This Sunday's Gospel

Sunday 5 in Ordinary Time - the Reign of God breaks into history with the healing Jesus brings...Mark 1:29-39

In the time of Jesus physical illness was regarded as a sign that the world was under the rule of Satan.  Jesus shows that the rule of God was breaking into history through his healing action.  While ritual impurity was supposed to flow toward Jesus through his taking the hand of the sick woman, the flow is exactly in reverse.  At Jesus’ touch the flow reverses as she catches healing from him, then rises to serve the group by providing hospitality, our first example of human diakonia or service, ministry (from which the word ‘deacon’ comes).

 After a busy day of healing and silencing any demonic recognition of who he is, Jesus feels the need to spend time in prayer with his Abba.

 He is not successful because he is pursued by his ‘minders’, the disciples, who are basking in reflected glory.  Jesus knows his mission is to loosen the grip of Satanic influence in order to reclaim human lives for the rule of God.  His mission from the God he calls his Abba requires that he moves on to other places of need.

 Prayer and hard work make this a typical day in Mark’s presentation of the life of Jesus.  He ‘rebukes’ the fever, the language of exorcism, then ‘raises up’ the women, foreshadowing raising from the dead.  The portrayal of the believer, prostrate under the power of sin but now raised by the Lord and called to service, is a personal one for all of us.

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