Mark 1:29-39
Dear Friends, There is one aspect of today’s Gospel that bothered me for a long time. The verse says, “Then the fever left her and she waited on them.” (Mk 1:31)I am not very good in the kitchen but I did not feel very good about her getting right out of the sick bed to wait on them. It seemed a bit much to me. SI thought they should wait on her.
As is so often the case, deeper study of the Scriptures opens up new and powerful insights. In this case, the service of the mother-in-law is related to a central theme of Jesus’ teaching in Mark.
All throughout the Gospel the disciples struggle to understand Jesus’ teachings. In the end, they flee. Their failure is crystallized in Peter’s three denials.
The word used to describe the action of Peter’s mother-in-law is used at critical points later on to describe a true disciple.
First of all, when John and James ask to sit at Jesus’ right and left Jesus, He uses the same word to describe a true disciple when He says, “for the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as ransom for many.” (Mk 10:45)
This is the third of Jesus’ predictions of His Death and Resurrection. In each case, the prediction is followed by an action of the disciples that shows their complete failure to understand His message.
The next time the word used to describe the mother-in-law’s action is at the time of the passion. In describing the faithful women who did not flee but stayed at the foot of the Cross, Mark has this to say about them. “These women had followed Him when he was in Galilee and ministered to Him.” (Mk 15:41)
In these three instances of the description of service, we have a clear picture of what Jesus wants from His disciples: a life of service for the brothers and sisters.
All throughout Mark’s Gospel we have a powerful picture of the broken humanity of the twelve disciples. They struggle mightily but they just do not grasp the connection between their understanding of the Messiah and the suffering Christ.
Mark uses them to give us an image of ourselves. It is no small task to accept Jesus’ teaching on the cross. “He summoned the crowd and his disciples and said to them, ‘whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.’ ”(Mk 8:34-35)
Peter’s mother-in-law got it. Let us hope, like Peter, we too, will eventually get the message.
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