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| Busy, Busy, Busy! |
We live very busy lives. There are many demands on our time. Not enough hours in the day. Sometimes we can wonder 'how the other half live'. We imagine the lives of celebrities and important people as being completely different to our own; a kind of semi-paradise, heaven-on-earth kind of existence. The gossip pages of any tabloid paper or glossy magazine confirms the endless fascination we have with how celebrities live their lives.
The gospel this morning is like a "Day in the Life" snapshot of how Jesus lives. It begins in the synagogue, leaving there Jesus, accompanied by two of the most important disciples, James and John, goes and visits the house of another two important disciples, Simon and Andrew.
When this very important, Spirit-filled and powerful visitor arrives, the first thing that happens is that they tell Jesus that Simon's Mother-in-Law had gone to bed with fever. And Jesus' reason for being comes into focus. He immediately 'went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her ...' There is a clear allusion here to the 'raising up' work that Jesus does. Immediately, having experienced the healing and raising by Jesus, 'she began to wait on them.' This is specifically a way of speaking about the service that a disciple does rather than being any kind of a chauvinistic, male-dominated statement. Simon's Mother-in-Law becomes a disciple, a follower of Jesus and exhibits the true characteristic of the Christian disciple: service (diakonia, from which we get the word: Deacon).
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| http://www.diakonia.se |
This "Day in the Life" of Jesus has just begun, but already we can see how busy it is for him. He has been to two places already, the public worship space of the Synagogue and the more private House of Simon and Andrew. In both places he has met people and been busy. Already, in a pithy way, Mark has given testimony to the evangelisation of an important woman – Simon-Peter's Mother-in-Law.
Just in case it hasn't been busy enough, 'That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. ...' And then '... The whole town came crowding round the door, ...' Jesus is in high demand as an exorcist-Doctor. The tension builds when Jesus refuses to allow the 'many devils,' from identifying him. What is clear from this is that Jesus is a people-centred person. People are more important to him than devils or evil-spirits. He drives out evil and heals the sick so that they might be able to follow him just as Simon, his Mother-in-Law, Andrew, James, John and all the other disciples are trying to follow him.
And then, the following morning, early, way before dawn, Jesus rises to go away by himself to pray. Having been crowded out the day before, he needs time alone in prayer to become focused again on his mission. In contemporary terms, Jesus is managing his 'work-life' balance. He has to tune in again to God the Father to remember that his primary mission is not exorcisms or healing the sick, his primary mission is to '... preach ..., because that is why I came.'
The role of Jesus in our lives is to reconcile us to God. Jesus' role is not to cure our bodies, but rather to heal our souls. That is why the healing and exorcism ministry is always a core temptation, both for Jesus and for those who minister in his name. Like Jesus, we must pray, centre ourselves again on God and God's Way, rather than our own way which is always influenced by ourselves, others and even the evil spirit to drift away from the path of life that is found in following God, through Jesus, in Word and Sacrament.
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