Mark 1:29-39
After Jesus and his disciples left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
The Sermon
Today’s gospel events take place immediately after last weeks. To refresh your memory, last week, Jesus was in the synagogue teaching when a man when an unclean spirit made a scene and Jesus healed the man, to everyone’s amazement. So, right after this, Jesus and these four disciples go to Simon’s house.
Now just a quick note, because you might miss this if I don’t say it. I missed it at first too, if you want to know the truth. Simon is Simon Peter, AKA Peter – The Rock, the guy who walked on water, the guy who will later deny Jesus three times and be first at his empty tomb after hearing the news that he isn’t there. At this point, he’s still going by Simon, which can be confusing, but as a guy who is either known as Jonah or Michael depending on who I’m talking to, I can’t say much.
So, we get to Peter’s house and there’s a problem. Peter’s mother-in-law is sick. And Jesus does this amazing thing. He goes to her, takes her by the hand and lifts her up, healing her. Now, to us who knows that Jesus is going to be doing this kind of stuff all over the place, this may not seem so amazing, but this is his first healing of the sick, so I’m betting the brand new disciples there were in awe. Banishing demons and now healing the sick.
And the way he does it is so smooth. In a lot of Jesus’ other healings, stuff happens. He talks to them or instructs them to do something in order to be healed, like the man born blind who had to wash in the Pool of Siloam or the paralyzed man who had to “get up” – but in this case, Jesus just goes to her and “lifted her up”.
One interesting thing – this phrase “lifted her up” is the same phrase that will be later used in reference to his resurrection – that he “lifted himself up”, so we could say that resurrects her. Her fever leaves her and she begins to serve them.
Now, this is one of the most misunderstood stories in the gospels. This story, by the way, occurs in 3 out of 4 of the gospels. There seems to be this misconception that Jesus healed her so that she COULD serve them. Like, these five guys get to the house and are like, “man, I’m hungry – you got any milk and cookies Peter?”
And Peter’s like, “Well, I’m sure we have some somewhere, but I don’t know where mama keeps them and she’s sick!”
And Jesus is just, like, “hang on – I got this… “
NO! This word, “to serve” is the Greek word ‘diakoneo’ and is the same word Mark uses for the angels who ministered to Jesus in his wilderness temptations. It’s also the word used for those who served God by leading the early church in prayer and action. Its also the same word that we used for the Ordained order of Deacons in the modern church. She isn’t getting them milk and cookies, she is serving Jesus in response to what he’s done for her. In many ways, Peter’s mother-in-law is the first Deacon of the church, which has to drive those who don’t want women ordained crazy.
And by the way, just a total aside here – its kind of a good thing that Peter’s mother in law was sick here, because if she hadn’t been, we’d have never known that Peter was married. His wife is never mentioned in the bible, heck, his MIL isn’t even named. We don’t know anything else about her except this story and we never hear anything else about whether he had a family or anything. Its really odd.
Anyhow, one big thing to point out here, that we’ll see more of as we go. All of this happened on the Sabbath, which, if we remember, was forbidden to do. Jesus shouldn’t have been healing people or exorcising demons, and Peter’s MIL shouldn’t have been “serving” them. But, this is a perfect example of what Jesus will later point out – that “the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” – meaning it would have been dumb to wait for sunset to heal someone who was sick with a fever when you could do it right then.
The rest of the town sticks with the program and waits until sunset to bring all their sick to Jesus to be healed.
The next morning, Jesus is gone, and I love this part of the story. Jesus has gone off far
away to just be by himself and pray. I like to think that maybe Jesus is an introvert like me and that dealing with big crowds wears him out. You may not realize it, but getting up and talking to groups of people isn’t in my DNA – its not something I thrive on or get a charge out of – it drains me. It’s not a burden, don’t get me wrong, but it is draining.
I know a lot of pastors who are the same way. The Sunday afternoon nap after church is a necessity for us.
Our OT reading today was from Isaiah 40. Earlier in advent, we read an earlier part of Isaiah 40 that I want to read again:
Prepare for God’s arrival!
Make the road straight and smooth,
a highway fit for our God.
Fill in the valleys,
level off the hills,
Smooth out the ruts,
clear out the rocks.
Then God’s bright glory will shine
and everyone will see it.
Yes. Just as God has said.”
God is telling us to prepare for Jesus’ coming here, and now in today’s reading he’s here and he’s off by himself praying I imagine him remembering these lines right after those:
Comfort, oh comfort my people,”
says your God.
“Speak softly and tenderly to Jerusalem,
but also make it very clear
That she has served her sentence,
that her sin is taken care of—forgiven!
She’s been punished enough and more than enough,
and now it’s over and done with.”
This is his mission here - to tell Jerusalem that a new thing is here. And then as he gains his strength back to go on to the next thing we hear these lines from our reading today:
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and strengthens the powerless.
Even youths will faint and be weary,
and the young will fall exhausted;
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.
And I imagine the disciples finding him right about this time, and Jesus is ready to go. They want him to go back to where he’d already been – everyone is looking for him there, but he wants to press on to new places.
I read a quote this week that I can’t find an attribution for – this person said
“To pretend that the walk of faith is not exhausting is dishonest. To believe that the remedy is simply having more faith, more strength, more determination, is a recipe for disaster. Instead, we should see the walk/work of faith as one that is done with God, not for God.”
If we can keep in mind that the God who created the heavens and the earth wants to lift us up so that we can serve him, we can also mount up with wings like eagles and run and not be weary.
Ann Lamott once said, “Again and again I tell God I need help, and God says, “Well isn’t that fabulous? Because I need help too. So – you go get that old woman over there some water, and I’ll figure out what we’re going to do about your stuff.” If we, like Peter’s mother in law, can respond to Jesus with service, God can take care of the rest of our stuff too.
In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Comments