Called to Serve

It is great that Jesus was able to serve others throughout his ministry. How are we expected to live up to those same expectations? How are we suppose to make time for helping others when we stay so busy? Of course I am being a little facetious. It is true though that we want to make sure that everything in our own little corner of the world is taken care of first. I may be able to help, but let me make sure that all the needs of my family and self are taken care of first. I may be able to support such and such cause, but let me make sure that I have money left at the end of the month. These are struggles that most of us have had at one time or another.

When we insulate ourselves from the world around us, then we are missing out on the opportunity to proclaim Jesus Christ working in the world to bring healing and reconciliation. We can do this at all levels of our society, from the individual, to the household, to our greater communities, and beyond. Insulating ourselves from others can create a paranoia of the other. It is where fear is born.

We witnessed that fear last week in the story of the man with the unclean spirit. Again this morning, as the gospel of Mark continues, Jesus continues to heal those that are sick or possessed with demons. It starts when they arrive at the home of Simon and Andrew and Simon’s mother-in-law is in bed with a fever. There is an urgency to their request for Jesus to go and be by her side and bring her healing as well.

After a while, Jesus had to start feeling like a vending machine. People coming to him nonstop to heal whatever ailed them. It may have appeared that Jesus was inundated with request upon request for healing, yet he continued to cure many. It was tiring work, yet work that carried out his calling to share the grace and love of God. In the healing, it reveals God in the brokenness and pain. God in the midst of the people bringing hope and compassion where it had been lost.

However, Jesus cannot stay in the same place. He has a mission that he has been called to and that requires walking many miles. There are others that must be healed. There are parables to share through his teaching and preaching. First, as we witness many times in the gospels, Jesus must step away to rest. While he is divine, he is also human and his body requires rest and care just as ours. Stepping away to a deserted place also provides him the opportunity to pray and be renewed for the journey ahead.

In the healing that occurs, we witness Jesus serving. It was for this that Jesus came into the world. Later in his gospel, Mark reveals that, “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

The serving begins as soon as Jesus’ ministry is underway. From the healing of the man with the unclean spirit, to many and varied healings in this mornings gospel. It is in the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law that we witness God’s grace and the mother-in-law’s faith played out. This is a tender moment that Jesus has with Simon’s mother-in-law. He reached out and took her hand. To hold her hand in his, in her sickness, was a visible sign of love and compassion that Jesus will continue to show through his ministry. It is a love that knows no boundaries and fears nothing that comes in its way. The fever that she has breaks and he raises her up to new health.

And what does she do? She gets up and begins to serve those in the household. Now, this is not a call for women to be the ones that serve in the household. This passage has been wrongly used in the past to attempt to bolster this very idea. However, it is a reflection of the calling that Simon’s mother-in-law has in her own life. A reflection that shows her thankfulness to Jesus for bringing her healing. In the way that Jesus serves others, she is able to reflect this in her own household for those that she loves and cares for. She moves beyond herself and opens her heart up to everyone that is in her presence.

In Jesus’ serving, he lays the foundation for our calling in the world to be with one another. Not to insulate ourselves, but to surround ourselves with the beauty of humanity that comes in all shades, shapes, genders, orientations, and abilities. What does it mean for us to serve as Simon’s mother-in-law did? What are we doing to serve those in need, just as Jesus did?

Every time that we reach out with love and compassion to the outcasts and those that the greater society has brushed aside, we bring Christ to them. Every time we welcome MCREST into our church, we live out the calling that God has placed upon our hearts. Every time we give a Christmas bag or bike to someone in need, we are God’s hands in the world. Every time we welcome visitors we are given the opportunity to proclaim the Good News and love as Jesus loved. Our faith and thankfulness for the gifts that God has given us are made visible in our actions when we reach out with love instead of ridicule and disdain. Jesus came into the world to show us the way of love and to remind us that God is present with us.

Let us pray. Serving God, you came to walk this earth showing a love and compassion like no other. While we may stumble and fall, continue to be that reminder for us that you are always present and working through us when we love in return. Amen.