Breathlessly Healing

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany - Mark 1:31

Mark packs nearly everything into the first chapter of his gospel. First, Jesus is baptized and tempted, and then preaches his first sermon. In five short verses we read about a baptism, ordination, and installation. It takes five more verses for Jesus to call his disciples, and seven more to preach on the sabbath, cast out a demon and become famous in the region. Mark's gospel is nothing if not breathless, characterized by that one word that keep popping up through the gospel: "immediately"!

Any yet, the chapter is not finished. Jesus has preached and exorcised demons, but he has yet to heal someone. Today's reading reveals Jesus as healer. He heals Simon's mother-in-law of a fever. Immediately that evening, the sick from all around are already at the door. Actually, the whole town is at the door. Jesus exorcises, heals, and grows in fame.

The Word of God in Jesus had broken into our troubled world, and immediately begins to bring good news and wholeness. Just as Mark shows Jesus healing and turning a normal city upside down, Christ comes into our daily routines with a word of new life, and we will be forever changed. Where are you broken and in need of restoration? Where do you face despair and need renewing waters of grace? Where do you hunger for the bread of good news?

The healing done by Jesus are a powerful sign that the forces of death and sickness do not have the last word. Yet Jesus is no the kind of faith healer we usually imagine. He does not seek fame and adoration from the crowd. Rather, He immediately goes to a place by Himself to pray (Mark 1: 35). Jesus knows that the ultimate sign if God's victory over sin and death is still in the future, in his crucifixion, and the new life of the resurrection. And this is where God is pointing us too.