FIFTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

[cappie]

Today we continue to read from Mark’s Gospel, learning more about the ministry of Jesus. The Gospel completes a picture of Jesus’ ministry: preaching, curing the sick, driving out demons, and then moving on to continue this work in another place. Mark's Gospel tells us that Jesus did this throughout Galilee.

In the 1st Century world of Jesus, sick people only had a few options. The first thing they could do was try a folk remedy. These varied and most are completely ineffective, especially with serious diseases and injuries. The second thing a sick person could do was to pay for a physician to see them. This was costly and therefore only accessible to the privileged. and was not much more effective than the folk remedies.  Another option for sick people in Jesus’ world was one or many religious healing practices. With these limited and ineffective options, sickness in the ancient world changed a person’s identity.

Sick people would stand out in a village. They were often visibly scarred or marked.  Being labelled a sick person led to very low status in society. The identity of a sick person in Jesus’ day also carried with it the stigma of God’s judgment, most illnesses were linked to some sin or indiscretion, rather than a scientific cause 

The sick person in our Gospel reading is Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. She has a fever and is so weak that she cannot get out of her sickbed. Her condition is of concern to the disciples, and so Jesus is ushered in to see her. Jesus touches her hand with his hand.  She rises at once and the fever leaves her. It is not a very dramatic scene; there is only a hand touching another hand. There is only Jesus reaching out to this sick woman. What Jesus has done for Simon’s mother-in-law, He has done for all humanity

And then we are told that she starts to serve them. She now has the strength to offer the customary hospitality to her guests. Her identity is no longer a bedridden, fevered person, but a gracious host to a visiting teacher and his disciples.
And then a horde of sick, demonized, and injured people swarm Jesus, begging for healing. What we saw happen to Simon’s mother-in-law, we see happen to a multitude in the village. Notice all the words of totality and completeness in the Gospel. The whole town gathers; all the sick are brought to Him. He drives out demons in the whole of Galilee. Everyone is looking for Christ.

 Now he reaches out his hand to us. This is what Jesus does: he brings people back to wholeness and health. Jesus can bring you back to wholeness and health.

But all this healing takes a toll on Jesus; he disappears in the dark of night to pray. On these occasions of prayer, we are seldom told the content. They seem to be a conversation between the son and his father. The only time we know the content of Jesus’ private, night time prayer is in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night he was betrayed. 

Jesus’ sense of mission empowered him to do the work God had called him to do. When he is exhausted, he goes off and prays in the night, and he comes back renewed.

Perhaps we do not so much need rest as a renewed sense of our mission and calling by God.   It was how Jesus found strength, and many Christian saints through the ages found time alone with God to be renewing and refreshing.

Jesus is reaching out his hand to us today, calling us to a life filled with service and community.  We too have found Him. By our baptism, He healed and raised us to live in His presence.

Like Simon’s mother-in-law, there is only one way we can thank Him for the new life He has given us. We must rise to serve Him and His gospel.

Our lives must be our thanksgiving, as Paul describes in today’s Epistle. We must tell everyone the good news, the purpose for which Jesus has come—that others, too, may have a share in this salvation.