Mark 1:29-39
February 5, 2012[1]
Sometimes, it happens, that you read the Bible and a phrase jumps out at you. If you are in a hurry, you move on. But sometimes, when you move, you miss something. If you take the time to dwell in that phrase, to marinade in it, to soak it in, you will find that God is speaking through the Scriptures.
That’s what happened to me this week with today’s Gospel Lesson. The phrase occurs in verse 31, where it says that Jesus “took her by the hand and lifted her up” (Mark 1:31).
Let’s start with some context. Last week, we read Mark’s description of the first miracle that is reported in Mark’s Gospel—the exorcism of an unclean spirit from a man who Jesus found in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Jesus commanded the unclean spirits to leave the man, they obeyed Him. Everyone who saw it was amazed. No one complained about this taking place on the Sabbath; they just marveled at Jesus’ authority.
That’s where we pick up the story in today’s lesson. Jesus and some of his disciples leave the synagogue and go to the home of Simon and Andrew. They enter the home and find that Simons’ mother-in-law is in bed with a fever. Jesus enters the woman’s room, takes her hand and lifts her up. The fever leaves her, and she begins to serve Jesus and the others.
That image of Jesus taking the woman’s hand is something that I can relate to. I certainly don’t have the healing powers and authority of Jesus. But very early in my ministry, I learned that people who are suffering need the power of touch, of human contact. When I ask if I can say a prayer for them, their hands reach out. They reach out to me, but I sometimes feel as though they are reaching out for more than just me. They are reaching out for assurance that God is present, that God knows their circumstances, that God cares.
In our Gospel Lesson, Jesus demonstrates this healing love of God. Jesus was a healer. However strange this may sound to our skeptical minds in the 21st Century, the witness of the Gospels is clear that Jesus was known for His remarkable healing powers. He preached the message that the Kingdom of God that was unfolding, right in their midst, but He cautioned them that God’s Kingdom was different than they expected. God’s Kingdom was one in which the last would come first, the humble would be exalted over the mighty, the sick would find healing and wholeness, and people would be reconciled to God and to each other.
But Jesus didn’t simply preach this message. Jesus put His words into action. Everywhere he went, He met people exactly at their point of need. That is where Jesus met Simon’s mother-in-law. She had a fever that was so severe that it completely disabled her. Jesus reached out His hand to hers. He held on to her and she held on to Him. Jesus lifted her up. The fever left her.
Let’s focus for a minute on those words. Jesus “lifted her up.” It sounds mechanical, as though Jesus simply helped pull the woman to her feet, and perhaps that is exactly what happened.
Could it be a coincidence, though, that Greek word that Mark uses to describe this dramatic moment is the same word that he uses to describe Jesus own resurrection later on? The word is egeiro, to raise, to lift up. In Mark 16:6, the word is used in the passive voice, Jesus is risen. Here in Mark 1, the word is used in the active voice, Jesus “lifted her up.” The same power of God that overcame death at the resurrection is the power that heals.
We don’t seem to trust that power so much today. In our skeptical moments, we attribute healing to the medicine. Yet we know that medicine has its limits. There are times that even medicine runs out of miracles. And ultimately, we confront the reality that our physical lives eventually come to an end, even those who have received the miracles of healing. Even Lazarus, who was raised from the dead, returned to death, eventually. We see people we love suffer. We experience our own bodies aging and declining. And we wonder, “where is God?”
Methodists affirm the healing power of God, a healing power that is present even in the midst of suffering. Hear these words from The United Methodist Book of Worship, which affirms that
spiritual healing is God’s work of offering persons balance, harmony, and wholeness of body, mind, spirit, and relationships through confession, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Through such healing, God works to bring about reconciliation between God and humanity, among individuals and communities, within each person, and between humanity and the rest of creation…
All healing is of God. The Church’s healing ministry in no way detracts from the gifts God gives through medicine and psychotherapy. It is no substitute for either medicine or the proper care of one’s health. Rather, it adds to our total resources for wholeness.
Healing is not magic, but underlying it is the great mystery of God’s love…
God does not promise that we shall be spared suffering but does promise to be with us in our suffering. Trusting that promise, we are enabled to recognize God’s sustaining presence in pain, sickness, injury, and estrangement….
A Service of Healing is not necessarily a service of curing, but it provides an atmosphere in which healing can happen. The greatest healing of all is the reunion or reconciliation of a human being with God. For the Christian the basic purpose of spiritual healing is to renew and strengthen one’s relationship with the living Christ.[2]
The practice of anointing with oil seems strange to some, but its history runs deep. Remember those very comforting words from the 23rd Psalm: “Thou anointest my head with oil…” This practice carried over to the early church. The Epistle of James proclaims this invitation and promise:
14 Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.
(James 5:14-16, NIV)
Anointing with oil is a way for us to seek the healing love of God. I like to think of it as a way in which we reach out for the hand of God. The promise is that when we reach out, we find that God has already been reaching out for us, waiting to take us by the hand, to lift us up to wholeness, to eternal life.
In a moment, we will sing our Hymn of Response, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” Hymn # 474 in your Hymnals. Are there any among you who are sick, broken, who need God? This would be a wonderful moment for you to reach out to the God who is reaching out to you. I invite you to come forward, as you feel led by the Spirit, to receive the anointing, love and prayers of the Church, as you place your hand in the hand of God.
Tom Frost
Copyright © 2012 by Thomas E. Frost. All rights reserved.
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