Mark 1:29-39 ------- Susan J. Barnes
St. Matthew's, Austin --- 9 February 2003
Friends, I confess: I'm in Johannine withdrawal. If you've joined Merrill
and me in the Adult Ed class studying the gospel of John, you may understand
what I mean. It's dizzying, deeply disorienting to leap from John's
slow-paced, discursive gospel, to Mark--the most rapid-fire, action packed
of the other three.
The stories we have studied in John's gospel are about conversions,
about one person after another coming to faith in Jesus as the Messiah.
Each conversion takes place in the context of an extended conversation.
Each is a process covering many, many verses.
Mark is the polar opposite. Here Jesus' ministry manifests God's grace
in action. Few if any words are spoken, the episodes are tightly
constructed and follow 'immediately' one after another. Jesus does more
in a few verses of Mark than in several chapters of John. So, please,
bear with me while I adjust.
As you all know, Mark's is generally thought to be the first gospel,
written in about 70. The source for Matthew and Luke, it is like a
distillation of those two longer works. It is brief, energetic, densely
written. The very pace of this gospel, and the economy of words means that
the parts are closely inter-related. Today's passage spans almost
twenty-four hours. It covers most of the first full day of Jesus' public
ministry. It concludes the next morning with Jesus' time of prayer and his
decision to go on to proclaim "the message throughout the Galilee region.
Before we go any further, we need to remind ourselves of the wording of
that message. It's in Mark 1:14-15. "Jesus came to Galilee,
proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, 'The time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good
news.'"
"The kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good
news."
I am blessed to be preaching next week, on the healing of the leper,
the gospel that concludes this chapter. With your indulgence, I'd like
to take Jesus' message as the theme of both weeks. "The kingdom of God
has come near." Today let's examine how Jesus actions in this gospel
give form to that message. Next week I'll try to shed light on the
context which made that message so very, very powerful 1930 years ago.
This chapter of Mark loudly proclaims that God's kingdom brings healing
and restitution of life. As you know, in first-century Jewish society,
illness was an indictment of the person who was stricken. It was seen
as a sign of God's disfavor, as punishment for wrong-doing. Certain
physical conditions or ailments--ranging from menstrual bleeding to
leprosy--by Jewish law made people ritually unclean, meaning they were
outcasts, cut off from society. A cure not only made people physically
well. It brought them back to life with their friends and families. It
was proof positive, sure evidence that they had come back into God's
favor.
Throughout this chapter, Jesus brings the kingdom of God to the people
of Capernaum by healing the sick. Dramatically, simply, directly, the
three healing episodes in Capernaum follow--one after the other. Together
they demonstrate the sweeping new authority that God has given Jesus.
The first episode was last week's gospel, superceded by the gospel for
Jesus' Presentation in the Temple. Since you haven't heard it here in a
while, let me remind you. It is the morning of this same day, the
Sabbath. In the synagogue, where Jesus is teaching, he heals a man
possessed by a spirit. That spirit cries out and identifies Jesus as
the "Holy One of God". In casting out the spirit, Jesus proves his
authority over it. He has brought God's authority into the synagogue in
a new, healing, life-transforming way.
From the synagogue, Jesus goes to a home nearby--as we read today--to
Simon Peter's house. There he heals Peter's mother-in-law of a fever.
Our NRSV translation reads: "He came and took her by the hand and lifted
her up." In the original Greek, however, there is another sentence
structure, and another level of meaning. In Greek, the sentence begins,
"he raised her", using the same verb found in chapter 5 when Jesus
raises from the dead Jairus' daughter. In the Greek, only after Jesus
raises Peter's mother-in-law does he take her hand. Healed
miraculously from debilitating illness in the privacy of her own home,
"she began serving them". The lady reassumes her role in the house; she
is restored to her work and her place in her family. Again, however,
the Greek gives us more: Mark uses the same word for her serving that he
used here above, in verse 13 to describe the service of the angels to
Jesus when he was struggling with Satan in the wilderness. The Kingdom
of God has come near Peter's family, in Peter's own home. It has
transformed the life of a woman. It might also have opened her own
ministry as a Christian. That's because in Capernaum today, very near
the old synagogue are the ruins of a house said to have been Peter's,
where an early Christian community met.
Back to our gospel lesson. The third healing comes at the end of the
day. Drawn by the news of Jesus' healing in the synagogue, "all who
were sick or possessed with demons" were brought to find Jesus at
Peter's house. With them, Mark says, "the whole city gathered round the
door". Many were cured of their illnesses.
Thus, in one grace-filled day, Jesus' has taken God's healing power
from the synagogue, to a private house, and finally to the open city.
"The kingdom of God has come near". Through his actions, Jesus has
carried that message: first to the faithful gathered in worship, then to
the family of his close associate, and then to the entire community,
assembled to witness.
At day's end, Jesus' ministry is defined and launched, his first
miracles accomplished. But his movement has just begun. Jesus
withdraws. Apart from his friends, away from of those who seek to
influence him, in silent retreat he seeks the will of the one who sent
him. Then he goes on, to carry the message ever further, to Galilee and
beyond.
Today we see that Jesus' path on that first day mirrors the path that
the gospel of Jesus Christ followed after his death. It began in the
synagogue, where Jesus disciples' met. Then they carried it to the
house churches where they gathered when they separated to form Christian
communities. Then on to the ever and ever wider world where followers
of Christ have taken the gospel for nearly two thousand years.
My own faith journey has taken a similar trajectory, as yours may have,
too. I encountered the risen Christ one fine day in church (where I
found myself quite by accident). Then and there the Spirit dissolved my
doubt, melted my well-fortified defenses. I believed, and I repented.
I began to turn my life around. Over the months that followed--very
quietly, I admit--the gospel of Christ came to dwell at home, to reside
in me. Then, the time came, and God called me to share the gospel with
others, outside.
God's call is the same for us all. Like our Lord and Savior, Jesus,
each one of us--every Christian--is called. When the time is right, we
are called to carry the gospel out: out of these beloved and hallowed
walls, out of the safety of our homes, our Bible studies, our small
groups. The distance we carry it doesn't matter at all: across the
street, across the tracks, across the river, across the border--it's all
God's domain. Those to whom we go are all God's children. The message
is as simple today, every bit as powerful, and every bit as welcome as
it was that day in Capernaum.
Dear Ones, whenever we reach out to share Christ's love with someone who is
in pain or in need, the kingdom of God has come near.
