Matthew 9: 18 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshipped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” 19 So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples.
This sort of thing is, in the gospels, so natural and so frequent, that we easily miss it.
In the modern world we have time for programs and schedules; for projects, for jobs, for careers, for our homes, for entertainment. We have time for ourselves and the things we want to achieve, and our days are divided up even perhaps into 5-minute segments, to make sure we can achieve these things.
Jesus, though, had time for people. He is dealing with the questions of one group (in this case, John's disciples); and then another person comes, and asks for his aid. So, therefore, hence, he arose and followed him. Someone came and interrupted, urgently seeking Jesus; Jesus embraced this new development in the plan of the day, and embraced the new person and new opportunity to serve in front of him.
As modern Westerners we tend to put programmes, action plans and schedules first, and people as individuals often sit a level behind in the structure of our thinking. What would our lives look like if people were first and primary, always, and the rest merely flexible means towards the end of giving ourselves to the image-bearers that God has placed around us? Certainly, Jesus had a programme. But it was all driven by his love for people, and the God who made them. Needy people could never get in the way of his programme, because people were his programme.
