Preaching Text: Mark 1.29-39
Imagine a steamy summer morning at a church camp in Ashland, Nebraska. A pastor has faithfully gathered his confirmation class for an hour of Bible study and discussion before the counselor takes them on a hike though the fragrant green woods to the ropes course. The counselor has the privilege of sitting in with the group during Bible study, and counts this as one of the great benefits of his job, because so many of these pastors share so much of themselves with their classes.
On the day you're imagining, the pastor wants to talk about questioning faith. The pastor is convinced that his kids will need a questioning faith - the kind of faith that is not afraid to explore its world and ask God questions when things don't make sense. So the pastor invites the class and the counselor to take five minutes and write down some questions they've wanted to ask God.
Little does the pastor know that the counselor's got a question burning in his heart. The counselor asks: "Why is it that my grandfather, the most loving man I know, is suffering in his old age? He's done nothing to deserve the arthritis that cripples him. He's done nothing to deserve the blood clots that cause him to have mini-strokes." Then the counselor adds what isn't written on his sheet: "Why is it that this man I love so much has to suffer? Doesn't God care?"
The counselor looks as surprised as the kids in the confirmation class at that last bit of questioning. It seems almost like a sin to say that God doesn't care about those who suffer – of course God cares! But the counselor's problem remains: people are suffering. A loving God is not intervening – at least, not in any way they can see. Thus, there are two possibilities: either God doesn't have the power to intervene, or God doesn't care. No one knows which one they would choose, but everyone in the group knows that they don't like to think about either one.
Let us pray: Holy Father, we your children are looking for Your healing touch. But You tell us You are known through the healing power of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to see how His power to heal truly works. Help us to see how His loving mercy forgives our sins, casts out the demons that threaten us, and frees us to bring Your healing word to a broken and suffering world. In His precious name we pray, Amen.
That young counselor was me, of course. I meant what I said about being grateful for sitting in on those Confirmation classes – I learned a lot from those kids and from their pastors. The pastor in question was most gracious in two ways: he let me ask the question my heart needed to ask, and he answered my question in a gentle, incredibly loving way.
I wonder if the people of Capernaum might have wanted to ask a similar question of Jesus and His disciples. The gospel of Mark tells us that one day after healing many of the sick and possessed people of Capernaum, Jesus left Capernaum and went to the neighboring towns. The gospel tells us that all the possessed and sick were brought to Jesus, but Jesus healed many and cast out many demons. Not all. Many. Is this worth noting?
I don't know if we need to split these particular hairs too finely, because one thing is certain: even if Jesus had healed all those who were brought to Him, one day's healing ministry certainly would not have completely eliminated suffering in Capernaum. I'm sure that within days there were more people struggling with illness. I'm certain that within hours there were more people fighting with demons. I'm certain of this because I know the strength and tenacity of the demons that threaten us, and I know that illness can strike at any time and in any place. You know this, too.
Imagine, then, what it must have felt like in Capernaum in those days. Remember that these were the days before many of the medicines we take for granted today. Sickness and illness struck without warning and without explanation. If you didn't know why your neighbor was sick, wouldn't you worry that you might become ill yourself if you spent too much time in her company? If you didn't know why your neighbor was tormented by demons, wouldn't you worry that you might be their next target if you spent too much time with him? Knowing all of this, wouldn't you assume that those who suffered from disease or any other illness were lost causes, people to be avoided, people to be kept in their homes until they either died or recovered?
Now, imagine that you are suffering from a debilitating illness. Your family cares for you, of course, but you can tell in their faces that they don't know if they should hope for your recovery or your death. Your friends and neighbors don't come around much, and when they do, they don't know how to act because they are scared of what's happening to you. And this is just the people you love struggling with your illness – you yourself are wondering: "what has happened to this body I've always trusted? How is it that I can't walk anymore? Why won't my stomach keep down food any more? What is happening to me?"
Peter's mother-in-law knew the unpredictable nature of illness; she had just experienced it. A fever in Jesus' time was no minor inconvenience; in the days before penicillin or Tylenol, you either broke your fever or it broke you. There's a good chance that Peter's mother might have died of her fever if Jesus hadn't healed her. So when this man lifted her out of her fever, she did the only thing that made sense to her: she served him.
In Jesus' day, the oldest woman of the house was the one who extended hospitality to her guests. This service that Peter's mother-in-law gave to Jesus wasn't the service of a submissive woman to an overbearing man; her service was the privilege and honor of a gracious hostess. It was not what was due from her as a woman – it was the gift of the entire family given through the matriarch of the household. This isn't a minor thing, the service of Peter's mother-in-law to her guests. It shows why Jesus healed her, why Jesus heals some and not others, and what it is that happens in our healing and in our service.
After Jesus heals the many in Capernaum, Mark tells us that He went out to a place where He could be alone to pray. How incredible would it have been to hear this prayer between Jesus and His Father! Of course we cannot begin to predict what it is they said to each other, but I wonder if perhaps Jesus was praying for strength and courage. Not for the strength and courage to continue healing, though – I think Jesus was praying for the strength and courage to leave the city of Capernaum, and I think He genuinely needed it.
It would have been very easy for Jesus to remain in Capernaum. Illness and demons would always need healing, and Jesus could have provided a great healing ministry to that one city if he had remained. There were good people who were suffering in Capernaum that day, people who had done nothing to deserve the illness and demons that threatened them. Yet we find Jesus praying by Himself when an entire city is looking for His help. We find Jesus moving on when the people of Capernaum are just discovering His power and His healing touch. Wouldn't you need strength to leave behind a city in such great need?
Jesus knew that His healing service in Capernaum could easily become a trap to keep His greater mission from bearing fruit. As wonderful as His healing ministry was, it was never the focus of Jesus' mission on earth. Remember that the beginning of Jesus' ministry comes with these words in Mark's gospel: "the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near: repent, and believe in the good news."
As wonderful as healing may be, healing the body does not bring the kingdom of God near – the kingdom of God comes through faith in Jesus, the anointed Son of God. When Jesus healed in Capernaum, He healed because He loved the people – but He also healed so that they would receive the greater gift of faith and come to see that in Him the kingdom of God has indeed come near. Healing one body serves one person – but setting that person free in faith to serve their neighbor provides a healing that goes far beyond the body, a healing that grows and expands and begins to heal the wounds of a broken and suffering world. Only the kingdom of God coming near can provide this kind of healing, and only the spreading service of those who believe in Jesus Christ can make it happen.
Here, I believe, is the real reason that Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law: He healed her so that she could serve. As Peter's mother-in-law began to tell others the good news about Jesus, they might come to believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God. When we begin to believe in Jesus, we find an entirely different kind of healing taking place: a healing of the deeper wounds caused by sin and death. As those wounds are healed, we find that the love that replaces them compels us to serve our neighbors, just as Peter's mother-in-law was compelled to serve after her body had been healed.
I imagine it was terribly difficult for Jesus to leave Capernaum. I'm sure He loved the people there very deeply, especially those He had healed in their bodies. But He could not heal their greater illness if He remained a simple medicine man in their midst. Jesus greatest service to the people of Capernaum was the day He left them still in need of healing. As Jesus proclaimed the good news to the neighboring towns, the kingdom of God came near to thousands, beginning to heal a world desperately in need, and as people came to believe in Jesus, they learned that love expressed through serving others provided a great healing as well, to themselves and to the world around them. And so Jesus healed to serve, and others served to heal.
My grandfather never recovered from the many illnesses that surrounded him in his later years. He died nine years ago, in the nursing home in Wakefield, sick in his body and tired in his soul. But I don't remember that illness these days. Nine years later, what I remember is my grandfather's smile, his laugh, his gentle kindness and his sense of humor. I remember the joy I felt in his presence and I remember his steadfast faith. I read the accounts of his life and I know the great healing that Jesus Christ provided to him, a healing that allowed him to face the demons and the illness in his life with courage and strength. If Jesus hadn't left Capernaum that day, perhaps the message of the kingdom of God wouldn't have left, either – and the great healing of our broken world would have stopped before it had ever begun. But He did leave, the kingdom did come near, and now we who are being healed by Him are compelled to serve in the world and continue His healing work. You and I have been healed in order that we may serve – and we serve in order that others may be healed. To God alone be the glory, now and forever. Amen.
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