For those of you who had an opportunity to read our past weeks sermons, we continue today in the First Chapter of Mark where the evangelist starts introducing, little by little, his characters: Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, James and John. But as you can imagine, it’s not only about the disciples, what Mark is the most interested in is, quite obviously, to show us Jesus. And until now, it has been amazing (a term that actually Mark uses several times): Mark has described Jesus’s baptism where the sky burst open and we hear the voice of God, later Mark has told us about Jesus’s time in the wilderness, when Jesus was staying with “the wild beasts and the angels”. We’ve also heard about Jesus’s conversation with the devil and witnessed how Jesus has defeated him. Then, in last week’s reading, Mark told us of an exorcism in the middle of the Sabbath service at the synagogue. [If you look at the first line of our passage today, you’ll see that we pick up today right after that]. Now, as we arrive at the close of our first chapter, if you are still be a bit unsure about Jesus’s identity as the Messiah you may get away with it (after all, it will take 7 additional chapters for Peter to figure it out) but if you’re not at least completely blown away by the man, you have not been paying attention.
For this reason, maybe, because it all has been so amazing so far, we may find the next story a little bit “meh“, a little bit underwhelming: Jesus’s arrives at Simon Peter’s house, they find out that Simon’s mother in law has a fever, Jesus takes her hand and poof, she gets back to her chores. Nothing as dramatic or as powerful as what has just happened before. If you are like me, when you first heard the story, you may have wondered: “Does it matter very much?“, “So this woman had a fever, now she’s better and she’s back in the kitchen, what else is new?“. Well, I don’t know. It’s obviously not very interesting for us right away, but it looks like it is important for Jesus. It looks like Jesus made this woman, and her healing, his priority. So maybe we need to give a second look at the story. Actually, I wasn’t feeling that great this week so when I started the story I thought “Well, at least I can relate to that“, you know when there are tons of things to do around the house and you cannot get off the couch, if it ever sounds familiar to you. It also reminded me of a piece of advice a teacher gave us at seminary. He told us: “When you have your first job in a parish, don’t start running like crazy to create new programs and to change the liturgy, instead go and visit the sick“. We have to admit, at least that’s what Jesus did and to me it gives us a lot of information about Jesus, and not only about his character, but also about his power. And I think that’s why the story is important for us. Jesus’s supernatural power is not only about tearing open heavens and scaring demons away, it is also about noticing unimportant people, doing unimpressive work (would it be only because it’s done in private), and helping people to get on with their humble life. You know when we think about God’s power, I guess we have in mind things like planets and stars, the Grand Canyon, the big stuff, but to Mark it seems that God’s power is also, and maybe mainly, in God’s power to inhabit the little things. And of course, it’s good news for us all the lonely, ordinary people, so ordinary we cannot even claim we have a remarkable disability or a demon that torments us so we can get the Son of God’s attention. The woman is lying down at home with the fever, who cares, and yet, as he’s just began his ministry, she is Jesus’s top priority.
And so yes, it’s an important story to be told, the story of Jesus’s power to be with all the lonely, ordinary people in their humble lives with their humble ailments not worth talking about. You know, one of the things I hear the most often when I tell people that we can pray about whatever is bothering them is this: They respond to me It does not really matter, or Don’t bother I can deal with it or (a classic) I am sure God has better things to do. And I get it, it’s very hard not to think that God has better things to do that our mild case of a flu or our headache, we get it that the world is not going to stop because plates are piling up in the sink and the laundry basket is overflowing, and yet, yet it’s in Mark’s first chapter that Jesus is right there with people just like us.
For sure, it’s worth paying attention to because Jesus himself is paying attention. And notice the tenderness of his gesture: He could have healed crying with a loud voice as he did in the synagogue, but he takes Simon’s mother in law by the hand, and he lift her up. He does not even say a word. He sees her, she matters, her domestic work matters, her well being is important. If anything, I wish we could all have the same gentleness towards each other in our families, and also be gentle towards ourselves when we feel worn out and useless. Jesus is there and we don’t even have to go to the service, staying home will do, he will find us.
Now I know most of us will never experience some kind of dramatic healing, but maybe it’s not really what we need. Maybe what we need is to be seen and heard, and treated with gentleness and respect, and being able, at some point, to get back to the things we need to do, the things that give us joy or at least purpose, the things that make us of service to others. If you have read last week sermon, one of the things I wanted to point out is that in Mark’s Gospel healing is not only about the cure, but it’s mostly about being back to oneself, back to our lives, back to our community. This is exactly what Jesus does for Simon’s mother in law and I think this is still what Jesus still does for all of us, even if indeed it is not dramatic and sometimes even a little bit underwhelming, at least from an exterior point of view. And yet, the miracle still happens that Jesus, with great tenderness, helps us get on with our lives, maybe because we don’t have to be perfect, we don’t have to change it all, we don’t have to be performing, we just need to have what a theologian call the courage to be, the courage to keep on going, whatever this “going” means for each one of us – it may just be getting out of bed in the morning. Anne Lamott says: “Help me is a prayer that is always answered”.
And so, I would like for us to focus a bit on that as we keep reading Mark. Yes, our evangelist is interested in introducing his characters, and yes, what he wants above all is for us to get to know who is Jesus, but none of this is going to work if we don’t see ourselves in the story, if we don’t get it that Jesus comes for all people because all of us and all of it matters to him: The whole city was gathered around the house and he cured many.
Many. Not all. And then Jesus needs to go away. At least, this is the conclusion Jesus comes to after that crazy evening curing the whole town. He takes a break, goes for a silent walk for a while, prays and then decides to head to the neighboring towns. And so, we have to live with this paradox that Jesus does not have anything better to do than to be there for us, and in the meantime we have to be ready to see him go. So how can we understand this?
In Mark’s, as in the three other Gospels, it looks like healing is not an end in itself, after all it’s never definitive, if we all at some point get sick and then get better, we still have to die one day. But here in the Gospels, healing is always intended as a sign, a sign of a new reality, the sign of the Kingdom of God where we will all be healed once for all, not only physically and mentally, but healed in our souls, made whole, reconciled with God and God’s creatures. Healing is not meant for selfish purposes so we can get the most out of life, healing is given so we can announce the Kingdom of God by words and actions. When Simon’s mother in law serves Jesus and the disciples, the word used by Mark is “deacon-ing”, serving as a deacon. The humble housewife’s work has found a deeper meaning, a deeper dimension: it’s not just about doing chores anymore, it’s about proclaiming the Gospel and this is, indeed, the most important work Jesus has to do, and the most important work his disciples have to do. Jesus says: Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so I may proclaim the message there also, for this is what I came out to do. As much as we need to be reminded to be bold in asking for healing and help even in the most humble things, let us not forget in the meantime to always offer ourselves to God’s bigger purposes…and believe that if God can make miracles for us, God can also make miracles through us. That’s actually what it was all about with the disciples.