Have You Not Heard?

Have You Not Heard?

     Isaiah 40: 21-31

     Mark 1: 29-39

The people believed their world was broken. They felt alone, their very souls ached.  Surely God had abandoned them. All of us feel this way at times. We feel alone, broken, we wonder where is God in all this.  During the pandemic even more so.  The people of Israel had been exiled to Babylon, far away from their promised land.  They were lost and began to wonder, does God even care about us?  Where is he? Have we been forgotten?

Isaiah answers them. But not directly.  He asks the people not to think of their current suffering but to think of God.  Isaiah reminds the people of Israel that far from forgetting them, God loves them with a love that has no words. God continues to be committed to them whatever the circumstance is. Unlike us and the people of Israel, God’s power is infinite. God is unsearchable in his understanding. Simply put, there is no end to it. 

For those that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles. When we are alone before God, silent in prayer and meditation, our questions will be answered. Probably not on our schedule, but on God’s. When we sit with God, we will run and not be weary, we shall walk and not be faint.

Isaiah answers his people with a question. Have you not heard?  “The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless. Have you not heard?

The people of a city in Galilee where asking the same question. Have you not heard?  Where you at the synagogue? His teaching was like none other. Did you see him drive out that evil spirit? Who is this Jesus?  Capernaum was not a big city, probably a population of 1,500.  So word would get around very fast. And alongside the news and gossip would be the questions. 

When I read the Gospel of Mark, I oftentimes feel I should strap on my seatbelt. Things happen fast in this Gospel.  There is no birth narrative in Mark.  It begins with John the Baptist announcing the way of the Lord. Jesus shows up gets baptized by John, he then spends 40 days in the desert defeating Satan’s temptations, Jesus returns from the desert, picks four fishermen to be the first of his disciples, travels to Capernaum, gives a teaching that astounds everyone, and last but not least drives out an unclean spirit. And we are just halfway through the first chapter of Mark. Things happen fast in this Gospel.  

The first sentence in our reading today attest to that speed; “ And immediately  he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.” No coffee hour for Jesus after his teaching at the synagogue. Even at that early stage of his ministry, this was after all the beginning, Jesus knew his time was limited. 

Entering the house they find Simon’s mother-in-law very ill with a fever.  A fever can often be a symptom of something serious, even leading to death.  Jesus went to her, took her by the hand and raised her up. The fever left her, and she began to serve them. Just two sentences but typical of Mark, packed with meaning.  Reading this passage in English, one might miss the full meaning.  Mark uses two words, both verbs that perhaps shed an entirely different light on these two sentences.  The word he uses for “raises her up” is one that is also applied to Jesus later in the Gospel.  The word means a new strength or power is given to those with illness, evil spirits or even death, and with this new strength the affected person may rise up to take their place in society. The second word is used for ‘served”; “Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them”. Once again the English word, leaves the passage lacking, open for misinterpretation.  The word Mark uses for “serve” is also the same word Jesus uses to describe his ministry.  Essentially “to serve” rather then “to be served”.  This in a nutshell is the Ministry of Christ the Son of God. 

 A cursory reading of Mark 1:31 would leave the reader with the impression that Simon’s mother-in-law is nothing but a downtrodden woman, bossed around by men. Essentially a slave.  But that is not what Mark is telling us.  Later in his Gospel he writes this sentence; “ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve”. Simon’s mother in law, is far from a downtrodden woman, she is in fact the first person in Mark’s Gospel that comprehends and lives this new discipleship. Jesus had that affect on people.  He asked the four fishermen to follow him and they did exactly that. Immediately. Without hesitation.  As soon as Jesus entered Simon’s house he was told of her illness.  He held her hand, helped her sit up. The fever was gone.  What did she see in Jesus’s eyes? What did she feel when Jesus held her? She immediately felt the love and warmth of God. This was not just a prophet, she knew exactly who he was. 

Imagine being there in Simon Peter’s house when this happened.  Better yet imagine being his mother-in-law. Being in the presence of Jesus, being held by Jesus. In seconds this terrible fever is gone. In a blink of an eye, your life has changed forever. What do you do next? You do what Jesus does. You do what St. Francis did, 1000 years later. You do what is right in front of you. You serve God.

The New Testament tells us the story of Jesus Christ and his twelve disciples.  Very sparingly, it mentions the women who also followed Jesus. It was the women though that immediately realized the full identity of Jesus. The male disciples  didn’t figure it out till much later.  Mary the Mother of Jesus didn’t doubt Gabriel, the Samaritan woman at the well realized very quickly the truth, and Simon Peter’s mother in law immediately followed Jesus’s example to serve rather than be served.

In Capernaum meanwhile, people are gathering in the market and the streets. You hear that same question again. Have you  not heard?  That Jesus guy, the one from the synagogue, just cured Simon Peter’s mother in law.  He’s at his house right now with four other men.  And very quickly everyone with a fever, an injury or an evil spirit makes their way towards Simon Peter’s house. In today’s vernacular, Jesus just went viral. 

“That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.  And the whole city was gathered around the door.  And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not let them speak, because they knew him”.

Capernaum had a population of 1,500 people.  Families would bring their ill relatives in hope this man could help, when all other efforts had failed.  The houses were not big, one can imagine the scene. 1,500 people gathered around Simon Peter’s little home.  People jostling, trying to get Jesus’s attention.  Utter chaos. Or was it? Mark in his sparse description typically doesn’t say.  Before them stood a man, who they had heard in the synagogue.  They had seen him cure the man processed, they had heard of the healing of Simon Peter’s mother in law. Now they watched as Jesus went to each person in need. They saw how he held them, looked right into their eyes, how his face shone with that smile.  Each and every person was healed. Their injuries and illnesses gone. The four men with Jesus, his disciples, helped as much as they could. But it was Jesus who exuded both a calmness and an incredible power. 

When Jesus came to people possessed with evil spirits the full extent of that  power probably went unnoticed to most of the people gathered there.  “He would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him”. In the synagogue, the demon in the man possessed, knew what Jesus truly represented. “You are the Holy One of God”. This was just the beginning of Jesus’s ministry but time was of the essence.  He had much to do. Though he was a distance from the religious and political capital of Israel, Jerusalem, Jesus wanted to stay as low key as possible.  Not permitting the evil spirits to speak and tell others of his true identity was a step in that direction. 

Mark tells us later in his Gospel of the woman suffering from bleeding. She had  heard about Jesus, but when she saw him he was surrounded by people.  Undaunted she thought if I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.  She did and was healed.  What is important here is what Mark says next, “ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him”.  Jesus would have felt that, each time he healed someone.  There was a lot of people gathered around Simon Peter’s house. The whole city. And Jesus healed many.

By the time Jesus had seen everyone in need, I’m sure it was very late at night or very early the next morning.  Everyone was exhausted. Remember it had been a very busy day. They had started at the synagogue, went to Simon Peter’s house, saw Jesus cure his mother-in law and then the whole city had turned up. And this was all on the same day. The disciples were overwhelmed both physically and mentally and just wanted to sleep.  What did Jesus do? “In the morning while it was still dark, He got up and went to a deserted place, and there he prayed”.

Throughout the Gospels, there are times Jesus would chose solitude over people.  He prayed after a hard task, he prayed through grief and he prayed before making important decisions. Jesus tells us in Matthew; “When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret”. Jesus shows us that we all need spiritual sustenance that only comes from the Father. All of us at certain points in our lives feel overwhelmed, we can’t move forward. We feel worn out. Returning to Isaiah we read; “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”.

As Christians, our lives should be a prayer.  To live truly in the eyes of God, we need to be in communion with God, 24 7.   Our conversations with God will enable us to overcome the weary and exhausting times and also give thanks to our Father for our very lives. Isaiah says it best with the passage; “Be still and know that I am God”.

When Jesus went by himself and was still with God, he received from his Father guidance and sustenance that propelled him forward.  He overcame his tiredness, and he received answers to his questions.  He was now was able to look forward to the journey in front of him.  “Let us go on to the neighbouring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”