Jesus is our job description.
I’ve had occasion over the years to talk with a number of entrepreneurs, people who built a business of some sort which over time took off and in some cases changed as circumstances changed. As one of them noted, “Once you recognize the business principles, it almost doesn’t matter what your business does. You apply the same principles.”
Some of those principles are:
1. You recognize some need or a niche in the market that isn’t being met, or that at least there’s some room in it and you could do as well as the others providing that good or service.
2. You start off small, with a few clients or customers and you serve them well.
3. Others learn about you by reputation or advertising and you grow to where things get way more complex.
4. You have to take time to step back, analyze your challenges and move forward.
5. If you’re going to grow, you’ve got to expand into new markets or products and continue to build a team that can run with it, hopefully smarter, faster and better than you can.
It doesn’t matter if you start with a field of cucumbers or a truck hauling away junk or a handful of cattle. You can look at just about anything you use from a paper clip to your dinner tonight and someone somewhere at some point followed that pattern to build a company to get it to you.
In some respects, Jesus’ ministry follows that pattern. And Mark tells it in almost that basic a framework, initially no longer than the list I just gave.
Mark’s gospel is like a reduction sauce. He takes the life of Jesus and simmers it down and down. The essential content is all there, everything we need to know about Jesus is all there, but instead of the nuanced flavors and detailed illustrations we find in the others, Mark’s gospel is all concentrated and comes at us hard and fast.
Here, in just a few short verses, Mark gives us a lot of important information about Jesus.
Reaching back to last week, you’ll recall that he has recruited some of his team, but so far we’ve only heard about four of them. Just before this scene, Jesus cast a demon out of a man in the synagogue. That’s a big deal. It’s astonishing. Talk about meeting a customer’s need! Immediately, he goes to Simon Peter and Andrew’s house and heals Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. That’s a big deal. They don’t have Tylenol, aspirin, Advil or Aleve. They don’t have antibiotics or anti-viral medications or vaccinations. A fever was often fatal. Jesus takes her hand. She is fully healed and demonstrates it by immediately serving them.
These two healings establish Jesus’ lordship over spiritual forces and physical ailments.
And word has gotten out. Soon, that very evening, the whole village is bringing their sick and possessed to be healed. He started small and it has quickly grown.
With the initial growth, Jesus retreats to a quiet place for prayer, prayer that will at once refresh and restore him as well as give him direction on the next steps he should take – where he will go, who he will call next, how he will prepare his team to expand his ministry, expand his markets.
His disciples don’t get it. They see the miracles and like the people they simply want more of them. But the miracles aren’t the actual point. We have to remember here that Jesus’ goal isn’t to fix everyone’s problems. They are signs pointing to Jesus’ fuller ministry. He is demonstrating that the Kingdom of God is near, showing the world what that means, what it looks like.
And he carries on, building his team, which includes us. If we take a peek at the very end of Mark’s gospel, Jesus instructs his disciples to do exactly what he has done, casting out demons and healing the sick (among a few other things).
In order to grow the Kingdom, we are to follow Jesus’ way of sharing the Kingdom. At times, we may see a physical healing and at times we see lives radically changed as though a demon were cast out. Most often we are to simply share the Good News, the ultimate words of encouragement and bring the bright light of hope into their struggles.
This comes as some are fighting cancer, heart disease, infections or now COVID. It comes as we embrace those suffering grief and loss. It comes as we encourage those who suffer from chronic illnesses and chronic pain from aging bodies.
It comes as we rise to meet the crushing needs of our sisters and brothers at Iglesia del Buen Pastor in Santa Maria, Honduras. It comes as we tend to the poor in our community through our Thrift Shop and the Care Center.
It comes as any of us contemplate the reality of our own mortality. None of us gets a pass on that, which leads to our deepest longing to be with God forever.
Paul gives us a peek at how adaptive we must be in sharing Jesus with the wide diversity of people and their circumstances that we encounter. Paul’s advice on customer service is simple: Whatever it takes. Be alert to their need, which is the onramp Christ will use to reach them.
AMEN