“Jesus’s Ministry Begins” Mark 1: 21-45

We have arrived at the New Year, Church. Some of you have been waiting for the calendar to flip for quite some time - thinking that if you can just make it to the new year, surely it will be better than the last. Others were sad to see 2019 come to an end - it had so many cherished memories for you. But the old year is gone and the new lies before us.

The New Year is naturally a time to bring about change. Sometimes we make resolutions to do so. Sometimes we just jump in with both feet first. Today, my friends, we are jumping. We are jumping into a year of intentionally looking at the stories found in scripture. And there is no better way to start that off then with the stories of Jesus. The stories we may have heard before - some that we may be hearing for the first time. 

Each of the four Gospels tells the stories of Jesus a little differently. Matthew starts with the genealogy of Jesus. Luke starts with the births of Jesus and John the baptist. John starts with Jesus being at the very beginning of creation as the light of the world. Mark jumps right in to the beginning of Jesus’s earthly ministry - a ministry marked by healing and teaching. 

At first glance, as we read this passage of scripture today, it may be hard to see how the stories of the man with unclean spirits, Simon’s mother in law, and the leaper have in common - but isn’t healing and teaching what it boils down to?

I’m going to be honest, I deeply struggle with some of those titles you find in your Bible above sections of text. Especially the first one today “the man with an unclean spirit”. Like most of the people Jesus interacts with in the Gospel of Mark, he doesn’t have a name. But I don’t like that he is defined by what he needs healed of. Even as overwhelming as that particular struggle is in this text. 

But I don’t just dislike that little one sentence header over the text, because I think it leads us astray as readers and hearers. It makes us miss the point. Friends, this text isn’t about the man. It isn’t even really about the miraculous healing that he experienced, though that was life changing for him. It’s about Jesus. It’s about Jesus who has authority even over the demons in our lives. It’s about Jesus who has come to liberate those who are suffering. It’s about Jesus who came to set the reign of God lose in this world. 

In the second part of Jesus’s healing and teaching today, he comes into Simon’s (Peter) house to find his mother in law sick in bed. Friends, in this healing, Jesus didn’t even have to say anything. He just picked her right up out of bed. And in doing so, the fever that had held her down was just gone. 

Friends, Jesus was in Simon and Andrew’s house. He was in the very home of two people who left their nets behind to go and follow Jesus, and yet they couldn’t heal Simon’s mother in law. At least not yet. Not at this point in Jesus’s ministry. Because that wasn’t their role. It wasn’t the authority they had. Jesus can heal because he is Jesus. 

And word spread. Jesus became known as a healer. People started bringing their sick and possessed from near and far and he cured them. 

The final healing story in this text is about a leaper. Leaperasy was a catch all phrase for skin conditions, some of which were contagious. Some weren’t. All of which lead to folks being placed outside of the community out of fear. It is here that Jesus comes across this person who has been an outcast in society whom recognizes something about Jesus and cries out, “if you choose, you can make me clean.” He laid the ball in Jesus’s court. Make a choice about me, but don’t ignore me. And Jesus immediately healed him. 

But tucked in between these amazing healing stories is another piece of scripture. When it was still dark, in between healing Simon’s mother in law and all of these folks coming for their own healing and healing the man with leaporsey, Jesus went off into the quiet of the dark to pray. And even there his disciples did not leave him alone. Instead, Simon came hunting for him and tells Jesus that everyone is looking for him. In other words, get up Jesus. It’s time to go back. There are people looking for a healing. And instead, Jesus said it’s time to move on. Time to go and teach folks. Proclaiming the message that is behind the healing in the first place. 

There are often two reactions that come when reading this beginning of Jesus’s ministry in the Gospel of Mark. The first is amazement. We talked last week about being so moved to amazement by God that it leads us to praise. But there’s a flip side to amazement, a cautionary tale if you will. Amazement is not faith. And if we are not careful, amazement can just as easily lead us to miss the point as it can to praise God. In fact, sometimes in the Gospel of Mark, the miracles confuse people. They don’t understand.

In fact, Jesus’s interaction with Simon would lead us to believe that he doesn’t understand as well. He thinks this healing this is great, but Jesus is saying that’s not the point. The point is Jesus’s agenda, which is proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Yes, part of that healing is proclaiming that God is with those who suffer. Jesus isn’t afraid to be with those who are sick. But that also isn’t the totality of why Jesus came. There’s something bigger that is being proclaimed than healing of the body in this world. Jesus is coming to set the soul free as well. This is about the faithfulness of God. 

The second reaction if we read this through discipleship is what does this text have to do with me today? I’m so glad you asked. First, I think these scripture passage speak to us about what it looks like to be in ministry. Jesus didn’t come with gimmicks, he simply met people in their needs right where they were at. He didn’t ask them to come to him. He went out to where they were. And all along the way he found people who didn’t quite get what was going on, they certainly didn’t know he was the Messiah in the Gospel of Mark, but they knew there was something about him. Something about who he was that was drawing people to him. 

Friends, that’s ministry. It’s going out to the people and taking care of their needs, meeting them where they are at. It’s teaching about the Kingdom of God with the urgency that Jesus had in this text. 

I think so often we can become discouraged today wondering why we bother. Well, we bother because Jesus did. We care because Jesus cares. We go and reach out to folks because they matter to Jesus and if they matter to Jesus they should matter to us. 

Today is Epiphany. This is generally the day we read the story of the Magi coming to meet Jesus and presenting him with gifts. And at first glance this story of Jesus’s ministry and our call to follow him today has nothing to do with that. But I believe that it truly does. 

While the Magi came to give Jesus’s gift, friends, we are gifted to go out into the world. To serve Jesus in this coming year. To proclaim the Kingdom. And to think about doing that, I would invite you to reach into your bulletin and pull out a small piece of paper you should find there. 

For the last several years, some churches have been using Epiphany Sunday, this gifting Sunday, to present star words. Everyone’s word is a little bit different. But this star word can be seen as a guide for us in the coming year. Your word may be something that fits you and where you are in life right now perfectly. Praise be to God. Maybe your word brings you encouragement and a new way of thinking of living into the mission of God in the coming year. Excellent!

Or maybe you will find yourself like the crowds in today’s scripture - not really understanding. Finding your word to be a little confusing and you want to move on to the next shiny thing. Than sit with your word for a while and see what God may be doing through it in your life. 

Friends, folks came to Jesus, even if they didn’t totally get it, totally understand the gift he was to the world, because there was something in him that drew them to the light. We are to go out into the world and shine that same light in the coming year. How could the word you received help you to be a bearer of the Christ light in 2020? Amen.