Matthew's gospel collects the miracle stories into chapters 8 and 9 a technique designed to emphasize Jesus' unique identity. The miracle stories demonstrate that Jesus was not just some gifted teacher or itinerant wonderworker/magician. He was truly God's Son the Messiah.

Within these chapters, Matthew gathers three sets of narratives, each containing three separate miracle stories. This week's gospel reading is found in the third set of these miracle groupings a set that is composed of three "double" healings plus two additional dispute stories. The lectionary reading chooses one of these disputes Jesus' call of Matthew the tax collector (9:9-13) and one of the double healing stories healing the woman with the hemorrhage and raising a little girl from the dead (9:18-26).

The dispute deta…