5th Sunday After the Epiphany
February 5, 2006
Rev. Dr. Kenneth W. Wieting
Text: Mark 1:29-39
To the Church of God at Luther Memorial Chapel and University Student Center, called as saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Simon Peter’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
Dear Hearers of the Word; Peter was not the first Pope as that office is currently understood and he was married, not celibate as that office is currently understood. Fresh from the synagogue, fresh from driving out the unclean spirit, Jesus stopped at the house of Peter and Andrew. Among the family members who dwelt there was Peter’s mother-in-law. She was sick with a fever. Fevers aren’t so pleasant and left unchecked they can sometimes kill. Peter’s mother-in-law was burning up with a fever such that it left her drained of energy and activity, it left her bedfast.
Jesus made his way to her bed as if there was nothing more important in all the world than for him to be there for this sick woman. The solitary mother-in-law of Peter with all of her aches and pains is precious to Jesus. This woman whose station and circumstances seem quite lowly is precious to Jesus. He…took her by the hand lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. She doesn’t let fly with a whoop and a holler. She doesn’t put on a show of any kind. She simply puts the kettle on. She does what is given for her to do in that household. She began to serve them. And soon, Jesus began to serve others with wonderful physical healing.
That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. JESUS MADE IT A DAY OF HEALING! Picture it! When the sun had set and the Sabbath with its rules and regulations had ended, the home of Peter and Andrew was transformed into a medical clinic.
The fevered, the crippled, the demonized were brought to the door of their house. It is a sad sight of sickness and need. Peter’s yard was like an overflowing waiting room in the doctor’s office. The text speaks of “various diseases” and we know how various they can be. Then as now there was no shortage of arthritic pain and nerve damage and muscle cramps. Then as now there was no shortage of blurred vision and memory problems and sickening headaches. Then as now there was no shortage of breathing problems and blood disorders and circulatory ailments. Not to mention cancers and heart troubles, fevers and fainting spells; diabetes and strokes, paralysis and depression, infections and injuries. Contemplate just the sickness you know of in yourself and your family and your circle of friends. Would it not be a wondrous release for JESUS TO MAKE IT A DAY OF HEALING at your door! Would it not be a beautiful reason for joy and delight for Jesus to take the hand of your mother or father or spouse or grandparent or friend like he took the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law and lift them from their physical ailments? Our bodies are in bondage in this sin-cursed world and they do need healing. Few things are as precious or valuable as freedom from pain and God’s gift of good health.
Jesus made the hours of evening into darkness a time of healing at Peter’s door. How long after sundown Jesus began resting and how many hours of sleep he managed we aren’t told. But we are told what occurred in that early morning of that first day of the week that followed. Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”
The Greek word for search used here is a very strong word. It literally means that they hunted Jesus down. They scurried about, strenuously searching for and pursuing him in those early morning hours. They stalked Him with a purpose in mind and that purpose is crystal clear as they exclaim, “Everyone is looking for you!”
In view of the healing that occurred as evening started this day, it is not surprising that everyone was looking for Him in the morning. Wouldn’t we hunt for someone who could cure us of our illnesses with a word or a touch? No insurance forms to deal with. No multiple appointments for diagnosis and treatment. Better than any drug prescriptions or surgeries or homeopathic pursuits, think of the relief from instantaneous healing!
Shouldn’t Jesus have known they would try to hunt Him down? JESUS HAD MADE IT A DAY OF HEALING, and the people of Capernaum wanted Him to keep it going! What town wouldn’t? They thought that what had occurred was as good as it gets. They thought this was His purpose in coming among them. The disciples appear to be right in step with the desires of the people. As they saw it, the peoples’ desire for Jesus to make their lives better physically was of the highest importance. “Everyone is looking for you” they admonish.
Jesus, however, had a different purpose in mind. Almost as if he missed the point, Jesus responded, “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.” For a city set on relief from sickness and suffering a reaction could easily come to mind something like, “Jesus, don’t you get it?”
Jesus had worked wonders in Capernaum but His purpose was not to be a wonder-worker. He had pleased the crowd, but His purpose was not to be a crowd-pleaser. The reason He came was to preach and to provide the Gospel. The reason He came was to deliver us from Satan’s grip. The reason that He healed so many in Capernaum was to call attention to the healing power of His forgiveness (Mark 2:1-12).
Dear Christians, faith does not come through physical healings or the release from suffering. Faith comes from hearing the Gospel (Romans 1:16; 10:17). Jesus later denounced the cities where He performed most of His miracles, including Capernaum. He said, “And you Capernaum, will you be lifted to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the Day of Judgment than for you.”
JESUS HAD MADE IT A DAY OF HEALING to make known His healing forgiveness. That’s not what the people were hunting Him down in those early morning hours to receive, however. They wanted Him to make their life better right now in visible, tangible ways. When sickness is prolonged, when pain is persistent, when suffering is severe, when death comes, questions concerning God’s care come also. Isaiah expressed the heart’s unease in this way. “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God.” In other words, doesn’t God see? Won’t God act to bring me help and healing? Yes he does in His own way and in His own time for our eternal good. That means that sometimes the sickness or suffering continues and even worsens. There will be no medical breakthrough that ultimately keps death from us, for death is the wages of sin, not the accident of evolution. Yet our plight is not hidden from God nor are we being disregarded by Him.
The truth is, that we can make an idol of the wrong Jesus in this regard. The truth is that we can hunt for a Jesus who fixes all our problems, including our health problems, but not our deepest problem. In a recent book of sermons by one of our seminary professors, I came across an illustration that may help us better understand this temptation of “hunting for the wrong Jesus.”
Imagine the story of an imaginary girl called Amy. She had problems in her life and her friends told her to get to know Jesus and that He would help her. So Amy went hunting for Jesus to fix up her problems (And it must be said, the true and compassionate Jesus can and does help us sinners with our problems). She liked what she found. She found a church service where Jesus seemed to put a smile on everyone’s face. She read some books about how Jesus could help her fix her finances, give some purpose and harmony to her family, and put her body back in shape. Amy even began to tell others about how Jesus was helping her make some order out of her life. There were ups and downs but with Jesus in hand, there was more success in the struggles of daily life.
About a year later Amy was killed suddenly in an Automobile accident. The pastor comforted everyone at the funeral by describing how much Jesus had changed Amy’s life, her finances, her family, her health. She was, he said, a real success story. But in heaven when Amy appeared before the One she had sought help and success from He said to her, “I never knew you. Depart from me.” And Amy went to hell.
Is this imaginary tale helpful in understanding our text? Does this imaginary tale ever reflect spiritual reality? Well remember that Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven…” (Mt. 7:21) Remember also what Jesus said after He fed the 5000 and the people loved Him and sought to make Him king of their earthly lives. He rebuked them for primarily wanting Him to fill their stomachs and meet their needs here. He said they should work for the bread that does not perish but endures to eternal life. (John 6) Then He said that the bread He gave for the life of the world was His flesh.
Beloved, the central message of Scripture is not Christ the Helper or Christ the Success Giver or Christ the Money Manager or even Christ the healer of my physical ills. The central message of Scripture is Christ crucified! That’s why, almost as if He was deaf to the people’s excitement, Jesus said, “Let’s go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
Jesus preached Himself as the bringer of God’s kingdom. Jesus preached until He was silenced by the religious authorities. Jesus preached Himself all the way to the cross. When He was shedding there the medicine of immortality, when He was providing there the greatest healing balm of all time, Simon and those with him did not search for Jesus but fled from Him. There were no excited exclamations then of “Everyone is looking for you!” On that day there were only cries of “crucify Him” and “I do not know the man.”
Fellow-Redeemed, that is where your healing comes from – from the blood that flowed from the Lamb of God on Calvary – from Christ crucified. St. Paul wrote to the Galatians that they were in danger of pursuing a different Gospel. He admonished them by saying that before their eyes Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified (Galatians 3:1). The Greek words indicate that a figure of the body of Christ was held up before their eyes like Moses lifted up the bronze serpent on a pole. Paul was pointing the Church at Galatia to what was in essence a crucifix and saying don’t be misled by any other gospel. For you see, the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing – even those who are perishing while hunting a different Jesus.
To the people in Capernaum who had tasted His compassionate healing touch, Jesus no doubt seemed to be hiding from their deepest need. That’s why they tried to hunt Him down. But Jesus moved on to bring His healing touch to you and me and to this whole world of sin-sick people. Let us go on to the next town that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.
Risen from the grave Christ continues His preaching mission from town to town, even today, even to the town of Shorewood. He is the sun of righteousness who has risen with healing in His wings (Mal 4:2). In the darkness of another first morning of the week He rose from the very sleep of death, our death. He is now the provider of medicine so curative that the moment of perfect healing for you will come in the moment of your death. It is better by far to depart and be with Christ. Or, as St. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, the reward of the Gospel is an imperishable wreath.
This is the healing he wants you to anchor your hope in. This is the healing medicine He showered you with in your baptism. This is the healing medicine He prescribes for you today at His table. Oh, He cares deeply about the health needs that affect you, about your aches and pains even as He did for Peter’s mother-in-law. He knows the fevers and the blood pressures and the infections and the surgeries and the hurts that distress you. He provides for those health needs today with physicians and hospitals and healing arts and medicines that earlier generations never experienced in quite the same way. But the perfect healing of your body that He came to give you is not for this life. That perfect bodily healing will be at the last, in the resurrection of all flesh.
There will be times for you when it will seem just like Isaiah expressed it; Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.” But the healing of God that goes deeper than what we can see or feel in this life he also beautifully expressed. “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength…they 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. This is your eternal future in the Great Physician, who is Jesus Christ your Lord. AMEN.
Rev. Dr. Kenneth W. Wieting
Text: Mark 1:29-39
To the Church of God at Luther Memorial Chapel and University Student Center, called as saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now Simon Peter’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
Dear Hearers of the Word; Peter was not the first Pope as that office is currently understood and he was married, not celibate as that office is currently understood. Fresh from the synagogue, fresh from driving out the unclean spirit, Jesus stopped at the house of Peter and Andrew. Among the family members who dwelt there was Peter’s mother-in-law. She was sick with a fever. Fevers aren’t so pleasant and left unchecked they can sometimes kill. Peter’s mother-in-law was burning up with a fever such that it left her drained of energy and activity, it left her bedfast.
Jesus made his way to her bed as if there was nothing more important in all the world than for him to be there for this sick woman. The solitary mother-in-law of Peter with all of her aches and pains is precious to Jesus. This woman whose station and circumstances seem quite lowly is precious to Jesus. He…took her by the hand lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. She doesn’t let fly with a whoop and a holler. She doesn’t put on a show of any kind. She simply puts the kettle on. She does what is given for her to do in that household. She began to serve them. And soon, Jesus began to serve others with wonderful physical healing.
That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him. JESUS MADE IT A DAY OF HEALING! Picture it! When the sun had set and the Sabbath with its rules and regulations had ended, the home of Peter and Andrew was transformed into a medical clinic.
The fevered, the crippled, the demonized were brought to the door of their house. It is a sad sight of sickness and need. Peter’s yard was like an overflowing waiting room in the doctor’s office. The text speaks of “various diseases” and we know how various they can be. Then as now there was no shortage of arthritic pain and nerve damage and muscle cramps. Then as now there was no shortage of blurred vision and memory problems and sickening headaches. Then as now there was no shortage of breathing problems and blood disorders and circulatory ailments. Not to mention cancers and heart troubles, fevers and fainting spells; diabetes and strokes, paralysis and depression, infections and injuries. Contemplate just the sickness you know of in yourself and your family and your circle of friends. Would it not be a wondrous release for JESUS TO MAKE IT A DAY OF HEALING at your door! Would it not be a beautiful reason for joy and delight for Jesus to take the hand of your mother or father or spouse or grandparent or friend like he took the hand of Peter’s mother-in-law and lift them from their physical ailments? Our bodies are in bondage in this sin-cursed world and they do need healing. Few things are as precious or valuable as freedom from pain and God’s gift of good health.
Jesus made the hours of evening into darkness a time of healing at Peter’s door. How long after sundown Jesus began resting and how many hours of sleep he managed we aren’t told. But we are told what occurred in that early morning of that first day of the week that followed. Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.”
The Greek word for search used here is a very strong word. It literally means that they hunted Jesus down. They scurried about, strenuously searching for and pursuing him in those early morning hours. They stalked Him with a purpose in mind and that purpose is crystal clear as they exclaim, “Everyone is looking for you!”
In view of the healing that occurred as evening started this day, it is not surprising that everyone was looking for Him in the morning. Wouldn’t we hunt for someone who could cure us of our illnesses with a word or a touch? No insurance forms to deal with. No multiple appointments for diagnosis and treatment. Better than any drug prescriptions or surgeries or homeopathic pursuits, think of the relief from instantaneous healing!
Shouldn’t Jesus have known they would try to hunt Him down? JESUS HAD MADE IT A DAY OF HEALING, and the people of Capernaum wanted Him to keep it going! What town wouldn’t? They thought that what had occurred was as good as it gets. They thought this was His purpose in coming among them. The disciples appear to be right in step with the desires of the people. As they saw it, the peoples’ desire for Jesus to make their lives better physically was of the highest importance. “Everyone is looking for you” they admonish.
Jesus, however, had a different purpose in mind. Almost as if he missed the point, Jesus responded, “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out. And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.” For a city set on relief from sickness and suffering a reaction could easily come to mind something like, “Jesus, don’t you get it?”
Jesus had worked wonders in Capernaum but His purpose was not to be a wonder-worker. He had pleased the crowd, but His purpose was not to be a crowd-pleaser. The reason He came was to preach and to provide the Gospel. The reason He came was to deliver us from Satan’s grip. The reason that He healed so many in Capernaum was to call attention to the healing power of His forgiveness (Mark 2:1-12).
Dear Christians, faith does not come through physical healings or the release from suffering. Faith comes from hearing the Gospel (Romans 1:16; 10:17). Jesus later denounced the cities where He performed most of His miracles, including Capernaum. He said, “And you Capernaum, will you be lifted to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the Day of Judgment than for you.”
JESUS HAD MADE IT A DAY OF HEALING to make known His healing forgiveness. That’s not what the people were hunting Him down in those early morning hours to receive, however. They wanted Him to make their life better right now in visible, tangible ways. When sickness is prolonged, when pain is persistent, when suffering is severe, when death comes, questions concerning God’s care come also. Isaiah expressed the heart’s unease in this way. “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God.” In other words, doesn’t God see? Won’t God act to bring me help and healing? Yes he does in His own way and in His own time for our eternal good. That means that sometimes the sickness or suffering continues and even worsens. There will be no medical breakthrough that ultimately keps death from us, for death is the wages of sin, not the accident of evolution. Yet our plight is not hidden from God nor are we being disregarded by Him.
The truth is, that we can make an idol of the wrong Jesus in this regard. The truth is that we can hunt for a Jesus who fixes all our problems, including our health problems, but not our deepest problem. In a recent book of sermons by one of our seminary professors, I came across an illustration that may help us better understand this temptation of “hunting for the wrong Jesus.”
Imagine the story of an imaginary girl called Amy. She had problems in her life and her friends told her to get to know Jesus and that He would help her. So Amy went hunting for Jesus to fix up her problems (And it must be said, the true and compassionate Jesus can and does help us sinners with our problems). She liked what she found. She found a church service where Jesus seemed to put a smile on everyone’s face. She read some books about how Jesus could help her fix her finances, give some purpose and harmony to her family, and put her body back in shape. Amy even began to tell others about how Jesus was helping her make some order out of her life. There were ups and downs but with Jesus in hand, there was more success in the struggles of daily life.
About a year later Amy was killed suddenly in an Automobile accident. The pastor comforted everyone at the funeral by describing how much Jesus had changed Amy’s life, her finances, her family, her health. She was, he said, a real success story. But in heaven when Amy appeared before the One she had sought help and success from He said to her, “I never knew you. Depart from me.” And Amy went to hell.
Is this imaginary tale helpful in understanding our text? Does this imaginary tale ever reflect spiritual reality? Well remember that Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven…” (Mt. 7:21) Remember also what Jesus said after He fed the 5000 and the people loved Him and sought to make Him king of their earthly lives. He rebuked them for primarily wanting Him to fill their stomachs and meet their needs here. He said they should work for the bread that does not perish but endures to eternal life. (John 6) Then He said that the bread He gave for the life of the world was His flesh.
Beloved, the central message of Scripture is not Christ the Helper or Christ the Success Giver or Christ the Money Manager or even Christ the healer of my physical ills. The central message of Scripture is Christ crucified! That’s why, almost as if He was deaf to the people’s excitement, Jesus said, “Let’s go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
Jesus preached Himself as the bringer of God’s kingdom. Jesus preached until He was silenced by the religious authorities. Jesus preached Himself all the way to the cross. When He was shedding there the medicine of immortality, when He was providing there the greatest healing balm of all time, Simon and those with him did not search for Jesus but fled from Him. There were no excited exclamations then of “Everyone is looking for you!” On that day there were only cries of “crucify Him” and “I do not know the man.”
Fellow-Redeemed, that is where your healing comes from – from the blood that flowed from the Lamb of God on Calvary – from Christ crucified. St. Paul wrote to the Galatians that they were in danger of pursuing a different Gospel. He admonished them by saying that before their eyes Jesus was publicly portrayed as crucified (Galatians 3:1). The Greek words indicate that a figure of the body of Christ was held up before their eyes like Moses lifted up the bronze serpent on a pole. Paul was pointing the Church at Galatia to what was in essence a crucifix and saying don’t be misled by any other gospel. For you see, the Gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing – even those who are perishing while hunting a different Jesus.
To the people in Capernaum who had tasted His compassionate healing touch, Jesus no doubt seemed to be hiding from their deepest need. That’s why they tried to hunt Him down. But Jesus moved on to bring His healing touch to you and me and to this whole world of sin-sick people. Let us go on to the next town that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.
Risen from the grave Christ continues His preaching mission from town to town, even today, even to the town of Shorewood. He is the sun of righteousness who has risen with healing in His wings (Mal 4:2). In the darkness of another first morning of the week He rose from the very sleep of death, our death. He is now the provider of medicine so curative that the moment of perfect healing for you will come in the moment of your death. It is better by far to depart and be with Christ. Or, as St. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, the reward of the Gospel is an imperishable wreath.
This is the healing he wants you to anchor your hope in. This is the healing medicine He showered you with in your baptism. This is the healing medicine He prescribes for you today at His table. Oh, He cares deeply about the health needs that affect you, about your aches and pains even as He did for Peter’s mother-in-law. He knows the fevers and the blood pressures and the infections and the surgeries and the hurts that distress you. He provides for those health needs today with physicians and hospitals and healing arts and medicines that earlier generations never experienced in quite the same way. But the perfect healing of your body that He came to give you is not for this life. That perfect bodily healing will be at the last, in the resurrection of all flesh.
There will be times for you when it will seem just like Isaiah expressed it; Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.” But the healing of God that goes deeper than what we can see or feel in this life he also beautifully expressed. “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength…they 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. This is your eternal future in the Great Physician, who is Jesus Christ your Lord. AMEN.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
2/06/2006
