Why He Came - Mark 1.28-38
As many of you know, we worked in Chad, Africa for a number of years. During our time there, among our missionary colleagues was a Dr. Dave Thompson, working in the south of the country to establish a community health project. Their home was on the border with Cameroon, and for us it was a convenient stop on the way to the big city, occasionally overnight. A familiar sight, around six in the morning: a line of people outside his front door, seeking treatment. The mission tried hard to nix this front-porch clinic stuff, or at least limit it. It was not what he was in Chad for. But what can you do? There was a time during Chad’s civil war years when the country’s infrastructure had broken down almost entirely – including the hospital system. So there were times that in the whole of the Mayo Kebbi region – over a million people – he was the only working doctor. If my kid’s sick and I think you have the power to help, I won’t easily take no for an answer. Imagine then what it was like for Jesus, who healed instantly, for free, and that even in the most extreme, advanced, you-may-as-well-order-the-coffin cases. Our text for today begins: News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee. As you can well imagine. Would it be any different today?
Our story is in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel, from the earliest days of Jesus’ ministry, when news about him was really hot, headline stuff.
28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door, 34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
While in the synagogue, Jesus delivered a man from demonic oppression. As people left the synagogue, news of the miracle took off like wildfire – as you can imagine it would, if this person had been a heartache for the community. As the news was spreading, Jesus went with James and John to have a meal and spend a quiet Sabbath afternoon with Simon Peter and family. But when they got there they found the familiar figure of Peter’s mother-in-law absent from the mealtime preparations. They said, she’s down with a fever.
Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told Jesus about her. 31 So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.
Fevers can come and go apart from any clear miraculous touch. What was remarkable here was the instantaneous, total deliverance. Jesus helped her up, and, presto, fever’s gone, strength restored, she’s donning an apron and getting busy on dinner.
32 That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered at the door,
They’d respected the Sabbath law and Jesus’ day of rest, sort of. The Jewish Sabbath is from sundown to sundown, and now the sun was legally down. And the whole town gathered.
Would our whole town gather? Wouldn’t it? Is there anyone in this room that hasn’t been touched in the last few years with significant family health problems? I’m not sure if people were sicker back then, before the era of modern medicine – maybe not - but at least it’s true that this day, that whole town gathered outside the door, each family having some heart-ache case for Jesus’ attention. (Jesus had a home in Capernaum, incidentally – so this was familiar territory, he knew the people.)
34 and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.
That morning in the synagogue the demon-afflicted man had cried out
What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
And Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!”
The dialog, you notice, was with the evil spirit, not the afflicted man. You might have imagined that Jesus would appreciate some free advertising, but it wasn’t so. Believers would spread the good news. Demons could shut up and leave.
We suggested, how like today: a whole town with family health needs. There’s always something. On the other hand, how unlike today, that in a town small enough to be able to gather outside of one front door, there should be many visible, obvious cases of demonic affliction. Pursuing the question very far would be for another sermon. But notice (war and the tactics for waging it being in the news these days) no army of today fights with the weapons and tactics of a hundred years ago, to say nothing of those of 2000 years ago. Likewise Satan, the enemy of our souls, can tailor his strategy to the day and the place and the culture, to attack us where and how we’re vulnerable. We can be fascinated, we need not be troubled, by differences in diabolical activity that day to this.
But has resisting his attack changed with the times? A word on resistance, from James:
Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Our defender is way stronger than our attacker. The Shepherd is stronger than the wolf. Our destruction is our leaving the Shepherd to flirt with the wolf. It has always been thus; it won’t change over time.
This story is told in three of the gospels, and the parallel accounts make it clear, Jesus healed them all. The meeting went on till all the needs were met, and everyone went home happy.
35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.
It’s presumptuous to say what Jesus and his Father talked about. But Luke tells us, the night before Jesus chose from among his disciples the twelve who would go full time, he spent the night in prayer. And Jesus said many times that he didn’t do anything on his own. All was according to the Father’s will, at the Father’s direction. It was something they talked about.
Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
There would come a time when crowds would be a mixed blessing in Jesus’ ministry. Glancing down the page, to the aftermath of yet another remarkable healing. The healed man, it says,
went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
Think of this town just after the Rose Parade and you get the picture. Where traffic turns to gridlock, nothing works. But this morning, there’s excitement in the disciples’ voices. Everyone is looking for you! Overnight, the news has spread. Everybody from yesterday is back, plus everybody they’ve told. People are taking notice, they’re responding. This ministry is taking off!
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
There’s a slogan, among those who are zealous for pioneer missions: Nobody has a right to hear the gospel a second time, when there are those who have yet to hear it a first. Overstated, certainly – because in fact hearing the gospel isn’t anyone’s right, it’s a mercy. And in mercy God doesn’t limit his appeal to one call per individual. Still, it’s a fact that while we may be rejoicing in the blessings and progress before our eyes, God has his eyes on those who have yet to be reached, and are still waiting. And the call of pioneer missions is precisely Jesus’ call: Let’s go on, somewhere else.
There was, or at least there could have been, another, darker element to this going somewhere else. Peter and the others were excited by Jesus’ popularity. Everybody’s looking for you! True enough, but looking for what? Jesus had given cheap, effective medical care and they’d gobbled it up. But in fact that was only a part of the gift Jesus was offering, and not the most important. And he wouldn’t tolerate forever people saying I’ll happily take this, but no thanks, none of that. Matthew records Jesus looking back on his Galilean ministry (this in Matt. 11):
20 Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. 22 But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. 23 And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up 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. 24 But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
If Sodom – the wicked city that got incinerated? – if Sodom had seen what these in Capernaum have seen, they would have repented. No, it’s time to move on.
They exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”
38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”
Why did Jesus come? It’s a great Bible study, the various answers that Scripture gives to that question. Various not because Jesus had many missions, but because there are many ways to state his one mission. In this passage? to go preach God’s word to those who hadn’t heard it. At the end of the Zacchaeus story? the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. John in his first letter looks at it from a different angle: The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. Our text concludes, “He traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues, and driving out demons.” - one picture of his destroying the devil’s work. It’s interesting, though, in the context that John is speaking of - the devil’s work as evident in a life - it’s not foaming-at-the-mouth demon possession. It’s common, everyday, garden-variety sin, that would be destroyed, as God’s Word was preached and believed. Persuading Zacchaeus to give back stolen money was destroying work that the devil had done in Zacchaeus’ heart. It was accomplished not by exorcism but by the application of law and gospel, leading to repentance.
Here in the first chapter of Mark’s gospel we’re seeing the disciples’ early-on association with Jesus. So it’s not surprising when he says, let us go somewhere else. The initiative was his, the timing was his, the choice of villages was his. They were still in the following stage. Later on, though, he would say, you go, and I’ll be with you. He says that to us.
Go where, go when, go how? What balance to give between acts of mercy and the preaching of the Word? How much time does one spend in Capernaum – or Cameroon - before moving on? How are such decisions made? Lutheran Brethren International Missions just called a couple to go work among the Bagirmi people in Chad. Why that tribe? Why that couple among the three that had applied? When do other tribes get their turn? How are such decisions made?
At a date soon to be decided we at Immanuel will gather as a congregation to consider a plan for our life and mission. What should we do, to do God’s will? How are such decisions made?
Jesus got up before dawn, not, I think, because there’s anything particularly holy about losing sleep for prayer, or praying under miserable conditions, but simply in anticipation of a hectic morning that would afford no peace or privacy. Pray while you can. Before human need came crashing down on Jesus, he got away to pray. It was after prayer that he said, Let’s go somewhere else.
I don’t know how, or if, God will communicate to us in specific terms: do this, not that, this year not next year - or if he’ll just say: You guys decide - go for it, and I’ll be with you. But in any case it’s hard to imagine that we need less prayer than he did. That we’re more capable of going it on our own than he was, on his own. We have a big task ahead of us, and big decisions to make. We have a tempter who’s doing his best to discourage us and deceive us, and seduce us. It’s hard to imagine that we need less prayer than Jesus did.
Our Communion hymn is entitled Sweet Hour of Prayer. That may be hard for us to sing honestly, describing an hour spent in prayer as sweet? (If I prayed for an hour now would you call it sweet?) There’s this, at least: it’s sweet for him. Scripture speaks of the prayers of God’s people going up before him as incense. Let’s sing as a bridge to our communion service, Sweet Hour of Prayer.