Mark's day in the life of Jesus moves from the
synagogue to the home of Simon and Andrew. Mark tells us that the four
recently called disciples are with Jesus. On a number of occasions Mark
describes the touch of Jesus, or his grasp.
Jesus is introduced to Simon's mother-in-law who
is ill. She was in bed indicating the severity of the fever. It was
anticipated that she was going to die. He took her hand and healed
her. And she in turn began to wait on them and gave them something to
eat.
It was evening and the Sabbath was ended. Mark
describes that both Jesus and the crowd are obeying Sabbath regulations.
The people brought all who were sick,
literally those who had it bad or had demons, to Jesus. The whole town gathered
where he was and pressed in at the front door. Jesus healed their many and
diverse range of diseases.
Mark tells us that Jesus silenced the demons. They
knew Jesus and by using his name they tried to claim authority over him as in
the earlier healing of the man with the unclean spirit, but Jesus didn't even
let them speak. This illustrates Jesus' power and authority. As in the
earlier story we would describe these people as having mental health problems
and as such they were marginalised, unemployed and reduced to begging. So in healing
them they are moved from marginalised to main stream members of society.
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark
- as was his practice, to avoid the crowds, Jesus went off, away out of the
house and out of Capernaum, and went away from the crowds, to a solitary
place, deserted-a wilderness image, and he prayed. His prayer life sustained
him as it needs to sustain us. Without it we just dry up spiritually.
But the Simon and the disciples found
him. Jesus tells them that they are going
to nearby villages and
market towns like Capernaum because this is what he has come to do, to proclaim
his message there too.
So Jesus went to Jewish meeting places everywhere
in Galilee, where he preached and forced out demons, in their synagogues.
There were two categories, the multitude and
the disciples. The disciples were those who believed, while the multitude were
curious. Rich and poor, hungry have social consequences in first century
Palestine. To be poor, hungry, suffering meant that you were out of favour with
God, because the belief was based on a divine reward system. When Jesus forgave
and healed these outcasts, it had social economic and political consequences .
Jesus gives God's blessings on the the poor, the
hungry, the sick, and outcasts, the hated. Jesus turns it all upside-down. The
elite in God's kingdom, the blessed ones in God's kingdom, are those who are at
the bottom of the heap of humanity. The human world order is based on
keeping debts, vengeance, judgement but God's world order is based on
releasing debts and forgiveness and healing, restitution into society self
esteem..
We learn that the mandate for those who want to
follow Jesus in 21st century
Britain should be concerned with those who are on the bottom of the pile, those
who are poor, hungry, unhappy, reviled. God is closer to the poor. In Latin
America in the 1960s peasants, people who lived in the favelas the shanty towns
got together to read the gospels. They found it revolutionary. It spoke of them
the poor, of justice. They took heart, they claimed land. They fought the land
owners who were exploiting them for profit. In this country the recession has
caused great poverty, companies have gone bankrupt and let down thousands of
pensioners who had been saving for their retirement. Is this similar? There
will be a leveling.
In his book on Integral Mission Malcolm Duncan speaks of the poor around any church. What is that church doing to
for the poor? What are we doing for the poor and do we even know who they are?
This is mission.
