As soon as Jesus and his followers left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever, and the people told Jesus about her. So Jesus went to her bed, took her hand, and helped her up. The fever left her, and she began serving them.
That evening, after the sun went down, the people brought to Jesus all who were sick and had demons in them. The whole town gathered at the door. Jesus healed many who had different kinds of sicknesses, and he forced many demons to leave people. But he would not allow the demons to speak, because they knew who he was.
Early the next morning, while it was still dark, Jesus woke and left the house. He went to a lonely place, where he prayed. Simon and his friends went to look for Jesus. When they found him, they said, 'Everyone is looking for you!'
Jesus answered, 'We should go to other towns around here so I can preach there too. That is the reason I came.' So he went everywhere in Galiless, preaching in the synagogues and forcing out demons. (Mark 1:29-39)
I am struck in reading this passage from Mark's gospel by the reason Jesus gives for his presence in Capernaum: to preach.
I should not necessarily be struck by this particular raison d'etre of Jesus. His preaching is, after all, well documented throughout the gospels, particularly in the long discourses of the Sermon on the Mount as described by Matthew and the Sermon on the Plain in Luke.
What strikes me about Mark's version, I think, is the simplicity of the message, at least in these early chapters: "The right time has come," Jesus says. "The kingdom of God is near. Change your hearts and lives and believe the Good News!" (Mk 1:15).
Surrounding this short three-sentence sermon (wish I could get away with THAT on any given Sunday!) are the stories of healing, the stories of casting out demons, the stories of people desperate for someone to give them real, tangible hope. The stories of forgiveness of sins.
This is what changes people's lives!
And so I find myself reflecting again, as someone called to preach, on what this actually means for those of us who now "preach Jesus" all these centuries later, who have the responsibility of connecting a contemporary community of faith with this first century preacher from Nazareth who healed and cast out demons and forgave sinners.
It should not come as a surprise to any of us who preach the gospel that the crowds gathered around Jesus seem far more drawn to his pastoral care than they are to his words from the pulpit. At least that is the case in this particular passage at this particular stage of Jesus' ministry in this particular gospel.
It is, in fact, his manner of forcing out demons, of healing the sick, of forgiving sins that draws people in to his verbal message. And they really do change their hearts and minds.
Preaching is such a humbling calling for those of us in this business, whether we are speaking the words from the pulpit or whether we are living the words in all the other aspects of our ministry. I have described it as the ultimate act of submission, begging God for a word.
But it is so much more than that, isn't it? It's about all the other things we do beyond the pulpit: the teaching, the pastoral care, the gathering of community around bread and wine. It's about seeing the kingdom of God right in front of us and helping to make it a reality.
So my prayer for all of us who preach this week is that our preaching of the good news will come from our living of the good news . . . and that God will grant us the grace to know what that means.
Amen.
Gusti Linnea Newquist
(additional lectionary texts: Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147:1-11, 20; 1 Corinthians 9:16-23)
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