In the name of God ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Have you not known? Have you not heard?” That refrain is found in our reading from Isaiah this morning and it sets the stage for considering the passage from Mark this morning. The fact that Isaiah asks those questions about having known and heard assumes that it would be easy to miss the salvation of God that he is talking about. The same can happen to us – we get so wrapped up in the busyness of our day-to-day routines, we get caught up in the news, or we get stuck in the specifics of our own crises that we might forget about God’s salvation for us.
The context of the 40th chapter of Isaiah is important. Scholars tell us that the book which we call Isaiah is actually three books: chapters 1-39 are called first Isaiah and was written prior to the fall of Jerusalem, second Isaiah is chapters 40-55 and is written during the Exile of Israel in Babylon, and chapters 56-66 comprise third Isaiah which is written upon returning to the Promised Land. So it’s important to recognize that this passage that we heard read from Isaiah this morning comes right at the start of second Isaiah, that portion of the book that was written in Exile.
One scholar has defined exile as “the loss of the known world;” and certainly, that is what the people were experiencing. They were a conquered people, having lost homes and family members. They were marched off to live in captivity in Babylon – a land where other gods were worshipped and where different customs were normal. These events were largely seen as the result of generations of unfaithfulness, but how could that be addressed when the Temple had been destroyed? Certainly, our situation is not exactly analogous to that of Israel, but we are living in an exile of sorts.
With all of the rapid changes in society, it may very well seem that what we are experiencing is the loss of the known world. Technology moves at a dizzying pace, changing the way we interact with each other. The things we used to be able to assume about our political system, for good or for ill, are no longer predictable. People that you’ve loved have died or moved away, and the world just doesn’t seem right without them around. All of this uncertainty is what drives the anxiety and stress of our society. And so people of faith will ask the question, “where is God in all of this? Doesn’t God care about what is happening?”
Those same fears and anxieties that we have are the ones there were in the air at the time when Isaiah wrote “Have you not known? Have you not heard?” In other words – Yes, the ground has moved out from underneath you, but don’t forget that God is still the ground of your being. Isaiah writes “Lift up your eyes on high and see: The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.” Though many things change and are unpredictable, what remains sure and certain is the Lord.
Since God’s steadfastness does not waiver, Isaiah then writes to give hope to those in Exile by saying that God “gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles (and notice that Isaiah says “Eagles” and not “Patriots”), they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
We need to be reminded of things like this because it’s not always obvious in our fast-paced and dog-eat-dog world that those who are lacking and downtrodden are actually the recipients of God’s saving grace. The world judges success and favor based on wealth, influence, and popularity. But, thanks be to God, grace is for everyone. So we need prophets to help us to remember that God’s grace doesn’t operate the way the world might expect it to. We need people to ask us “Have you not known? Have you not heard?”. It is the very nature of God to sustain the faint and lift up the lowly, and this is what we see happening in today’s passage from Mark.
You’ll recall that last Sunday we heard about the events leading up to this healing story. Jesus has just cast out a demon from a man who showed up in the synagogue, thereby showing his power over the forces of sin and also restoring that possessed man to the community. Immediately after that incident, Jesus and his disciples go to the home of Simon and Andrew. And they tell Jesus about Simon’s mother-in-law being ill with a fever. Jesus then heals her.
There are several interesting elements to this story. The first is that no one actually asked Jesus to do anything about the woman with a fever. The text doesn’t make it clear if they expect Jesus to heal her, or if they’re simply explaining why she isn’t fulfilling the role of hospitality. Given that it often takes the disciples a while to figure things out, I’d guess that it’s not so much of a request for healing, but rather an explanation of why she isn’t getting out of bed to greet Jesus. And if that reading is accurate, or at least plausible, it actually gives us more hope. It means that we don’t have to get the prayer right in order to have God heal us. Jesus saves not because we’re used the correct prayer formula, but because it is in the nature of God to heal. As Isaiah asked – Have you not known, have you not heard that God heals those who are weak? We shouldn’t be surprised by God’s saving grace, as that’s who God is.
And then notice what Simon’s mother-in-law does after she’s been healed. She serves them. Now, this is a dangerous passage because it could easily be distorted to say something misogynistic like “a woman’s place is in the kitchen.” That is not only an offensive reading of this text, but it’s also an unfaithful one. The Greek words in this passage are crucial to our reading of it. For one, when it says “Jesus took her by the hand and lifted her up,” the verb “lifted her up” is the same that is used at the end of the Gospel when it is reported at the empty tomb that Jesus has been raised. Though she wasn’t dead, fevers were a lot more serious then than they are today. A fever wasn’t seen as just a symptom of something else, but rather a fever was often a precursor to death. So Simon’s mother-in-law is foreshadowing the Resurrection. In Jesus’ Resurrection, we will see decisively and definitively the power of Jesus over death, but along the way in the Gospel, Mark gives us clues that Jesus’ power has no boundaries.
What she does next is not simply making lunch or anything like that, the word used for “she began to serve them” is the Greek word diakonos, which is where we get the word “deacon.” The healing isn’t about curing her so that she can get back to her work, rather her being healed by Jesus enables her to participate in the Kingdom of God that Jesus is initiating. This is so important for us to remember as we are surrounded by illness, division, and confusion. We need to always know and hear of God’s saving grace. But we must also remember that God grants us mercy and healing not so that we can go about our merry ways, but so that we can participate in the abundant life intended for us. Jesus’ healing of this woman enables her discipleship, and Jesus’ grace towards us is intended to do the same – preparing us to be disciples.
As I mentioned last Sunday, miracle stories are symbols that tell us something bigger than the specifics of the story. Yes, on its own, the story of Jesus healing this woman is amazing. But the story points to something much more amazing – that Jesus’ ministry is about tearing down the walls that separate us and removing the barriers to belonging to the community of faith.
But there is so much exclusion, prejudice, and isolation in our culture that we might forget to notice this Good News of the Kingdom. We might think that the Gospel is nothing but wishful thinking. We might think that the poor are in poverty because of some moral failings. We might that the rich are wealthy because they make God happy. We might wonder if we should be doing business with people on the other side of the aisle. We might doubt that our acts of service and compassion add up to anything. We might wonder if God cares about us. The troubles of the world can be overwhelming, but to all of these questions, the words of Isaiah come – Have you not known? Have you not seen?
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God in which we have known and heard of God’s grace. As we see in Mark, indeed, Jesus saves us. And though we are not saved on the basis of our merits, we are saved for a purpose. God’s saving grace towards us is not a status, it is a catalyst. Just as Simon’s mother-in-law was healed by Jesus, so too will God heal of us those things that prevent us from being a part of the community of faith. The walls of exclusion and separation are dismantled by the Gospel. In the Kingdom, all are welcome to participate, every gift is valued, every person is cherished.
There is a ministry that publishes articles and interviews about God’s grace and it is called Mockingbird Ministries. The reason why they chose the name “Mockingbird” is that is how they see their mission, just like that of the bird that repeats the call that it hears, their ministry is to repeat the message of grace that is seen in Jesus. It’s a wonderful metaphor for our ministry of service in God’s Kingdom. To a world that needs to know and hear the message of the Gospel, repeat that sounding joy to everyone you meet. Remind yourself and tell others of the Good News, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? God loves you; and through Jesus, you can participate in this abundant life.” Amen.
