Reflections from The Hill – Action Man (Mark 1: 29-39)

Jokes about mothers-in-law abound, most of them crude, rude or just plain crass. In any case, none of them seem to be an encouragement to the holders of that weighty office, unlike this week’s Gospel.

It’s a bit more than just interesting that Jesus encountered Peter’s mother-in-law and healed her fever right after he’d cast out the demon from the man in the synagogue. Jesus’ ministry is a fair bit about doing stuff.

This first chapter of Mark jumps with action; it’s strung together with four uses of ‘immediately’, a ‘just then’, a ‘now’ and an ‘as soon as’, just to heighten the effect.

Baptisms, heavenly voices, a heavenly dove, the calling – and successful following – of disciples, an exorcism in the synagogue, plus a couple of healings, including the one we’re reading this Sunday, are all part of a very busy picture.

The Man at the centre is not just a wonder-worker but an action man and, as busy people the world over know full well, taking time out of the schedule to regroup is an important thing to do we are to maintain any semblance of health. It’s also the most difficult thing in the whole world to pull off.

It’s not surprising then to read about The Man getting away from it all by heading for the bush. He leaves Peter’s house long before dawn to find a place of solitude where He can be still and know … to be with God.

Given the busyness and knowing the sometimes overwhelming needs of people, The Man also realises the absolute necessity of getting away.

Would that you and I could learn that lesson. We can stuff our daily twenty-four hours so full of meeting everyone else’s needs that we lose connection with the One Who Made us and, worse, we can fool ourselves into believing that we are doing good. What wretches we are.

Being a whole person – giving time and resources generously to others and giving time and space generously to God – is a goal for each of us, a goal that’s within our reach. It’s possible.

In these few short verses we are given a real lesson in what living a balanced life looks like; it will inspire us and will give us a picture of what can happen in the silence.

It was while The Man was away from all those who tugged at his garments with their needs that He understood that His life’s work wasn’t just going to be among his kith and kin and that this knowledge might create a few issues for the rellies.

In the heightened response of the locals to what was going on, there is a clear call to go to other places; that The Man was being directed to take his caravan and move on to a wider, and potentially less-accepting, audience. It could have been one of those rock-and-hard-place decisions.

It wasn’t. Here Jesus discerns that His mission is not to be confined to one place but was to be based in the synagogues and among the people of Galilee. That’s a big call. It’s a good lesson in leadership, too.

As the ensuing chapters in Mark show, it’s important to stay with the mission; that’s commitment. It’s also important to not get distracted by worthy, but not mission-related, needs. The cost is that some will be disappointed and turn away but, then, it’s what happened to The Man, eh?

Is it possible to avoid the trap of getting off on stuff that isn’t core-business? Some might say ‘No’, that we do this all the time.

However, and for my money, we wouldn’t be here today if The Man had stayed home like a loyal local son and only healed the good people who needed him there. After all, isn’t going out what’s meant by being an action man?