Epiphany +5

Mk 1.29-39

            So this morning, we have Jesus out and about doing Jesus-y things. Same as the last few weeks, right?

            Well, not really. There are some significant differences today. And that's important, because it denotes a shift in Jesus' ministry.

            This week, this Gospel passage, we are given some clear insight into the heart of Jesus: he loves people.

Well, duh! You might be thinking. We already knew that. Of course he loves people.

            But here we see just how much he is willing to risk in order to love - actively love - people. He will put himself into no limits of danger in order to be helpful and healing to people.

            There are two ways that this happens.

            Firstly, you may have noted that when Jesus is inundated with the sick, he receives them where he is. He doesn't say "not tonight, it's family time", he doesn't suggest that they join him back at the synagogue.

            Rather, he shows that love transcends time and place.

            Jesus engages in this healing ministry where he is, and when they approach. We hear that the whole city is gathered around the door - they have sought him out, and him alone. They haven't tried to make him a permanent fixture in the socially-acceptable society; which we know he would have refused. Instead they have gone, admitting themselves vulnerable, being with others that have been denied community, in the hope that they might for a moment find health and salvation.

            So let's think about this a bit more. The folks who were gathered - these are not all sick people, they do not all have diseases. But Mark tells us - everyone is there.

            I think this is why we hear that Jesus cured many. CURED - note this is different from HEALED. Jesus cured many who were sick with various diseases! He offered them an earthly freedom from the earthly germs and afflictions.

            In doing this, he also provided healing - to all who were there, regardless of their earthly germ situation. Because healing comes not for physical ailments, but for the betterment of the spirit. Healing is a spiritual, divine reality.

            We hear about this as well, don't we. We get the allusion to the folks who were sick in mind and spirit, coming to the door just as eagerly as the folks who were sick in body.

            Those folks were suffering spiritual demons.

            Now, this is not the first time we've heard about demons, of course Just last week our Gospel passage referenced the demons that Jesus silenced and cast out. So what's different this week?

            He doesn't even let them speak. They knew him, they knew who he was, and what he is, and because of this, Jesus would not let them speak. He was done with them, with their voices, with their words, with their very presence.
            What a gift for the health of the spirit! To have any presence of evil denied! Jesus would not let any of the people gathered there be distracted or disturbed by the voice of evil. What a gift - to be freed from the heavy burden! What health and restoration.

            This ties in to the second way that Jesus offers that perfect healing love: he touches people. Quite literally, touches them. Now, in this day and age, we recognise how germs are transmitted, and we do our best to not share germs. We sneeze into our elbows, we wash our hands, we stay home when we're sick. Easy, right? Well, in Jesus' time, this was not known.It was presumed that if you were sick, you had done something sinful - you had acted in a way that separated you from your community and from God. Sniffles were a little sin, but a fever and flu? Well, that could be a HUGE sin.

            The people in Jesus' time understood that un-healthiness could transfer, but they thought it was by spiritual means - so if you were really sick, then by being next to you I might catch your sin and fall out of favour with God. Yikes - not worth risking, in an era before hygiene and hand sanitiser and antibiotics.

            But - Jesus touches people. He allows them to touch him. He is willing to go against cultural taboos and touch the lowest of the low: the sick, the rejected, the dirty, the coughing, the feverish - he touches them. And they are so desperate for his touch, that they are willing to touch each other!

            Jesus puts himself at risk, having all this sin-induced sickness around him. He is willing to have himself rejected from society, from the synagogue, from his friends' house. He could have, by cultural norms, been denied access to the market, been refused food and water and lodging, been told he was not worthy to enter the house of God - because of who he was seen with, and who he touched.

            But we know, having heard what happens with Simon Peter's mother-in-law, that the touch of Jesus is healing. This touch does not exclude from society; instead it brings a physical cure, and a spiritual health. It is love in action.

            Jesus goes in to his friends' mother-in-law's room, where she has a fever - which, in those days, could be a death sentence. And he touches her hand - and lifts her up - and up she gets; the fever gone.

            It's beautiful, for so many reasons. And it's interesting, with our 21st century ears, to hear in the next sentence "and she served him." We need to be careful not to just think that this poor woman has jumped up from her deathbed to make dinner for the younger generation. The service that she offers is a much more important one, a much more all-encompassing one. It is a life of serving: it is a life of loving - because she has received love. It is a life of generosity, because she has received. It is a life of sharing joy, because she had experienced joy. It is a life of blessing, because she has been blessed.

            This woman, Simon Peter's mother-in-law, now lives her life openly loving - because she has been loved. Through that touch - of the hand and of the heart - her life has changed, and she will share the message of faithfulness and of wholeness, the truth of God's perfect love, for the remainder of her earthly days.

            Jesus loves us. Jesus wants to be near to us. Jesus will not be limited by the status quo, by societal norms, by what other people expect of him. Instead, he invites people to be changed, by his love. Jesus does not rebuke the sick for gathering together; instead he loves them. He does not judge them harshly; he offers peace. He does not allow them to be bothered by their demons; instead he silences evil from a place of love. He does not avoid his friends' mother-in-law, instead he lifts her up with love. He does not allow the people to make his life comfortable and easy, instead he goes elsewhere so that more people can be loved.

            Jesus loves: fully, completely, recklessly, beautifully. He loves. And through that love, brings healing to the world.

            So here's the good news - the surprising, joy-inducing, grace-filled good news:

Jesus loves US. The love continues. And we're invited to share that love as broadly as we can.

            So... bearing that in mind:  what's holding you back, from fully receiving the love of Christ? What is causing you dis-ease? What is weighing heavily on your soul? What is clinging to you, that you exist instead of live fully? What pain do you carry with you in this world?

            Whatever it is: I invite you to bring it to Jesus, I pray you will benefit from the peace and bliss of knowing the on-going healing of the soul that comes from the hand of God.

            Bring it to Jesus - as people have always done - and be freed by the experience.

So let us go, and find Jesus, and ask for the healing of our souls, trusting in the healing touch of God to free us, that we might live in the beauty of love, and joyfully serve the hurting world with the ministry of love.