04 Feb SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2024
An introduction from Sundays and Seasons to today’s gospel reads, “Everywhere Jesus goes, many people expect him to set them free from oppression.” And even though Jesus no longer walks the earth, people still expect him to travel around and set them free.
More than periodically, I run into people in the hospital who express such sentiment. They feel as though if God really is who they once thought God to be, they wouldn’t be suffering in their current state. Troubled by life-threatening illness or disease, God does not currently meet their set of expectations. Like the psalmist they lament, “My way is hidden from the LORD. Just look at me! My rights are disregarded by my God. At least my right to be in good health, they say, “to go and do as I please” they think.
This shakes their faith and makes them doubt whether God is trustworthy, merciful, kind, and full of steadfast love. Usually, I try to defend God by helping patients realize that God has seen their affliction and is responding. I aim to help them identify what things God has done in the past to help them or their family members manage and thrive.
But today’s gospel passage made me rethink this approach. Is it so unreasonable for people today to expect Jesus to heal and set them free like he did while here on earth? I mean he certainly made it his mission back then. Were those demonstrations just for show so people would believe that Jesus was God, or did he really mean to alleviate suffering and improve the quality of people’s lives?
From today’s gospel lesson something seems true. If we’re lucky enough to have our health, God expects something from us, something along the lines of serving others. Jesus didn’t tell Simon’s mother-in-law to stay in bed while she recovered from her fever. He didn’t take her by the hand and lead her over to the recliner. He lifted her up, the fever left, and she began to serve them.
One minute, she’s sick in bed, the next minute she’s full of energy like Hazel Burke, the Baxter’s maid, who says, “‘Come on in. What do you feel like eatin’? Just tell me what you’d like. I can fry, bake, or whip up a batch of anything you’re hungry for,” all spoken with a smile and enthusiastically punctuated by sweet laughter. 
Perhaps it was even Simon’s mother-in-law’s hospitality and prepared meal that made what happened that evening possible. For at sunset, once their food had digested a bit, the whole city brought to Jesus all who were sick or possessed with demons.
It’s rather unusual here to note that Jesus cures many who were sick and casts out many demons, but not all. Elsewhere we hear of Jesus healing all or getting rid of all disease and demons. That he would not permit the demons to speak because they knew him is worth noting here. Jesus was not yet ready to update his social media profile to include all his accomplishments, not ready to reveal his full identity and full divinity.
We also get a glimpse of Jesus’ human limitations and need for solitude. Like parents who get up early to enjoy a cup of coffee in silence or who aim to exercise for twenty minutes without being interrupted by the needs of others still asleep in the same house, Jesus gets up while it is still very dark and goes to a deserted place to pray.
He needs quiet time and empty space to regroup. He knew it would be worth sacrificing more time to sleep if it would afford him a guaranteed opportunity to be alone with God. That’s called spiritual disciple: a practice or action that involves the body and mind which facilitates connection to the spirit. It may not require planning in advance, but it is always intentional. 
Something wakes, moves, or stirs him to get up and go, to seek a time of solitude with God. Spiritual disciples are a necessary luxury for the health of our souls. Your spiritual discipline might look like a walk in the woods, a walk with a dog or stroller around your neighborhood. It might look like a drive, time spent working on a hobby, making, fixing, building, or gathering.
Any activity might amount to a spiritual discipline or practice if you’re regular about it and able to connect to God while doing it. That being said, it probably means that watching tv, shopping, spending time online or playing video games doesn’t count even though we might find those things relaxing, otherwise satisfying, or fulfilling.
Simon’s mother-in-law was made well to pursue activities involving service. It appears for many of us, we perceive time like this. We work hard for years to acquire things we need. We make sacrifices hoping to achieve for ourselves and family.
We spend years following set schedules, traveling paths toward increasing levels of luxury, comfort, entertainment, consumerism, financial freedom, and relaxation. Perhaps our jobs do involve service, or we volunteer regularly. Does that qualify those things as spiritual disciplines? Only you know the answer to that.
Listen to what happens next. Simon and his companions hunt for Jesus. They find him and say, “Hey. Everyone’s searching for you.” He answers, “Okay. Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.”
Proclaim the message? We didn’t hear him preaching to the crowds in our gospel reading. We didn’t hear him say anything at all. But in previous verses of the Bible, it does say that Jesus was teaching in the temple with authority. So he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
So, is it fair to say that our way is hidden from the LORD and our right is disregarded by God? It may not be fair to say, but it’s an honest admission of feeling disappointed. It’s a valid way to communicate that things aren’t turning out the way we hoped or planned. And that’s fair to say.
Isaiah 40:30-31 tells us that “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, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” The psalmist wrote, “God is not impressed by might or speed, but finds pleasure in those who fear the Lord and await God’s steadfast love.”
What does waiting on the Lord mean? A Google search will tell you it means all kinds of things: hoping, trusting, anticipating, having faith, patience, humility, meekness, long-suffering, keeping the commandments and enduring to the end. Gee, those words wouldn’t sound very encouraging to someone dying from cancer, heart, or kidney disease, would they? 
What those folks want to know is that they’ll have enough time to marry or raise children, see their grandchildren graduate or marry, that they won’t feel so sick, require treatment or hospitalization for weeks on end or the rest of their lives.
I like this other suggestion better. To wait on the Lord means recognizing our helplessness to solve a situation and to wait for God to solve it. Now, that’s not the perfect answer either since sometimes solutions don’t exist for a person’s earthly problems and suffering can’t be avoided. Having reached this dead end, so to speak, makes me think about how some people regard suffering as a spiritual discipline.
Generally, spiritual disciples are voluntary pursuits, but might they also amount to things both unavoidable and undesirable? Unlike Jesus’ suffering, ours can never atone for sin or save us, but that is not its purpose. According to one Christian psychologist, “Suffering may have a sanctifying purpose; it could deepen our relationship with Jesus so that we may “know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death” (Philippians 3:10). As we follow His example, pain bonds us to our Savior as we allow it to do its inner, sanctifying, faith-building work.”https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/articles/you-are-called-to-suffer-with-christ/#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20Jesus%20predicted%20that,(John%2016%3A33).&text=First%20Peter%202%3A21%2C%20above,our%20calling%20as%20Christ%20followers.
Think that sounds any more appealing to someone suffering under threat of terror or neglect, moaning in pain, struggling to breathe, in need of medical intervention, or afraid that they’re racking up thousands of dollars in debt? I wonder what can be said.
The psalmist wrote this, “The LORD who counts the stars and calls them all by name heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He is mighty in wisdom and unlimited in power. He lifts up the lowly, not the wicked. He provides for all even the grass, cattle and ravens. He finds pleasure in those who are in awe of attributes possessed by Him and hopes we will await his steadfast love.
What Paul says in 1 Corinthians might apply. Whatever good health or good standing we have with God gives us no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid upon us and woe to us if we do not take on the commission appointed. We are to offer ourselves free of charge to share blessings that we ourselves have received.
Our full rights entail making ourselves slaves to win those who do not yet know Christ. becoming weak to the weak, all things to all people for the sake of the gospel. Imagine if once the fever left her, Simon’s mother-in-law laid in bed and said, “I’m sorry fellas. You’ll have to fend for yourselves or find someone else to serve. I don’t feel up to helping you today and don’t ask me again tomorrow. Don’t you realize that I’ve done my time and had quite a few rough days? I just don’t have it in me.”
In that case, who knows whether Jesus would have been able to do all the good he did that night healing people and exorcizing demons unless Simon’s mother-in-law had done her part? So, I ask you, “What’s your part in serving Jesus?” Or I’ll ask you this, “What spiritual discipline might enable you to receive what you need from God so you’re able to continue to bless others?”
Let us pray. Lord, many times we feel tired, overworked, or spent. We’re busy with activities of daily life, taking responsibility for our homes and families. Show us how we can find the time and energy to get alone with you to draw nearer, to restore and enhance our relationship.
Help us accept suffering without blame and rise above limitations to become of service, to care for your acquaintances and followers. May we also help those disappointed in you to find the reassurance that they need. In your holy name we pray, Amen.