Preaching Paths 4 February 2024

Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary

Like a painter applying quick strokes, broad and vivid, to a canvas, Mark widens our view of Jesus’ urgent mission and ministry in our lection’s three short scenes (Mk 1:29-39).

We move from the loud, public exorcism scene in the synagogue (1:20-28) to Simon’s home in Capernaum, where there is anxiety. Simon’s mother-in-law is sick with fever. Fever was dreaded; it was often fatal. Jesus takes her hand and “raises” her up. The verb recurs several times in Mark; it is the same used for Jesus’ resurrection in Mk 16.  The fever “leaves her,” just as a possessing spirit “left” a man hours earlier (1:26). Despite Sabbath prohibitions against work, the healed woman immediately begins serving Jesus. Modern listeners flinch; has Jesus healed this woman, only to relegate her to the usual servile female role in a household? Clues suggest otherwise. First, she follows Jesus in daring to do nurturing “work” on a Sabbath. Second, the term for her service matches that for the ministry of angels after Jesus’ temptations (1:13). Third, Jesus will identify himself as one who “came not to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10:45). She is a model of daring discipleship, his first female follower. Women like her (perhaps including her!) shall remain by his cross when his male disciples are long gone (Mk 15:20).

The tranquility is broken at sunset. Sabbath ended, “the whole city” collects at the door. Jesus heals ailments and exorcises evil spirits, commanding the latter to be silent. Their shouts that he is God’s holy one are untimely. Messianic fervor could easily fuel a political uprising, derailing Jesus’ mission.

In the pre-dawn darkness, Jesus goes to a desolate place to pray. While some describe this as Jesus seeking “quiet time” with God, Mark’s language clearly evokes his wilderness battle with temptation (1:13). Now, in the dark, Jesus wrestles for clarity about his true mission. At daylight his disciples, anxious about the needy crowds already at their door, start looking for him – aggressively. The verb suggests they hunt him down. Jesus must return! Maybe Simon Peter and Andrew hoped to strike a happy bargain between the conflicting loyalties of family and discipleship. Why not keep Jesus—a phenomenon Galilee had never seen!—tethered to Capernaum? Surely this is a good home base for the reign of God. But Jesus sees his sudden local success for what it is: a dangerous distraction. His shall not be a “settled” ministry. They will leave—now—for other towns. Their jaws drop. The route to success is so obvious: go back to Capernaum, where throngs wait for Jesus to do amazing things! Such spiritual power can be harnessed to political success. Rome’s defeat is so close they can taste it. But Jesus leaves Capernaum, moving on to other towns to preach, cast out evil spirits, and heal.

Our text prompts us to ask what counts as faithful Christian ministry today. Is an eager crowd a sure sign that we are doing the will of God, as Simon supposes? In the US, too many burgeoning congregations feed on a twisted “gospel” in which a customized, privatized “Jesus” is conscripted as mascot for white-centric, xenophobic politics and policies. Their preachers read Scripture selectively, dodging the fact that Jesus deliberately sought, included, and honored groups despised in his society as inferior or foreign: the poor, Gentiles, Samaritans. Our text warns us against distorting Jesus’ message of God’s reign to sacralize our social and political aspirations. A cheering crowd is not a divine signal that we are faithful. Jesus, discerning his path, turns away from town.  Will we follow?