For several weeks now we have been focusing on the first chapter of Mark's gospel. This week is no different. We are still in Mark. Still in the first chapter. Even after today's lesson, there are six more verses left. It is an action-packed chapter in an action-packed gospel. We have learned that in Mark things happen 'immediately'. Just within the sections we have done so far, verses nine and twenty-eight, Jesus has been baptized, tempted, proclaimed the coming of God's Kingdom, called disciples, taught in the synagogue and cast out unclean spirits. This is a busy gospel.
Today we look at a passage that is action-packed as well. In verses twenty-nine through thirty-nine, Jesus leaves the synagogue and goes to the house of Simon and Andrew. There he heals Simon's mother-in-law, and later in the evening the multitudes that come to the door of the house. He goes off to pray, has a discussion with the disciples and begins to proclaim the good news in all the regions of Galilee. That's an awful lot for eleven verses.
The section of today's passage that I would like to focus on is that of the healing of Simon's mother-in-law. You see, in Mark there are many, many healing stories. In fact, there are as many verses telling of healings as there are verses telling about the Jesus' passion. In these healing stories, Mark establishes a pattern. First, there is the arrival of Jesus. Next, there is a description of the illness. Third comes a request for healing, followed quickly by the fourth step, which is the healing action itself, either by word, action or touch. Fifth the effect of the healing is made known. And lastly, there is an acclamation or demonstration of the healing itself.
Quite a pattern. This pattern applies to most of the healing acts in Mark-be they physical or spiritual. It is also important to note that it seems important to Mark to portray Jesus as an equal opportunity healer. The healing of a man is followed by the healing of a woman. Last week we heard of the spiritual healing of a man in the synagogue, and today the physical healing of a woman in her home. Mark's Jesus heals without prejudice and without acknowledgment of social boundaries. Both of these healing occur on the Sabbath, for example.
This equal opportunity approach is typical of the miracles and teaching of Jesus in Mark's gospel as well. If you were to map out Jesus' path as told by Mark, you would find that Jesus goes back and forth across the Sea of Galilee, first ministering to the Jews, then across the sea to the Gentiles. First feeding the 5,000 Jews that are listening to His teaching, then the 4,000 Gentiles. With miracles, with teaching and with healings, Mark's Jesus acts on God's behalf with all people, regardless of gender, religion or location.
With this context in mind, let's look at the healing of Simon's mother-in-law.
When Jesus enters the house of Simon and Peter, along with James and John, at once (there's that immediately again) they tell Him about the fever of the mother-in-law. Jesus goes to her. He takes her by the hand. He lifts her up (or raises her) and the fever leaves. Then, without hesitation or explanation, she begins to serve them.
Isn't that beautiful? Jesus takes her by the hand, lifts her up, the fever leaves and she begins to serve. What a model of what Jesus does for us. Jesus takes us by the hand and lifts or raises us to places that we have not yet known, that we could not known, without Him. What ails us is gone.
And then the woman serves them. The Greek word used here, diekonei, translated serve is also translated in other Bibles; she attended to or took care of their needs, she waited on them, and she prepared dinner for them. Interesting translations. The one that I like the most though, is this: she began to minister to them. The Greek is literally means to minister. Mark has used it already in chapter one in verse thirteen, when the angels wait on the tempted Jesus in the wilderness. He uses it in the passion text as well, in chapter ten, verse forty-five when Jesus says about Himself, "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve." What this woman does, the way that she responds to Jesus, is comparable in Mark's eyes to the actions of angels and to the purpose of the Son of Man, to the purpose of Jesus.
Let's look at the response of Peter's mother-in-law in it's entirety, and see how we would define this word, diekonei, which means to minister and to serve.
First of all, when she rises feverless, she begins to serve immediately. She does not hesitate or run off to tell her friends. She quite simply begins to serve. And not only does she serve the one who has healed her, the one who has delivered her, but she serves all who are there. She serves not only the healer, not only Jesus, but His disciples as well. She serves them the text says.
As today's passage continues, we see Simon's mother-in-law continue to serve. She opens her home to all who would come. The text says that 'the whole city was gathered around the door.' The sick and possessed were all there, all clamoring to see Jesus, seeking His healing. They received the healing of Jesus, and they also were received by the one who had been healed before them. They were not turned away, or sent out into the streets. They were allowed, they were welcomed, to gather at the home of Simon's mother-in-law.
As few as Mark's words describing the response of the woman who was healed, I find the scope of her actions to be great in size. She is generous with her response, extending her service, her hospitality, her ministry, to all. The gratitude and obedience expressed by Simon's mother-in-law to the one who has healed her is evident. She is a model of discipleship to all who read these verses and do not just pass them by. Just as Jesus has shown us how He works in our lives in this passage, she shows us how to respond to that Jesus does.
I wonder, when I read this passage, how we look on the acts of service that we do in our lives. When we make dinner for our families, or do the laundry or go to work, do we think of these things as ministry, or just as part of what we have to do in this life? Simon's mother-in-law might have been doing an everyday thing-like making dinner-when Mark says that she served them, but she did it as an act of ministry. She served them as a direct response to how Jesus had acted in her life.
Imagine if we looked on our daily acts of service as direct responses to the way Jesus has acted in our lives. Think of the sense of purpose and the feeling of gratitude that could bring to our daily existence. Our acts of service as response to Jesus' action in our lives. Our acts of service as ministry in His name. What a concept!
We can learn much from the first woman who is healed by Jesus in Mark's gospel. We learn how Jesus acts in our lives, in all of our lives, regardless of who we are. We see how Jesus takes us by the hand, lifts us up and makes us whole, so that we are ready to serve both Him and all of God's created people. And we learn how to respond when Jesus comes into our lives. Serve freely and generously, without hesitation. Serve all who come, not just the one who has healed you. And remember as you serve why you are doing it. Remember Jesus who has made you whole. Serve with the spirit of ministry. Amen.
Peace,
Rev. Cynthia Bacon
Minister
You may email at:
cbacon@heritagemadison.org
Return to the top of the page.
Back to the Sermon Archives
Back to the Heritage home page.
Certified Web Author and Publisher: R. Dan Nelson
rnelson@madison.k12.wi.us
This page was last updated on March 2, 2003.