only for individuals but for the good of the community.  That kind of maturity can be a life-saver for others lost in a sea of selfish demands and competing interests.  This maturity and growth is a love meant to be shared with others -- but found by putting the Kingdom first, and doing all we need in order to do so.  Those who can rise above a situation are often the only ones to truly help with ills that plague us.  But to do that, we need to clearly understand what to leave behind.   It's faith that gives us strength for the journey, in the confidence and trust we can find in Him.