1 Corinthians 9:16–23
Mark 1:29–39
Sickness, not being whole, comes in all forms. Our sins, keep us from being whole, as God intended. We cannot make ourselves whole. We are a broken people in need of healing. The greatest story every told, the gospel of Jesus Christ, tells us of how to be whole again.
Proclamation of the gospel is what Jesus is about in our reading from Mark. Proclamation can and does take many forms and how we respond to the proclamation of the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, comes not out of obligation, not our of rules, dogma of a religion. Our response comes when we realize who Jesus is, in what Jesus defines Himself as, and what Jesus does for us.
We are in the first chapter of Jesus’ ministry, the first chapter of the greatest story every told. Let me set the stage. Before our text for today, Jesus has called his first disciples and we find them in the synagogue, Jesus teaches the people there and someone among those being taught is sick. This man is not healthy; another way of looking at it is he is not whole, his entirety of his body, mind and soul are not as God would have it. On the Sabbath, Jesus heals this man and then leaves the synagogue.
Now we are into our text for today. After the healing in the synagogue, Jesus and the first disciples head to Simon’s house. It is still Sabbath, a time of rest, a time for NO work to be done. Jesus shows compassion, grace when he finds Simon’s mother-in-law, sick in bed. Jesus reaches out to the woman and taking her by her hand, extends her His grace to her, lifts her up and makes her whole. The woman then responds to the gospel of Jesus Christ and ignores the law of the Jewish religion and begins to serve Jesus and the others present.
The ministry of Jesus has started and the woman is the first to respond to the gospel. It’s not about tradition, but about the good news of Jesus and response to being made whole by God, through Jesus Christ. The good news, the gospel being preached, God comes to bring wholeness to everyone, and this day it started in a home.
The first churches were in people’s homes, they were missionary in nature and involved being in small communities. In many ways, we are seeing a trend of that today. Congregation sizes are dropping and churches are closing. That doesn’t have to stop the proclamation of the gospel and neither will it stop the gospel. There are reports of home churches all over the country. Now we the faithful disciples need to become creative in carrying out the Great Commission.
I was recently gathered with some pastors and seminarians at what is referred to as “Beer and Theology”. This gathering of people is held at a tavern and we have beverages while we discuss theological issues we have been thinking about. This in its self can seem a little creative. The last discussion we had was over the idea of something called “Ashes to Go”.
The concept of Ashes to Go, is to do something a little different than a traditional Ash Wednesday night service. This nontraditional act would take place in a public place, such as a parking lot of a church, or a public parking lot, a business parking lot. The idea is to be able to provide ashes to anyone that you see. Our discussion centered around wither this was a valid way of distribution of ashes. Some people felt the ashes should only be given during a full service. Others added, by offering outside of the normal service, behavior of not attending church was being encouraged. What I kept hearing was exclusivity, rules, law not grace.
When Jesus reached to the woman at Simon’s house, he healed her. He did not wait for sundown, as the law would have required. He violated the law of the Sabbath. He did not question her first, put rules or anything else that would have excluded her from His healing grace. This healing act was the start of something new. When ashes are provided to people outside of the church service, who says that this is not the start of something new, a way of entry into the gospel. One person during our discussion kept on bringing up the point that the there was no proclamation, meaning nothing of God’s word. However, I disagree. The ashes show us our mortality. Humans seem to have an innate desire for life and Jesus is the way of life, in our mortality. Those providing the ashes are Christian, followers of Jesus the Christ.
Proclamation can come in many different forms. Preach the gospel at all times, when necessary use words. This quote is attributed to St. Frances of Assisi but there is no proof that he actually said this. Either way, the gospel proclaimed, comes in many different shapes and forms. We look for new and creative ways to preach the gospel. The gospel is over 2,000 years old and it is tried and true.
The good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Christ died for our sins. The woman made whole, I am sure was not aware of Jesus’s pending death, or of His resurrection. What she did know is that Jesus made her whole and Jesus makes each of us whole through His death. It is grace through faith that we are saved, because of God in Jesus.
In 1956 Billy Graham conducted a crusade in Oklahoma City. One noonday he spoke to a joint meeting of the city’s civic clubs. Dr. Graham’s message was a simple sermon on salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. At the end of the meeting some of the men in attendance rushed forward to thank him for his message. One said, “I have been going to church all my life, but that is the first time I have ever heard that! It is the greatest thing I ever heard.”[2]
The story has been around for over 2,000 years. It has been translated and will continue to be translated into multiple languages. Proclaimed in different ways but at the core of it is, we are saved by grace through faith.
From the Nicene Creed it says,
For us human beings and for our salvation [H]e came down from the heavens, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became a human being. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate; [H]e suffered death, and was buried.[3]
Proclamation of the gospel, now matter what form that someone is made whole through, is the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the greatest story every told.
[2] Herschel H. Hobbs, My Favorite Illustrations (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1990), 126.
[3] Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 23.