Mark packs so much into each and every verse. Mark is the shortest gospel, only 16 chapters in length. Everything happens “immediately.” You can feel the “flourish of activity” and almost “the need” to hurry to the “finish-line.”
Mark is curt, terse, and almost rudely brief. Everybody says that Luke is the “big gospel” for healings…but Mark has 65 stories of “separate” healings included. He lists ten parables.
We follow Jesus as he travels from one small village to another…constantly on the move. He goes from synagogue to synagogue and ultimately onto the Temple in Jerusalem. He encounters about 120 some people as he walks talks and visits homes and markets. It is in the synagogues that he meets the largest crowds…everything of course grows in leaps and bounds in Jerusalem.
As he preaches, teaches and heals the crowd size continues to grow. People begin following… the time is relatively short to accomplish a rather large and seemingly impossible mission.
A week ago, we learned that the very first healing took place in a Synagogue on the Sabbath day. A man possessed by a demon was healed as Jesus attempted to teach in the Synagogue. We are not privy to what his teaching was about.
But we are told “in detail” about the healing. We are also told that the demons, the unclean spirits, “know who Jesus is.”
Immediately – following that experience-Jesus is taken to the home of Simon and Andrew…an interesting detail of home ownership. It is still the Sabbath Day!
There we learned that at least one of the first four “called” disciples is married…and he takes into his house his mother-in-law.
This is awkward since we know that women held a less-than-important-place in the structure of patriarchal Jewish society. Where were “her people?”
So the healing of a man is countered with the healing of a woman. This is startling as well as awkward.
You have to hear how Jesus and the other men go into her sleeping quarters. Women were not to be involved with men outside of their immediate family. That Jesus reaches out and touches her is unheard of. Cultural values and long held social norms are quickly falling by the wayside. Proper propriety is not being adhered to…nor is there adherence to the Pharisaic laws…
It is important to see and to understand that Jesus “raised her up.” She must have been both astonished and grateful. As the household becomes overrun with the crowds of sick, needy and hurting people, we must assume that she played some kind of role in facilitating that gathering.
Jesus then tends to all the broken and the sick that present themselves at Simon and Andrews’ house.
We are told that it was – as if the WHOLE CITY was gathered there…no doubt a slight exaggeration, but then again, who knows, maybe NOT!
You have to hear the detail – that crowds start gathering as soon as the Sabbath is over. Jesus must be healing late into the night.
We are being reminded that he would not let the demons speak – because “they” knew him and “who” he was.
We are not at all sure at this juncture what the disciples are thinking…
And then, we are given another “juicy detail,” in the morning while it was still very dark – Jesus went to a deserted place TO PRAY.
The disciples had to HUNT for Jesus and when they find him, they report – that EVERYONE is looking for him. (No doubt another Semitic form of exaggeration.) And we are sure, EVERYONE probably “was” searching for Jesus, wanting this…and wanting that…from him. The crowds could be relentless, you know!
And then, to our surprise…with countless people still in want, still with great needs…Jesus makes the surprising decision “to move on…”
He will not be “just” a “local healer.” The needs and tremendous wants are everywhere to be found.
The point of the story is clear. Everyone needs to get away sometimes. Everyone needs an escape. Everyone from time to time needs to find a quiet space…peace and solace.
Places without distraction are good. Time spent in prayer or meditation or contemplation is time well spent.
People need to refuel themselves. We need to fortify, strengthen, equip, prepare, adjust and adapt ourselves…for what lies ahead. And trust me, there is always something…always something…lying ahead…
If the savior of the world needed some down time – how much more than is our need?
You need to be fed somewhere.