Reflections on Scripture Fifth Sunday Gospel B Mission
Fifth Sunday of the Year: Gospel B
On leaving the synagogue he entered the house of Simon
and Andrew with James and John.
·
This is in Capernaum
Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with
a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand,
and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
·
This is one of two indications in the scriptures
that Simon was married.
·
This is the first woman that Mark mentions in
his Gospel.
·
It is not common for a visiting male to go into
the private quarters of a family nor is it common for a visiting male to touch
the hand of a woman.
·
Nothing is too
small for Jesus to deal with. Do we bring everything to Jesus or do we think
that he is not interested in small things? The issue is that Jesus is
interested in everything about us. To bring everything to Jesus is to indicate
our total surrender of ourselves to him.
When it was evening, after sunset,
they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
·
The reason they
waited till after sunset was that they waited for the end of the Sabbath.
Remember very little was permitted on the Sabbath that indicated work.
The whole town was gathered at the door. He
cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons,
not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
·
Mark
focus on the exorcisim of demons is in line with the mission of Jesus: to
confront and overthrow the strongholds of Satin.
·
One of Mark’s
themes will be Jesus not allowing people or spirits to tell others about him.
The reason for this is that the full understanding of Jesus as Messiah will not
be understood until his death and resurrection. We will see this throughout
Mark’s Gospel.
Rising very early before dawn, he
left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
·
Why do you think
Jesus prayed? He was busy and popular but he took time regularly to pray. Does
his example say anything to us?
·
How important is
prayer in our daily life? How much time do we give to the Lord in prayer each
day?
Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on
finding him said, "Everyone is looking for you." He told them,
"Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For
this purpose have I come." So he went into their synagogues, preaching and
driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee .
·
Jesus had a clear vision of his mission and did
not allow anything to distract him, including what others wanted or thought.
How clear is God’s vision for us and how committed are we to following that
vision no matter the results?
About the Author
0 comments