SUNDAY!
Mark 1:29-39; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23; Psalm 147:1-11,20c; Isaiah 40:21-31
This gospel lesson picks right up from last week. Jesus, just finishing up with church on the Sabbath, goes off to Simon and Andrew’s house with James and John, currently the only 4 named disciples Jesus has. They get there and Jesus, upon finding out that Simon’s mother-in-law is ill, immediately heals her. Then, while he’s still at Simon Peter’s house, the whole town brought folk to him to be healed from whatever it was that was bothering them. When morning came, he got up before the sun and went off by himself to pray. When Simon and the others found him, they told that everyone was looking for him. Jesus, instead, said, “Let’s go out into the countryside so I can preach there. That’s why I’m here.” And so he did.
Jesus’ ministry, especially in Mark, was all about helping people. Mark doesn’t have the long blocks of teaching that are in Matthew, Luke, or John — this gospel focuses more on what Jesus did than what he said. Action is key in Mark’s gospel.
Yet despite this focus on action, it seems as though contemporary Christianity has neglected to treat actions with much import. We focus a good deal on salvation; I will always assert that Christ, through his death and resurrection, saved us from sin and death. We focus on eternity, that, to quote the “football verse”, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” We are saved by grace through faith, and not by works, lest anyone should boast.
That is all Truth, but it is not just that we are saved from sin and death, we are also saved for a purpose. Put simply our purpose is threefold: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all you soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength;” “Love your neighbor as yourself;” “Go and make disciples of all nations… teaching them to obey all everything [Jesus] has commanded you.”
In a lot of ways, this purpose could be simplified further, down to the command Jesus gave to four fisherman on the shores of the Sea of Galilee: “Come, follow me.” Look at the things Jesus did — the ways he spent his time — even in this gospel for today. He always loved God above all others, indeed the first thing he did in the morning was to take time to pray. He loved others, caring for the sick he encountered and spending a good portion of the night healing them. He dealt with everyone he met with love, even the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians who sought to kill him. And everywhere he went he taught and made disciples, something that is noticeable in the consistently growing crowds following him wherever he went.
The story Mark tells us of Jesus life isn’t one of some abstract teachings, instead it’s one of action; Jesus invites his followers to do as he does, to live as he lived. He doesn’t talk about the best reasons to heal, or speak up about how important it is to take care of those in need, he just does it.
So the question for us is how to respond to Jesus’ call to follow him. A great danger in this is we sometimes trick ourselves into thinking that planning to follow Jesus is the same thing as follow him. When the sick and possessed showed up on Simon Peter’s doorstep looking for help, Jesus didn’t form a committee to figure out the best way to help them all, he just healed them.
At times I wonder if we sometimes spend so much time preparing to do God’s work that we neglect to actually do it. It seems the best thing to do is to just take a step out in faith and follow our Lord’s example.