Jesus, Life-Restorer

on Matthew 8:14-22... 

Jesus heals Peter's mother-in-law, 

Jesus speaks to two would-be followers. 

• Teaching section of Matthew (chapters 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount) comes to end, what happens after teaching? LIVING.

• It's Mother's Day... honestly I don't often talk about my mother (still living). I love my Mom's cooking. Not gourmet or anything, but it's what I was raised on and I have many happy memories... She would try to make the Thanksgiving turkey dry, and thankfully she failed most of the time. She had (has) a signature dish: her spaghetti sauce. We had it every week. If we had a visitor, that was the dish. Best way she knew to welcome, give hospitality...

When Jesus entered the home of Peter's mother-in-law, she had a fever. Jesus healed her and she began to serve... Jesus restored not just her health but her ability to be host, provide hospitality.

• What's next? More healings. Exorcisms. People who could not participate in life were restored to participation.

No moss under Jesus' feet!

It's like he knows he has limited time and is out to do the greatest good, to restore life to the most he can. 

Reminds me of a quotation attributed to John Wesley: 

Do all the good you can, 

by all the means you can, 

in all the ways you can, 

at all the times you can, 

to all the people you can, 

as long as ever you can.

give/receive inoculation, go and inoculate. Spread healing and wholeness.

• Twist: Not easy to follow Jesus... his is a continual call, a call for your all.

Sometimes when a perosn gets a job it's part of their contract that if they leave they won't go to a competitor within a certain amount of time... a kind of brand loyalty.

Jesus, in discipleship, demands 100% loyalty... all him and only him, always.
There is no partial discipleship. Jesus is sovereign. Complete.

• And then Jesus responds to two would-be followers, and honestly, it's a little awkward. “Foxes have dens, birds have nests...”

heads-up, warning, following Jesus takes all, is not convenient, and may be quite surprising...

• But not letting a man bury his father? 

You may have heard this softened,
but I think this is one to be taken at surface.
Jesus is sovereign. Following Jesus may be offensive. 

And there's an urgency: the time to follow is now. 

The one to set the schedule is him.

And when it comes down to it, what is appropriate: yield to Jesus, or yield to man?

• Prayer of Confession / Hymn 407 Close to Thee

Restore life... save life... For Mother's Day we encourage making a donation to Imagine No Malaria.