Sermon - Raised Up and Free to Serve (2/7/2021)
Epiphany 5B (Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147:1-11; Mark 1:29-39)
Jesus came and took Peter’s mother-in-law by the hand, and he raised her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to minister to them.
To be honest, I’ve often cringed a little bit at this passage – the suggestion that Peter’s mother-in-law is sick and when Jesus heals her, she can go back in the kitchen where she belongs to take care of all the guys that Peter dragged home. It’s quite a stereotype.
But I think there’s a lot more than this going on in this passage. And I think Peter’s mother-in-law is the sort of person I know, and probably you do too. I imagine she’s the matriarch of a big family. It’s a big day; the house is full of guests, and she’s sick in bed. Other people have stepped up to take care of what needs to be done, but they’re not doing it her way. And because of her failing health she can’t do anything about it, and it’s driving her up the wall. You know what I’m talking about.
And in her frustration Jesus comes, senses her anxiety, takes her by the hand and raises her up. And the fever leaves her –now she can be herself again. She can again take her place in her family, she can make sure everything is done right, she can be needed again. She has been set free from her illness so that she can be fully herself and fulfill her call to love and care for others – and soon the whole town is at the door of her house. As Martin Luther might have said, she is set free from being subject to sickness and in her freedom becomes the servant of all.
This passage today is a continuation of the story we began last week, of the first Sabbath day that Jesus spends with his new fishermen disciples in the fishing village of Capernaum in Galilee. Last week we read how Jesus goes to the synagogue, astonishes everyone by teaching with authority, and freeing a man with an unholy spirit.
When the services are over, it’s now Saturday afternoon, Jesus goes home after church with Peter and his brother Andrew. Where Peter’s mother-in-law is sick in bed with a fever. That morning, in public, Jesus set free a man with an unholy spirit; that afternoon, at home, Jesus sets free a woman who also isn’t feeling like herself, who also can’t respond as she would like to the good news of God’s presence and grace, because something has come over her. Jesus takes her by the hand, and raises her up, and the fever left her, and she began to minister to them.
Then, later, after sunset, when the Sabbath is over, Mark tells us that the people of Capernaum brought to Jesus everyone who was sick and troubled by unholy spirits, and soon the whole town was at the door. The implication is that the people waited until after sundown, after the Sabbath was over, but it was still the Sabbath when Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. As you know, later in the gospel when Jesus heals publicly on the Sabbath, it causes quite a controversy. But setting people free from unholy spirits and feverish spells and everything else that holds people down and stops them from being themselves – that’s what the community of God’s people is all about. Whether it’s in the synagogue or in the church, whether it’s on a Saturday or a Sunday, the good news of God’s presence and grace is what gives us strength, and clarity, and the freedom to live into whatever way of love that God has called us to.
And when the Sabbath is over, and God’s people have been set free to serve, and have been seen to be set free in astonishing ways, the whole town assembles at the door. Bringing everyone who is sick and troubled and unfree. Mark tells us they brought to Jesus all who were sick and troubled, and that Jesus healed many of them. Many, but not all. Why not all?
Well, Jesus’s healing is not magic – sometimes sickness and weakness is just part of the human condition. We are finite creatures, our bodies are in many ways remarkable and resilient, but eventually we all weaken and die. The gospel does not take us out of the world but meets us right here in our actual lives, where sometimes we are fragile, and have limitations, and it is precisely in our fragility and our limitations where God comes to meet us.
But so much of the suffering and the captivity that human beings endure is not due to the inherent fragility and limitations that come with being finite creatures who live in bodies – so much of it is what we choose to do to one another, and what we do to ourselves. The pandemic has show us this – viruses exist, they’re part of human nature, and so is the ingenuity and inventiveness that we use to protect ourselves from spreading viruses and to develop vaccines and treatments. But the pandemic also has fallen so much more heavily on some than others, it’s revealed inequalities in access to health care and inequities in the way we treat one another that many of us hadn’t seen before. The pandemic has brought us together in some ways and in other ways has driven people apart. So much of the suffering that this pandemic has caused is not the fault of the virus but the fault of human beings and the ways we treat one another and fail to love one another – and that’s what the kingdom of God promises to free us from.
And after a long day of teaching and healing and setting free, in the synagogue all morning, at home all afternoon, and in the town all evening, Jesus goes off before dawn to be alone in prayer. And when his new disciples track him down, and tell him how many are still looking for him, Jesus tells them it’s time to move on to the next town.
But what about all the people in Capernaum who still need healing and who still need to be set free? Who’s going to take care of them, who’s going to make the Kingdom of God manifest in Capernaum once Jesus and his disciples have moved on? Well, how about Peter’s mother-in-law? She has heard the good news of God’s kingdom, she’s been healed by it, she’s been taken by the hand and raised up and set free to love and to serve her neighbor. Jesus has no special, magic powers over sickness and unholy spirits – it’s faith in the kingdom of God that sets us free. Peter’s mother-in-law, and many others who had been healed and delivered by Jesus, have come to that faith already. And Jesus will now work through them.
That’s why Mark is so careful in the language he uses to describe what happened to Peter’s mother-in-law. Jesus took her by the hand, and raised her up; the fever left her, and she began to minister to them. Resurrection, leading to a life of ministry – this has already happened in Capernaum after just one day. And this is how Jesus will remain present in Capernaum going forward, this is how the kingdom of God will remain present in Capernaum once Jesus has moved on – and this is how the kingdom of God is still present in the year 2021 in Mount Vernon and everywhere else. Because here too are people who have been taken by the hand, and raised up, and set free, and have begun to use that freedom to love and care for one another. In that faith, the work of Jesus continues, making people healthy, setting us free to fully be ourselves and to care for one another.