My favorite film of all time is Raider’s of the Lost Ark. Growing up Indian Jones was my hero. I used to dress up like Indy with the hat, leather coat, and whip. Last year my wife took me to a private screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark at River Watch Cinemas for my 46th birthday, and I was reminded for the thousandth time why it remains my all time favorite movie.
Raiders is the quintessential ACTION film. From the opening scene in the jungle with the
temple, the booby traps, and the boulder, to the last scene of the Ark stored in Area 51, Raiders is nonstop ACTION.
Which brings us to our Gospel lesson today from the book of Mark. If the Gospels were
assigned a movie genre, Mark would undoubtedly be an ACTION movie. By the time we get to our passage for this morning, Jesus has all ready been baptized by John at the River Jordan, cast into the wilderness for 40 days to overcome the devil, called his first disciples to follow him, exorcised a demon in Capernaum, and taught the people with amazement in the temple, and we aren’t even out of chapter one yet!
Author Frederick Buechner, in his classic who’s who of the Bible, Peculiar Treasures, writes this about Mark:
"He was a man in a hurry, out of breath, with no time to lose because that's how the people were he was writing for too. The authorities were out for their blood, and they were on the run. At any moment of day or night a knock might come at the door, and from there to getting thrown to the lions or set fire to as living torches at one of Nero's evening entertainments took no time at all."
"Immediately" is one of Mark's favorite words, and he uses it three times more than either Matthew or Luke, fifteen times more than John. "Immediately he called them" (1:20), "immediately on the sabbath he entered the synagogue" (1:21). Immediately the girl got up and walked (5:30), or the father cried (9:24), or the cock crowed (14:72). Jesus himself races by, scattering miracles like rice at a wedding. Mark is alive with miracles, especially healing ones, and Jesus rushes from one to another. He had no time to lose either.
Yes, the word immediately is used 80 times in Mark’s gospel, painting a cinematic sense of urgency and rapid progress while at the same time creating nonstop ACTION for its viewers. I can remember being in seminary many years ago in my pulpit ministry class where I took the first three chapters from the gospel of Mark and acted them out as a one man show. It was exhausting to say the least! Yet the experience taught me that there is often more going on in Mark’s text than meets the eye.
Therefore I would like to take a little time to explore Mark’s action this morning to see if we cannot find a deeper underlying message within. So as we like to say here in Studio One at St. Augustine's: lights, camera, ACTION!
Here in Mark 1:29 we find Jesus immediately leaving the synagogue and entering into the house of Simon’s mother-in-law where we discover she is in bed with a fever.
And Jesus came to her bed side and took her by the hand and lifted her up. I love the language of Mark in this verse, he lifted her up and then the fever left her. The Greek word used here for lifted up, "egeiren", is the same verb used to express Jesus’ rising from the dead.
It is here that we see Jesus clearly as a Spirit empowered person whose presence brings
wholeness, or in the Hebrew, Shalom, into Simon’s house.
The Rev. Timothy Keller writes, "The Hebrew word picture of Shalom is one of the key words and images for salvation in the Bible. The Hebrew word refers most commonly to a person being uninjured and safe, whole and sound. In the New Testament, shalom is revealed as the reconciliation of all things to God through the work of Christ. Shalom experienced is multidimensional, complete well-being — physical, psychological, social, and spiritual; it flows from all of one’s relationships being put right — with God, with(in) oneself, and with others."
I often imagine myself during times of prayer and meditation taking Jesus by the hand so that I too may be lifted up into the light of his Shalom healing presences and wholeness. Like Paul states in his letter to the Ephesians:
"And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 6-7)
Jesus enters the house of his friends and immediacy restores health and wholeness so that we might see the incomparable riches of his grace. And it’s important to note that Simon’s mother-in-law takes a hold of Jesus’ free gift of grace with open hands, and then began to immediately serve them all. The word Mark uses here in the Greek is derived from the word we get deacon from, she served them and took care of their needs.
If we were applying biblical hermeneutics to this passage, we might make the observation that here we see a cause and effect relationship between Jesus and the mother-in-law. He takes her by the hand, healing virtue flows through her body casting out the sickness from her body. And then she begins to immediately emulate hospitality, sharing in the coming of God’s kingdom that brings Shalom through the ministry of Jesus. You might even say that here Christ made a little Jesus out of Simon’s mother-in-law by simply taking her hand and lifting her up into the power of his divinity.
But the ACTION does not stop there, for Mark tells us in the next verse that at evening, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. We are not told who exactly they are that brought all of these broken people to Jesus, but we can assume that it was the party Jesus arrived with of Simon, Andrew, James and John. It is here we see the work of the disciples taking part in the ministry of Jesus by directly bringing broken folks into his presence so that they too may receive the healing power of his Shalom.
Is it really that simple? Is the bulk of Christian ministry inviting others into the hospitality of Jesus where they may begin to see their lives made whole and put together in him?
Well perhaps the disciples were onto something here, for Mark tells us that the whole city eventually gathered around the door of Simon’s house. And what did Jesus do? He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons.
Jesus continues to be about the work of his Father in restoring wholeness and Shalom in the lives of the broken through the power of the Holy Spirit. It is here that Mark is paining a vivid picture for us of what the Kingdom of God is like: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit working together in the midst of needy community to lift, heal, and restore wholeness and health both physically and mentally in the lives of the broken.
And the ACTION doesn’t stop there, for in the morning while it was still very dark, Jesus got up and went out to a deserted place to pray. Jesus retreats from the mob of human need to rest and respite in the presence of his Father.
You may even say that the ACTION needed to rest in order to continue at such an immediate pace of life. Reminds me of another super hero who needed his rest.
Let’s think about this for a moment. If Christian ministry consists of mainly bringing our
neighbors into the presence of God, and if we believe that the presence of God abides within us, doesn’t it make sense then, that like Jesus, we too need rest and respite in the immediacy of our Father’s presence in order to continue in the nonstop ACTION of Jesus ministry? If not, then what are we inviting our friends into?
The broken do not need to join yet another community of continuous busyness. They, like ourselves, need time to spend in the presence of grace, to be lifted up into the Shalom in order to give witness to the Shalom. As Isaiah writes in our Old Testament lesson this morning:
"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."
(Isaiah 40:28-31)
And again, Simon and his companions do not let us down, for they know where the authority and the power of their ministry resides. Having awakened to the absence of Jesus, they hunted for him. Again, such a powerful word used by Mark, they hunted for their Master, as if he alone contained the words of life. And when they found him in the deserted place, they said to him, Everyone is searching for you. Truer words were never spoken, for the whole mass of humanity is searching for the Shalom of Jesus whether they know it or not.
Yet Jesus is the ACTION of the Father’s love constantly moving and spreading throughout the world. So he answers them, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also. And then he adds, for that is what I came out to do."
This is the mission and message of Jesus, to proclaim and to demonstrate in action the Shalom of God, so that all people of all races may come into the saving power of his love.
Which brings us full circle back to our Collect for the day:
"Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known thus in your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ."
So while it is still called today, may you too feel the urgency to follow the pattern of spirituality Jesus laid out for us in Mark’s gospel: to be moved into ACTION, to take Jesus by the hand, to be lifted up into his divine Shalom, so that you may in return invite others to share in the healing powers of his grace, and ultimately, find eternal rest for your restless soul. Amen.
References
1. Buechner, Frederick. Peculiar Treasures
2. Donahue/Harrington, The Gospel of Mark
3. Keller, Timothy. Shalom https://www.thenivbible.com/blog/meaning-shalom-bible/
4. Spielberg, Steven. Raiders of the Lost Ark
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