+Points to Ponder

1. Why did Jesus want demons (and others) to remain quiet about who He really is? (This seems to be a theme in Mark’s Gospel.)
2. What do you make of the reaction of Peter’s mother-in-law to being healed by Jesus?
3. What does Jesus’ need to have time with the Father say to our relationship with God?
4. In what ways are you ‘lost’? What has Jesus done (or what is He doing now) about your lostness?

+Sermon Transcript

Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and our Lord and King, Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us pray: Merciful Father, watch over Your household with constant love: that, supported by You alone, we may always stand firm in Your protection; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

“A man went to his doctor in an acute state of anxiety. ‘Doctor, you have to help me; I’m dying,’ he said. ‘Everything I touch hurts. I touch my head and it hurts. I touch my leg and it hurts. I touch my stomach and it hurts. I touch my chest and it hurts. You have to help me, Doc; everything hurts.’ The doctor gave him a complete examination. ‘I have good news and bad news for you,’ he said. ‘The good news is you are not dying. The bad news is you have a broken finger.’”

We laugh at that; but the truth is sickness and oppression – emotional, physical, and spiritual – is a reality in our lives and the lives of those whom we love – sometimes, everything really does hurt.

That is the effect of our patent inability as human beings to acquit ourselves under God’s good law. That is the bad news even for those of us who strive to live lives faithful to the Lord. It is not our finger that is broken – it is our hearts and our minds and our spirits – our broken-ness is complete.

But, beloved, the Good News is that this is just what Jesus has come to rectify. Last week, if you recall, we looked at the beginning of Jesus’ work in His ministry. Jesus teaches with authority to the amazement of His hearers. Jesus exorcised a demon and ordered it to be quiet not wanting people to misunderstand just who He is and just what the work of the Messiah really is.

Our Gospel lesson for this morning is what happens just on the heels of last week’s lesson. Without fanfare Mark tells us, “And immediately He left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.”

Now, I do not think it would be a stretch to think that Jesus and the disciples probably went there for a meal, since the main Sabbath meal was served immediately following the synagogue service. Sounds like what many of us probably do each Sunday!

But after what must have been such an exhilarating service at the synagogue they come into some unfortunate circumstances: “Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told Him about her. And He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.”

Peter (Simon) having just seen Jesus exorcise a demon maybe thought that Jesus could help where others could not or had not. And Jesus lifted Simon’s mother-in-law up. Jesus reached out and touched her. What a foreshadow to what He will, later in His ministry do for Jairus’ daughter in just a few chapters. Jesus did not hesitate; He did not chide Simon or the others that He had already done His work for the day. Jesus did not shy away from touching the unclean, the sick - He did not isolate Himself, but took the initiative and we see the completeness and instantaneousness of her recovery at His hand.

At the end of last week’s Gospel lesson, we are told that Jesus’ fame grew in the region. Some folks apparently have even followed Him to Simon’s house. Then he heals Simon’s mother-in-law; and it seems that all heaven has broken out as that “evening at sundown they brought to Him all who were sick or oppressed by demons.”

The people waited until evening because sundown marked the end of the Sabbath, and men could then carry their sick and possessed without fear of violating the Law. And so, Mark with a bit of hyperbole, tells us that everyone who needed healing came – “the whole city was gathered together at the door.”

Jesus is here giving us a picture of the Psalm assigned for today: “The Lord … gathers the outcasts … He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds…The Lord lifts up the humble …”

We see this played out in this short vignette by Mark as Jesus “healed 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.”

As Jesus is healing and exorcising demons, He orders them to be quiet. St. Luke tell us that it is “because they knew He was the Christ.”

You see, it is too early. “Jesus probably wanted first to show by word and deed the kind of Messiah He was (in contrast to popular notions [of what Messiah should be]) before He clearly declared Himself, and He would not let the demons frustrate this intent.”

What a day! “Jesus’ first day of public ministry – the Sabbath [no less] – is quite a busy one. Given the endless series of things to which Jesus attends, we [can] sometimes imagine that He is too busy for us and [for] our problems. But Jesus knows and cares for each of us individually. He actually commands us to lay all our needs before Him. [He says, ‘Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ And, beloved, He stands ever willing and able to help us.”

Now, in that busy-ness of ministry, Jesus knows He needs to use His close connection with His Father. “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, He departed and went out to a desolate place, and there He prayed.”

“Though Jesus had plenty to do in Capernaum, He nonetheless retreated into the wilderness in order to pray. The Gospels repeatedly depict Jesus spending time alone in prayer.” And more, beloved, as we come to Jesus in prayer, as we participate in His supper – in His very body and blood – Jesus meets us in the desolate places we may find ourselves, in our sicknesses and sorrows, in our grieving and our tears, in our indignities and in our sin.

Apparently, Simon himself awakes and realizes Jesus is not there. He grabs his compatriots, and they begin to search for Him “and they found Him and said to Him, ‘Everyone is looking for you.’ And He said to them, ‘Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.’”

The Greek here for ‘search’ denotes that Simon and his compatriots were ‘hunting Jesus down’ – they searched in earnest. But, in reality, Jesus is not lost. Again, He enters into the desolate place, a place barren and isolated and that is where He connects with His Father. He did not go where there was glitz and glamour, He didn’t go where it was popular or easy. “Jesus refused to stay within the friendly confines of Capernaum. He was committed to preaching, exorcising demons, and healing throughout Israel.” He is committed as well to bringing wholeness to you and to me right where we are.

Simon Peter, like you and me, was the one who was lost and for us Jesus enters into our ‘lostness,’ into our sicknesses, into our grief, into our fecklessness, and into whatever oppresses our spirits. He comes that He might preach there also; that He might preach into the dark corners of our lives; that He might bring out the gift of faith that has been so graciously given to you and me; that we would ‘walk wet’ in our Baptisms; and that His light would shine in those dark corners and draw each of us to Himself. As the Psalmist writes: “The Lord takes pleasure … in those who hope in His steadfast love…”

Beloved, as you approach His table this morning and your hope is in His steadfast love, the Lord, as He gives to you His very self in the body/bread, the blood/wine; He could not be more pleased with you.

Now, although “Jesus has much more to do among the people of Capernaum, He makes time for private devotion and then insists on moving on to visit other towns and villages. [From our reading: ‘And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.’ His unswerving adherence to the right priorities stands in sharp contrast with our own tendency to lose focus, [to] allow others to set our agenda, and [to] put [much] lesser things above what is most important. Given our weaknesses, it is reassuring that Jesus keeps things straight. His highest goal was, and is, to fulfill the Father’s command that He would ‘seek and save the lost.’”

And in Jesus God’s promise to care for and hold on to us is kept for you and me: “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.”

“An elderly gentleman was out walking with his young grandson. ‘How far are we from home?’ he asked the grandson. The boy answered, ‘Grandpa, I don’t know.’ The grandfather asked, ‘Well, where are you?’ Again, the boy answered, ‘I don’t know.’ Then the grandfather said good-naturedly, ‘Sounds to me as if you are lost.’ The young boy looked up at his grandfather and said, ‘Nope, I can’t be lost. I’m with you.’ Ultimately, that is the answer to our lostness, too. We cannot be lost if [Jesus] is with us.” Amen.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.