Mark 1: 29-39 (Common English Bible)
In the gospel reading this Sunday, Jesus is still challenging demons. It would make Jesus so popular it could be compared with a doctor’s cure for cancer. Mark’s gospel mentions exorcisms three times in the opening chapter. And Jesus’ healing and exorcisms are not of his own initiative, they are made at the request of others. That shows how popular Jesus was among the masses.
At the beginning of the gospel story, people are gathering around Jesus at the home of Simon and Andrew just as the Sabbath ends. Jesus begins by healing the afflicted and casting out even more demons. The demons were silenced because they knew Jesus’ identity as the Christ.
Mark describes Simon’s mother-in-law as suffering from a fever. In the pre-scientific age, fevers were considered not merely a physical disease, but also a spiritual one. Sometimes they were sent by God as punishment for not obeying the Law of Moses and sometimes as a form of discipline. The symbol that Jesus can cure a fever so quickly demonstrates he can accomplish things only God can do. Jesus was no Oral Roberts. Jesus is the real thing.
Jesus also uses a crucial skill that is often overlooked. He takes time to rest, retreats into a quiet place, to contemplate how he will respond to the duties placed upon him. So Jesus goes into a quiet area, to meditate and think. We also need to discern what we can accomplish and what is beyond our control.
Even Jesus limited his powers to those who really needed healing. But he had no time for those seeking success or wealth. The gospel reading invites us to reconsider where and how we spend our energy. And let it be known the Salem Presbyterian Church has used its energy most wisely in helping the homeless seek refuge in a warm building for comfort, food and supplies. The Universal Christ shines its love on this small but sturdy faith community. Just think of the classic “Charlie Brown Christmas.” Like the small and almost empty tree that Charlie Brown chose and was ridiculed about, God turned the tree into a glorious Christmas symbol done by the power of love by Charlies’ once skeptical friends.
Now, Jesus never separated body and soul. Humans are both body and soul. Jesus considered social justice as the healing of body and soul as essential. The spiritual guidance without addressing whatever ails the body is only half a loaf. The true Christian message is the one that addresses both body and soul. Read the magazine Spirituality & Health, a magazine I have in the office to share.
And another thing. Jesus never separated earth and heaven. There are those who are so concerned about the afterlife, they completely forget those in the present-life who are suffering. Martin Luther King Jr. combined both faith and justice in his mission. This is why his ministry was so successful. The vision of Jesus for the future was a time when God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, as quoted from Matthew 6: 10.
I imagine Jesus not only as a miracle worker from God, but also as a well-rounded human being. Jesus is described as the Human One in the gospels. Jesus helps us to realize that close bonds among people of all nations and races is a healing moment. When we pray, we are not praying to change the mind of a God figure in the skies, we are really praying to change ourselves. The God we pray to, is the God who is the Ground of Being, the One in which we live, move and have our existence. Our prayers echo through our community and through our psyche and bond us to action through the power of love. It is those very bonds that are the composition of our God who is Love.
We too, can become the true Human Being that Jesus was. Embrace your true humanity in prayer, embrace it in your life which is the most important prayer you will ever pray. Feel the embrace of the bonds of love that bind us to one another. Be God’s love in this world.
Now, Jesus didn’t attend the bedside of every sick person. He didn’t cast out every demon or disease. The Christ in a human body as Jesus was limited. Sometimes Jesus avoided the crowds and went to pray for the strength to complete his mission on earth. And that tells us something about how Jesus handles our sickness and diseases today when we pray for healing. Sometimes miracles do work, but when they don’t, people are still connected with a bond of love around the sick person and family.
The point of this gospel story is that the writer Mark, wants us to know, believe and have faith. Simon’s mother-in-law and Peter, Andrew, James and John all learned. They saw sick people healed and Jesus was there. When they were sick, no doubt Jesus was there with them. And when they died, Jesus was there to guide them to Paradise.
But demons are still in our presence. No, I’m not talking about the macabre looking creatures in horror movies, but rather those who walk the corridors of power in many nations. Theologian Paul Tillich saw this evil, not as a literal thing, but a rise of power in Germany in the 1930s as demonic. Can it happen here? I don’t know. We can only use Jesus as our standard. Are political leaders waging war instead of waging peace? WWJD? Are political leaders cutting social assistance for the poor instead of making their lives more livable? WWJD? It all depends on what touches their hearts, the money of lobbyists or the Love of God.
But the Good News is that the resurrection of Jesus has triumphed over the folly of greed and power. And however one looks at a Second Coming of Christ, it will be the day that injustice will totally end.
AMEN.
