Dee
February 7th, 2006, 12:09 PM
It may be hard for us to remember that at least some of the disciples were married. But it is not hard when we read today’s scripture. Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. Once she got up she began to serve them. When you are well, when you are healed by Jesus, you are supposed to serve. It indicates that you are well and it indicates that you are appreciative. I don’t know how we are to understand this healing. It seems to me it can range all the way from the ordinary to the miraculous. If it is ordinary, maybe it was like the time I went to the barn to milk the cows and I was so sick I could hardly move, but there was no one else to milk, so I made myself go through the motions. By the time I was through, I was no longer sick. I couldn’t believe I felt pretty well. If it was miraculous, then the power of Jesus’ spirit transferred from Jesus to the woman. You will remember later in this gospel the woman with a flow of blood just touches the hem of Jesus’ garment and she is made well. Jesus felt the power go out of him. He looks around in the crowd and says, “Who touched me?” The woman confesses and Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well.”
You may remember that this gospel begins with John the Baptist preaching a baptism for the repentance of sins, then Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tested by Satan, whom he defeats, then he goes to the synagogue at Capernaum and casts out the man possessed with the demon. Mark says that Jesus was teaching, but the only content of the teaching is that Jesus demands the demons to come out of the man. Now he heals Peter’s mother-in-law who was sick by a fever by simply taking her by the hand and lifting her up. We don’t know if she had a slight cold, or the flu. We don’t know if the fever was depression or phenomena. What we know is she was healed.
When the women’s liberation movement entered theology many did not like this text because it seemed to imply that the proper place of women was in the home to serve men, but looking at the role of women and men in the text of Mark caused scholars to see something never before noticed. It had long been known that in the gospel of Mark the disciples understand nothing. They don’t understand the parables, when he stills the storm he says to them have you no faith, he miraculously feeds the five thousand, and then they doubt he can feed four thousand, he asks Peter who he is and Peter replies you are the messiah and then he tells the disciples he will suffer, but then Peter rebukes him and Jesus has to say get behind me Satan. It is not without accident that when Peter is asked about Jesus in the courtyard he begins to curse and utters his last words in this gospel saying, “I do not know the man of whom you are speaking.”
In contrast, this text, like several others in Mark, makes the role of women the model of discipleship. Here the mother-in-law’s response to the healing of Jesus is the discipleship of lowly service, a model to which Jesus will repeatedly call his followers to exhibit and which Jesus himself will repeatedly manifest. Peter’s mother-in-law stands in contrast to Peter himself who calls Jesus’ attention to the fact that the crowd is asking for healing but Peter himself does nothing. Look at this gospel carefully and you will see that the women represent the right response from the poor widow with her offering, to the woman with the ointment, to the women at the cross, and the women at the tomb. The insensitivity and misunderstanding of the main disciples contrast to the right response of the women.
That evening after sundown they brought to him all who were sick and possessed with demons and he cured many who were sick. They brought the sick to him that evening because during the day it was Saturday. It was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was strictly observed. When I was in Israel, at sundown on Friday all the city buses were stopped right in the street. The people sought to be home by sundown. The food in the hotel was prepared on Friday during the day, and Saturday after sundown. In the Gospel Jesus will get into trouble for healing on the Sabbath. It was thought that the work of a physician was healing, so healing on the Sabbath was prohibited. So they brought the sick to him after sundown.
Now I want you to notice that the text says that while it was very dark Jesus went out to a deserted place and there he prayed. This was not a normal half-hour of prayer. This prayer was such that everyone was searching for him and they could not find him. When they found him they told him that everyone was searching for him, but he said I have to go to the neighboring towns. What we notice is that Jesus does not do what the disciples want, he does not do what the crowds want, he does what he is instructed to do as a result of prayer. You will remember that he prays in the wilderness when he is tempted by Satan, when he feeds the five thousand he looks up to heaven and blesses the loaves, he prays at the last supper, he prays in Gethsemane, he prays on the cross. Jesus prays.
Think for a minute with me about Peter’s mother-in-law and Jesus at prayer. Did Mark put these two together for a reason? In 400 Jerome preaching on this text in Bethlehem said, “O that he would come to our house and enter and heal the fever of our sins by his command. For each and every one of us suffers from fever. When I grow angry, I am feverish. So many vices, so many fevers. But let us ask the apostles to call upon Jesus to come to us and touch our hand; for if he touches our hand, at once the fever flees.” (Quoted in Interpretation Mark by Lamar Williamson, Jr. p55)
There is so much about the Christian faith that has to do with the decision not to sin. Remember, the Christian is to avoid the seven deadly sins: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, and Sloth. Now you think of your personal sins and, more than likely, they will fit into one of these seven. Now think about Jesus. Do you believe he was filled with Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, or Sloth? The only one I can imagine Jesus had was anger, but there is anger that is appropriate. And that is the anger that motivates you and me to correct injustice.
When I think of these sins, which all of us commit, I think the solution to them is discipline. If I think of my failures rather than my successes, I can reduce pride, if I think of how fortunate I am to be 63 and have my health, I can reduce envy, if I look at myself in the mirror every time I want a sweet, I can reduce gluttony, if I think of Christ on the cross when lust enters my mind, I can reduce lust, if I think that anger will hurt only me and not the one to which it is directed, I can reduce anger, if I think that I chose the ministry because money wasn’t that important to me and that my church has been very generous to me, I can reduce greed, and if I think of how much there is to do and how little I accomplish, I can reduce sloth. It is all a matter of thought control and discipline. Think the right thoughts and follow the course and you can control the seven deadly sins. Yea right! That is why at 63 years of age and 6’1 I weigh 260.
Elizabeth Taylor was on Larry King and he congratulated her on winning something at the Kennedy Center. She said it was a two-day event that started with a speech by Colin Powell and it included a state dinner at the White House and it was very impressive. But she said the morning of the first day she jumped out of bed and something happened to her blood pressure and she fell on the floor in such a way that her foot curled up under her and she broke it in the worst possible place and she was in excruciating pain. She didn’t have time for a hospital or a doctor so she said over and over to herself, “I am strong, I am strong, I am determined, I am strong,” and by repeating that mantra she got through the two days. I wonder how it would have been if she had said, “Lord Jesus Christ, I turn my foot and my pain over to you; have mercy on me.”
Robert Schuller said he had written a book, a very small book for the youth. He gave a summary by saying, “It says if you can dream it you can achieve it.” Every time I hear a statement like that I wonder if he was ever cut from a basketball team, or denied admission to any club. Did he want to be an astronaut. I can dream about going to Space Station but I can’t come up with the $20 million ticket price necessary for the journey. I can dream about stopping this war, but I can’t stop it.
There is something, however, that will help me overcome the seven deadly sins and it is prayer and doing what God directs me to do in prayer. Sam Shoemaker was fed up. As pastor of the prestigious Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh during the 1950’s, he was trying to get more people to make a commitment to God. But the response from the prominent business men in his congregation was lukewarm. So one night at a country club dinner, he threw down a spiritual challenge. He asked the businessmen around the table to take a test of faith that would prove God exists. For 30 straight days the men were to pray: “Lord, if You’re real, make Yourself known to me.” They were to say the prayer first thing in the morning and any other time they thought of it during the day. At the end of the time, the men were to discuss what happened. The result was – you guessed it – miraculous. Every single man in the group reported that he had been directly touched by the Holy Spirit. ( The power of prayerful living p481) That experiment continues today.
Mark wants us to know that the source of Jesus’ power was his prayer life and his willingness to implement what God directed him to do. Perhaps that is one reason so many of us settle on what we’ve got. We’re afraid to pray for fear God will direct us in paths we don’t want to take. The promise is that fellowship with God will make whatever journey he directs worthwhile, even if it includes the cross.
O that Jesus would come into our house and heal the fever of our sins by his command. Let that be your prayer. Amen.
You may remember that this gospel begins with John the Baptist preaching a baptism for the repentance of sins, then Jesus goes into the wilderness to be tested by Satan, whom he defeats, then he goes to the synagogue at Capernaum and casts out the man possessed with the demon. Mark says that Jesus was teaching, but the only content of the teaching is that Jesus demands the demons to come out of the man. Now he heals Peter’s mother-in-law who was sick by a fever by simply taking her by the hand and lifting her up. We don’t know if she had a slight cold, or the flu. We don’t know if the fever was depression or phenomena. What we know is she was healed.
When the women’s liberation movement entered theology many did not like this text because it seemed to imply that the proper place of women was in the home to serve men, but looking at the role of women and men in the text of Mark caused scholars to see something never before noticed. It had long been known that in the gospel of Mark the disciples understand nothing. They don’t understand the parables, when he stills the storm he says to them have you no faith, he miraculously feeds the five thousand, and then they doubt he can feed four thousand, he asks Peter who he is and Peter replies you are the messiah and then he tells the disciples he will suffer, but then Peter rebukes him and Jesus has to say get behind me Satan. It is not without accident that when Peter is asked about Jesus in the courtyard he begins to curse and utters his last words in this gospel saying, “I do not know the man of whom you are speaking.”
In contrast, this text, like several others in Mark, makes the role of women the model of discipleship. Here the mother-in-law’s response to the healing of Jesus is the discipleship of lowly service, a model to which Jesus will repeatedly call his followers to exhibit and which Jesus himself will repeatedly manifest. Peter’s mother-in-law stands in contrast to Peter himself who calls Jesus’ attention to the fact that the crowd is asking for healing but Peter himself does nothing. Look at this gospel carefully and you will see that the women represent the right response from the poor widow with her offering, to the woman with the ointment, to the women at the cross, and the women at the tomb. The insensitivity and misunderstanding of the main disciples contrast to the right response of the women.
That evening after sundown they brought to him all who were sick and possessed with demons and he cured many who were sick. They brought the sick to him that evening because during the day it was Saturday. It was the Sabbath. The Sabbath was strictly observed. When I was in Israel, at sundown on Friday all the city buses were stopped right in the street. The people sought to be home by sundown. The food in the hotel was prepared on Friday during the day, and Saturday after sundown. In the Gospel Jesus will get into trouble for healing on the Sabbath. It was thought that the work of a physician was healing, so healing on the Sabbath was prohibited. So they brought the sick to him after sundown.
Now I want you to notice that the text says that while it was very dark Jesus went out to a deserted place and there he prayed. This was not a normal half-hour of prayer. This prayer was such that everyone was searching for him and they could not find him. When they found him they told him that everyone was searching for him, but he said I have to go to the neighboring towns. What we notice is that Jesus does not do what the disciples want, he does not do what the crowds want, he does what he is instructed to do as a result of prayer. You will remember that he prays in the wilderness when he is tempted by Satan, when he feeds the five thousand he looks up to heaven and blesses the loaves, he prays at the last supper, he prays in Gethsemane, he prays on the cross. Jesus prays.
Think for a minute with me about Peter’s mother-in-law and Jesus at prayer. Did Mark put these two together for a reason? In 400 Jerome preaching on this text in Bethlehem said, “O that he would come to our house and enter and heal the fever of our sins by his command. For each and every one of us suffers from fever. When I grow angry, I am feverish. So many vices, so many fevers. But let us ask the apostles to call upon Jesus to come to us and touch our hand; for if he touches our hand, at once the fever flees.” (Quoted in Interpretation Mark by Lamar Williamson, Jr. p55)
There is so much about the Christian faith that has to do with the decision not to sin. Remember, the Christian is to avoid the seven deadly sins: Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, and Sloth. Now you think of your personal sins and, more than likely, they will fit into one of these seven. Now think about Jesus. Do you believe he was filled with Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Anger, Greed, or Sloth? The only one I can imagine Jesus had was anger, but there is anger that is appropriate. And that is the anger that motivates you and me to correct injustice.
When I think of these sins, which all of us commit, I think the solution to them is discipline. If I think of my failures rather than my successes, I can reduce pride, if I think of how fortunate I am to be 63 and have my health, I can reduce envy, if I look at myself in the mirror every time I want a sweet, I can reduce gluttony, if I think of Christ on the cross when lust enters my mind, I can reduce lust, if I think that anger will hurt only me and not the one to which it is directed, I can reduce anger, if I think that I chose the ministry because money wasn’t that important to me and that my church has been very generous to me, I can reduce greed, and if I think of how much there is to do and how little I accomplish, I can reduce sloth. It is all a matter of thought control and discipline. Think the right thoughts and follow the course and you can control the seven deadly sins. Yea right! That is why at 63 years of age and 6’1 I weigh 260.
Elizabeth Taylor was on Larry King and he congratulated her on winning something at the Kennedy Center. She said it was a two-day event that started with a speech by Colin Powell and it included a state dinner at the White House and it was very impressive. But she said the morning of the first day she jumped out of bed and something happened to her blood pressure and she fell on the floor in such a way that her foot curled up under her and she broke it in the worst possible place and she was in excruciating pain. She didn’t have time for a hospital or a doctor so she said over and over to herself, “I am strong, I am strong, I am determined, I am strong,” and by repeating that mantra she got through the two days. I wonder how it would have been if she had said, “Lord Jesus Christ, I turn my foot and my pain over to you; have mercy on me.”
Robert Schuller said he had written a book, a very small book for the youth. He gave a summary by saying, “It says if you can dream it you can achieve it.” Every time I hear a statement like that I wonder if he was ever cut from a basketball team, or denied admission to any club. Did he want to be an astronaut. I can dream about going to Space Station but I can’t come up with the $20 million ticket price necessary for the journey. I can dream about stopping this war, but I can’t stop it.
There is something, however, that will help me overcome the seven deadly sins and it is prayer and doing what God directs me to do in prayer. Sam Shoemaker was fed up. As pastor of the prestigious Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh during the 1950’s, he was trying to get more people to make a commitment to God. But the response from the prominent business men in his congregation was lukewarm. So one night at a country club dinner, he threw down a spiritual challenge. He asked the businessmen around the table to take a test of faith that would prove God exists. For 30 straight days the men were to pray: “Lord, if You’re real, make Yourself known to me.” They were to say the prayer first thing in the morning and any other time they thought of it during the day. At the end of the time, the men were to discuss what happened. The result was – you guessed it – miraculous. Every single man in the group reported that he had been directly touched by the Holy Spirit. ( The power of prayerful living p481) That experiment continues today.
Mark wants us to know that the source of Jesus’ power was his prayer life and his willingness to implement what God directed him to do. Perhaps that is one reason so many of us settle on what we’ve got. We’re afraid to pray for fear God will direct us in paths we don’t want to take. The promise is that fellowship with God will make whatever journey he directs worthwhile, even if it includes the cross.
O that Jesus would come into our house and heal the fever of our sins by his command. Let that be your prayer. Amen.