5th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Job 7:1-4, 6-7 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 Mark 1:29-39
Mark is certainly a man in a hurry, or, he presents Jesus as a man in a hurry. The proclaiming of the Good News is an urgent task and Mark packs so much into this 1st Chapter of his Gospel as if it were the only chance to proclaim the Good News. I have tried reading the Gospel quickly and yes, it lends itself to haste and speed and urgency.
Today’s passage is very much about setting the stage for what the Kingdom is all about. ‘Disciples’ are needed and it is important to understand what makes a disciple in this Kingdom of God. It is also important to be clear about who Jesus is and what his mission is.
What is a disciple? Mark does not dare call them disciples yet. Rather he refers to Simon and his ‘companions’. They are people who are searching for the Lord. Their search, according to the original verb that Mark uses, is more like a police search, intrusive and busy-body like! They are seeking him and ‘everybody is looking for you’ because they want to experience the miracles and his comforting words. Is it not the same with us? We seek the Lord for what is good for us and, of course, that leads to greater things.
Who is Jesus? Is he a celebrity, and if so, why? Simon and the ‘companions’ tell him what they think he would like to hear – ‘Everyone is looking for you’, you are famous, you are a celebrity. But Jesus has gone to a lonely place in order to pray, to keep focused on what he has come to do – ‘so that I can preach’ the Good News. It is the Father’s word and work that is going on. Later in the story we see how the disciples continually misunderstood Jesus and his plans. Already at this early stage of Mark’s account of the mission of Jesus, we see Jesus indicating what disciples should be like and forming his followers as such, not by words and instructions but by the example of his own actions and way of living.
Simon’s mother-in-law comes into the story as a model for disciples. Nearly all of the women in Mark’s Gospel are models of discipleship! ‘He took her by the hand and helped her up’ – the Greek work is he ‘raised her up’. This prefigures the Baptism in the Spirit, where one is to share the life of Christ by grace. And, we are told, ‘she immediately began to wait on them’ – to minister to them! That is what any disciple of the Lord is called to do.
That was during the day. Evening comes and Jesus is still ministering, still healing, still expelling evil. Those following him are observing and being formed as disciples. And then they observe how he lives – ‘long before dawn he went off to a lonely place and prayed there’. He communes with the Father, to learn the Truth and to be encouraged and supported in his mission by the Father. ‘And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils’. There was no shyness on his part, he was not reluctant to be up front teaching and healing. But he would not settle for the celebrity status or fan club that some of his followers thought he should have. He came to do the Will of the Father and his prayer would be for the Father to reveal God’s Will for him; ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’. It’s the prayer that he would teach all his disciples!