Sermons from Mission Hills UCC
San Diego, California
Rev. Dr. David Bahr
david.bahr@missionhillsucc.org
January 21, 2024
“She Ministered to Jesus”
Mark 1: 29-39 – Common English Bible
After leaving the synagogue, Jesus, James, and John went home with Simon and Andrew. 30 Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed, sick with a fever, and they told Jesus about her at once. 31 He went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she served them.
32 That evening, at sunset, people brought to Jesus those who were sick or demon-possessed. 33 The whole town gathered near the door. 34 He healed many who were sick with all kinds of diseases, and he threw out many demons. But he didn’t let the demons speak, because they recognized him.
35 Early in the morning, well before sunrise, Jesus rose and went to a deserted place where he could be alone in prayer. 36 Simon and those with him tracked him down. 37 When they found him, they told him, “Everyone’s looking for you!”
38 He replied, “Let’s head in the other direction, to the nearby villages, so that I can preach there too. That’s why I’ve come.” 39 He traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and throwing out demons.
I grew up in a little country church with very traditional gender roles. Women cooked and served. Men built and repaired. In fact, the men of the church, mostly farmers, literally built our church. Boys helped the men fix things. Girls helped in the kitchen, which is why it was a little odd, as I’ve mentioned before, that I preferred to be in the kitchen washing and drying dishes after a potluck or a community supper, but I thought their conversations were much more interesting than fertilizer and crop rotation.
In our rural North Dakota setting, churches often had an annual dinner for the whole community. The small town where I went to school only had two churches: Lutheran and Lutheran. One Lutheran church had an annual ham dinner and the other Lutheran church always served a dinner of Swedish meatballs, which is odd since they were all Norwegians. People drove from miles around for those meatballs and boiled potatoes. One year, one of the organizers had a hip replacement and couldn’t be there to supervise the potatoes. She worried they would use boxed potatoes to avoid the pain of peeling them all. The pastor went to visit Helen a few days before the event and assured her that there were women at the church that very morning peeling potatoes. He said, “You must sure love cooking.” She replied, “Oh heavens no. I don’t love cooking at all, but I love Jesus, and this is what I can do for him.” I love Jesus and this is what I can do for him. We all have our ways.
So, speaking of those traditional gender roles, today’s scripture passage makes me a little uncomfortable because it seems to affirm them – or at least not question them. Of course, it’s the Bible so what should I expect? The men were at the synagogue and came home hungry, likely expecting to be fed, but the one expected to feed them was in bed with a fever. Fevers were a big deal and couldn’t be addressed by simply taking an Advil.
But Jesus had other ideas. He knelt down, took her hand, and raised her up. He restored her to health and she jumped right up to serve them. Even so, for the life of me, I can’t understand why Simon couldn’t have just said, “Hey ma, take it easy. I’ll make some sandwiches for the guys.” Maybe because she loved Jesus and this is what she could do for him. Yet, it still makes me uncomfortable, so let’s dig a little further. Does Jesus intend to reinforce traditional gender roles?
Let’s go back to the beginning of Mark. Mark’s always in a hurry. No stories about Jesus’ birth like Matthew and Luke. No placing him in the context of the cosmic universe like the Gospel of John.
Mark 1, verse 1, begins with how John the Baptist fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy of a messenger sent to prepare the way for the Messiah and, bam, by verse 4, John is already baptizing people, calling them to change their hearts and lives. Five short verses later, Jesus is baptized and then immediately, one of Mark’s favorite words – always in a hurry – Jesus was forced into the wilderness for 40 days and tempted by Satan. Mark doesn’t bother with any details, however, except to say this: He was among the wild animals and the angels took care of him.
Now, just 14 verses in, John was arrested and Jesus began preaching, “This is the time! Change your hearts and lives!” He passed by some fishermen and called out to them to follow him and suddenly he had his first four disciples. They went to the synagogue and Jesus started teaching. And the people were amazed. Why? He wasn’t like the legal experts who simply read interpretations of the law – imagine the excitement of listening to someone read from the phone book. But nothing dull about him, Jesus stood there and said, “Now is the time! Change your hearts and lives!”
In the midst of this, someone with an “evil spirit” yelled out to him. Jesus told the demon to be silent and come out of the man. The demon shook and screamed and it did leave the man, leaving everyone shaken who watched this happen. How can he do such a thing? And immediately news about Jesus spread throughout the region.
That’s when Jesus and his four disciples left the synagogue and went to Simon’s house to eat and rest. Only a couple days on the job, I can only imagine those four new disciples wondering what they had gotten themselves into. But at least it wouldn’t be boring!
They arrived at Simon’s house and discovered his mother-in-law was in bed with a fever. Jesus healed her and so now news about the demon at the synagogue and news about Simon’s mother-in-law spread and by that night the whole town was crowded outside the door of the house, begging to see Jesus. People brought loved ones and neighbors who were sick or demon-possessed to have Jesus heal them. It went on all night.
In the morning Jesus tried to find a deserted place where he could pray alone, imagine the exhaustion of so many desperate people crying out in need. But they tracked him down and so Jesus and his 4 disciples left town so they could go spread the good news in other places. We’re not even in chapter 2 yet, but Mark’s in a hurry for Jesus to share this good news – “You too can change your hearts and lives.”
But back to Simon’s unnamed mother-in-law – maybe we can give her a name like Blanche or Henrietta. She’s notable in part because she is the first woman who appears in the gospel. But why is she so defined by her traditional gender role? However, with Jesus, there’s often more than what’s on the surface, so let’s look a little deeper.
The word that gets stuck in my craw is “serve.” On its own, it’s a great word. But in the context of, “there’s hungry men so go serve them some dinner,” well, that’s another thing. But it turns out, Mark chose a word that does indeed have deeper meaning. In fact, it’s the same word used just a few verses before when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness and the angels “served” him. Another way to translate that one Greek word used in two different settings is “ministered.”[1] As in, angels ministered to Jesus. And in the same way, Simon’s mother-in-law “ministered” to Jesus. And with that, one commentator called her the first Deacon in the church. Another called her a “disciple,” one of the first to quietly demonstrate a way to follow Jesus.
What’s the difference? To serve someone vs. ministering to someone. To me, it’s more. Synonyms for “ministered to” include, “tended to, nursed, and comforted.” Definitely more than “fixed him some dinner,” though maybe she did that too if that’s what he needed. To minister to someone is to listen to what they need, even if all they need is someone to listen. To minister to a community is to do what the community needs that you have the gift to fulfill. This church is full of ministers – not folks who are ordained, though we have our share. Folks like you who see a need and do it – and often, never noticed.
To be clear, to serve is not a bad thing. And I’m not saying gender roles are necessarily a bad thing, but there is much more to Simon’s mother-in-law than jumping up to fix dinner.
That’s a lesson that James and John, who were there that day, didn’t understand. They saw the whole thing happen but still had the nerve to approach Jesus one day and say, “We want you to do whatever we ask of you.” Um, OK, what’s that? “We want to sit next to you in your glory, one at your right hand and one at your left.” Facepalm. Holding back the desire to curse them out, OK – my desire for Jesus to curse them out – he replied, “Whoever wishes to be great must be your servant.” And added, “Even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” Yes, Jesus said about himself the same thing, used the same word, as Simon’s mother-in-law. She is an extraordinary example of a disciple.
In fact, one more extraordinary thing about her. Remember how she lay on the bed with a fever? Jesus came, took her hand, and “raised her up.” The only other time Mark uses that specific word “raised” is about Jesus himself. At the very end of Mark, the second to the last verse, the women who came to prepare the body of Jesus for burial were told he was not there because he has been “raised” up.
Simon’s mother-in-law is definitely not a gender stereotype. This passage is not confirmation that a woman’s place is in the kitchen as, if you can believe it, but of course you can, some male commentators have said that this passage proves.
So again, to minister to someone is to listen to what they need, even if all they need is someone to listen. To minister to a community is to do what the community needs that you have the gift to fulfill. As I said, this church is full of ministers. Folks like you who see a need. Some out front, others in ways that no one knows. Jere McInerney highlighted this in her Moderator’s column a few months ago. All the somebodies that no one knows about. People who want no recognition, so we started recognizing them in our weekly Mission Minute.
- Like Alyssa James who ministers to the community by counting the offering every week. And sings in the choir and blesses us with a toddler who brings us joy.
- And Pam Adler who ministers to the community by helping us learn each other’s names. Who gets those name tags ordered? Who puts them away every week?
- Like Kim McDaniel who ministers to us by preparing communion every month. All we know is that somehow there is always bread on the communion table on the first Sunday. Did anyone know how or who did that?
- And like Marjorie Wahlsten who comes to the office every week to go through the black pads to record visitors and send a note of welcome. So important for someone to do that.
It’s dangerous to begin naming people, but these are just four examples of extraordinary people, like Simon’s mother-in-law, who do what they can do to minister to our community. For them and everyone of you who does what only you and Jesus know, inside the church and out in our community, thank you. We see you.
[1] Mary Ann Tolbert, Women’s Bible Commentary, Westminster John Knox, 1992, page 267. Also in commentary from Feasting on the Word