Hard working Servant of God
| As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. So He went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them. That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. (Mark1:29-34) |
He presents Jesus as relentlessly and tirelessly preaching, teaching and healing.
One of his favourite words is "euthus"(εὐθὺς) which appears 40 times in his gospel. On average that's about 2.5 times per chapter. This word "euthus" means "suddenly", "at once", "immediately" and "as soon as". Mark also loves the word "and" ("kai" "καὶ"), often beginning sentences with it. "And Jesus did this and Jesus did that..."
Our passage today starts with "kai" and "euthus" - "And as soon as".
It gives the narrative a breathless atmosphere - as though Jesus is rushing from one thing to the next. Sometimes being plunged into one thing after another.
He's just preached and taught in the synagogue and set a possessed man free and heads to Simon and Andrew's home. It seems that Simon Peter is a widower, because he has a mother-in-law but there's never a mention of a Mrs Simon Peter.
Said mother-in-law is not well - she's in bed with fever. In the Greek we read "and immediately they told Jesus about her." This conveys some sense of urgency - Mark is either demonstrating how relentless Jesus' schedule is, or how sick his mother-in-law is. Or maybe a bit of both.
But Jesus heals her and she makes a dramatic recovery. The fact that she's immediately jumping up to play the hostess seems to be surprising - another indicator of how sick she was.
And then the townspeople track Jesus down and make "housecalls." The "after sunset" speaks of those who could only come after they had knocked off work, but the oncoming night also conveys a sense of desperation and fear. Just picture the scene: hardscrabble working class folk at the end of a long day, bringing relatives and children trapped by evil, burdened by illness, needing healing and hope.
And, even after a long, long, long day - Jesus heals them.
Sometimes after a long, long, long day we don't always feel like going to our evening Bible Study or getting up early to go to church... Maybe Jesus' example speaks to us...
(Tomorrow we'll talk about muzzling the demons...)
