Sunday, February 7, 2021
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Los Alamos (Virtual Liturgy)
Mark 1.29-39
[Parallel versions are found in Matthew 8.14-18 and Luke 4.38-44]
29Καὶ εὐθὺς ἐκ τῆς συναγωγῆς ἐξελθόντες ἦλθον εἰς τὴν οἰκίαν Σίμωνος καὶ Ἀνδρέου μετὰ Ἰακώβου καὶ Ἰωάννου. 30ἡ δὲ πενθερὰ Σίμωνος κατέκειτο πυρέσσουσα, καὶ εὐθὺς λέγουσιν αὐτῷ περὶ αὐτῆς. 31καὶ προσελθὼν ἤγειρεν αὐτὴν κρατήσας τῆς χειρός: καὶ ἀφῆκεν αὐτὴν ὁ πυρετός, καὶ διηκόνει αὐτοῖς.
32Ὀψίας δὲ γενομένης, ὅτε ἔδυ ὁ ἥλιος, ἔφερον πρὸς αὐτὸν πάντας τοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας καὶ τοὺς δαιμονιζομένους: 33καὶ ἦν ὅλη ἡ πόλις ἐπισυνηγμένη πρὸς τὴν θύραν. 34καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν πολλοὺς κακῶς ἔχοντας ποικίλαις νόσοις, καὶ δαιμόνια πολλὰ ἐξέβαλεν, καὶ οὐκ ἤφιεν λαλεῖν τὰ δαιμόνια, ὅτι ᾔδεισαν αὐτόν. 35Καὶ πρωῒ ἔννυχα λίαν ἀναστὰς ἐξῆλθεν καὶ ἀπῆλθεν εἰς ἔρημον τόπον κἀκεῖ προσηύχετο. 36καὶ κατεδίωξεν αὐτὸν Σίμων καὶ οἱ μετ’ αὐτοῦ, 37καὶ εὗρον αὐτὸν καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ ὅτι Πάντες ζητοῦσίν σε. 38καὶ λέγει αὐτοῖς, Ἄγωμεν ἀλλαχοῦ εἰς τὰς ἐχομένας κωμοπόλεις, ἵνα καὶ ἐκεῖ κηρύξω: εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ ἐξῆλθον. 39καὶ ἦλθεν κηρύσσων εἰς τὰς συναγωγὰς αὐτῶν εἰς ὅλην τὴν Γαλιλαίαν καὶ τὰ δαιμόνια ἐκβάλλων.
29As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. 31He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
32That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. 33And the whole city was gathered around the door. 34And 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. 35In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. 36And Simon and his companions hunted for him. 37When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” 38He 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.” 39And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Mark, the Gospel of Healing
The Gospel of Mark is a Gospel of healing. Mark, as you know is the second Gospel to appear in our New Testaments, but it is the first to be recorded, compiled during the time of the Siege of Jerusalem around the year 70 CE during the horrible Roman-Jewish War.
With the first generation of Christians having died by that time, Mark’s Gospel fills the urgency to keep the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth alive for future generations.
The eminent scholar Werner Kelber in his book, Mark’s Story of Jesus, describes Jesus as one with a clear mission. Kelber says Jesus’ purpose is to “announce the Kingdom of God and to initiate its arrival in opposition to the forces which threaten to destroy human life.”1
In the Gospel Reading for this morning, we have an account of two days in the life of Jesus. Last week’s reading gave us what happened in the synagogue in Capernaum. You remember: in the midst of Jesus’ teaching on Shabbat (the Sabbath) a man who is convulsed by a bad spirit is healed by Jesus.
People are astounded, “Who is this Jesus?” they ask.
In our Reading this morning, Jesus and four of his disciples whom he called before the synagogue episode (Peter and Andrew, James and John) leave the synagogue and go into the house of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law is very ill. She has a fever. What happens?
Jesus goes to her, takes her hand, helps her up from the bed. The fever is gone. She is healed. How much?
She begins to serve them – bring food and drink. The word that Mark uses in Greek is διηκόνει (dee-ay-ko-nay). The word “deacon” comes from this. A deacon in the Church down through history is one who serves. We have a program in our Lutheran Church to help women and men study for the diaconate. I have a very good friend at St. Luke’s in New York City who completed the study and is a deacon, one who serves not only in the church but from the church into the world.
So, what happens?
Mark informs us that because of what took place in the synagogue, and what has just taken place in downtown Capernaum, word begins to spread.
Now remember, in the story, it’s still Shabbat (the Sabbath) and Shabbat doesn’t end until Sundown. But at Sundown everyone who has need of healing, or wants to watch it happen, or just wants to see who this Jesus is – comes to the house where live together Simon (and obviously Simon’s wife – who is not named – and maybe some children) and Simon’s mother-in-law (who has been been cured of her fever) and who knows how many others in this extended family.
I love the way Mark writes: “And the whole city” was there gathered around the door. Because there’s not enough room in the house for everyone. This is not a story of social distancing.
By the way, we can hear these words again later on in the Gospel. The next story after today’s reading is about Jesus’ healing tour of the country-side, then comes a story about the healing of someone with leprosy whom Jesus tells after he is healed, be sure not to tell anyone about this, but he does and the story spreads even more, and then in the next chapter of the Gospel, the wonderful account of what happens when Jesus returns to Capernaum (back to the home of Peter and Andrew)! This time even more people come to the house to see Jesus, to be healed. There is this lovely touching vignette where a man who is paralyzed is carried to the house by four of his friends. But there so many people in and around the house that they can’t get their friend to Jesus. Instead, they climb up on the roof, dig a hole in tiles, put their friend on a make-shift pallet and lower him with ropes through the ceiling down right in front of Jesus.
Jesus says two things, “Son, your sins are forgiven” (that infuriates the Scribes in the room who have come to observe Jesus) and then he says to the man, “Now take up your pallet and walk!” And the man does; he is healed. He is set free.
You see in the reign of God, sins are forgiven – things done and things left undone as we say in Church – and people are healed (however healing happens) and they are free, they are liberated from oppression, even the oppression of death.
Everything Jesus does is to announce the coming of the reign of God, which is a sovereignty of healing, a dominion of mending, a regal putting back together what is broken, what in Hebrew is called תיקון עולם(Tikkun olam) the healing, the restoring of the world.
In this kingdom – as Paul would write later on to the Church in Corinth – in
God’s kingdom: faith, hope, and love abound – not distrust, despair, and hate.
In this reign of God which comes in opposition to the Empire, to all empires, to any and all who would have humanity live in oppression, in this reign of God the one thing which permeates all creation, all creatures is healing: mending broken hearts, lifting up spirits that are full of sorrow, putting fractured relationships back together, letting truth be a flood which carries away lies, healing that sets us on a path where love of God is matched by love of neighbor.
In this kingdom, death is not the conclusion of the human story – but life, life in the endless time and endless love of God.
As Jesus says in the penultimate verse of this morning’s Gospel, “this is what I came to do.”
He comes to heal the world, not only of its sickness, but of unhealthy oppression.
Before Jesus the demons fall away, bad spirits leave powerless to overthrow love and compassion.
It is his ministry, and just so it is that for which he will be condemned to death under the Roman Empire – which empire in spite of its overpowering presence will ultimately be no match for a kingdom of Good News.
Because in this kingdom people are healed and set free.
The Gospel is a Gospel of love, it is a story of a compassionate God who comes to us as Jesus, lives among us still by his Spirit, and through his presence and by the words and deeds of those who follow him, we who are his presence in the world, make clear to everyone that life is so precious to God that God will do all that God can do and even more to liberate us from anything and anyone who seeks to crush us under the weight of fear and despair.
This Gospel is our Good News. It is given to us as a gift for our own healing and just so that we might proclaim its message into the world.
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus, you came among us as one in love. Lift us to our feet so we can walk with you and fill us with your gifts so we may pour them out for those around us. Use us in your kingdom to strengthen the weary, feed the hungry, console those who mourn, and give hope to the despairing. Amen.
Deo Gratias (+)
The Rev. Benjamin Larzelere III
Retired
1Werner Kelber, Mark’s Story of Jesus (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979), 21.
Nota(ble) Be(n)e 