Text: Mark 1:29-39
Every time I read this story in the gospel, I am reminded of the trip I took to the Holy Land many years ago. I was fortunate enough to make such a trip, which included visiting the town of Capernaum. It is a small village really. The archeological work has shown that the Synagogue was no more than 20, 30 steps from the houses people lived in. That revelation really changes the way we understand this story. For Jesus to heal Simon’s mother-in-law, and to have healed and cast out so many demons among the people - people heard the news very quickly. It would have been no trouble at all to walk 20, 30 steps to the house where Jesus was healing people and look through the door. What Jesus did - it became the news of the whole community. It became a community affair.
When I think of how life is like for us - and this is mainly for those of us in the United States - life is much more private. People live in their homes to be separated from others. It is not looked favorably to simply visit without an invitation. People also do not invite many people to their homes. And what happens in our homes is also a private matter - we think that in many ways, we can hide our suffering or our own afflictions from others. Yet, in my experience, as much as we try to keep such things private, people end up knowing anyway. Yet, they respect the right to privacy and do not get involved. This can be ok, but at times it is not.
This time of year, the beginning of February, always brings certain feelings for me. Both my father and my mother died in February, although in separate years. My dad’s passing, while it was sudden and created a hard time for our family, was easier. My dad was a good man, his life was celebrated. My mother however, struggled with alcohol most of her life and never got better. People in our town knew about her struggles, but no one reached out to help because they didn’t want to violate our privacy as a family. As I think back to that time, I don’t think they were bad people for not helping. They just didn’t how to help, and at the time asking someone about things like addiction was not acceptable.
I think the true power of Jesus’ healing and casting out demons isn’t simply the act itself. It is that Jesus made this healing and freeing people of their afflictions a community affair. Jesus performed these acts in the presence of the whole community for all to see. In doing this, he heals the whole community. He frees the whole community so that they can live together in wholeness. I wonder if Jesus would perform such things today - publicly addressing what we try to keep private. How could that change our communities today?
While we have made many advances in talking and raising awareness about mental health, trauma, and addiction, there is still quite a bit of stigma that causes us to keep it hidden; to keep it private. This is true in the Church as well. Just like the disciples who follow Jesus into the neighboring towns to heal and cast out demons, we too are called to follow Jesus to make people’s suffering a community affair. To not just talk about them, but to actually find ways to include people who are suffering from them in our communities and congregations. In doing so, something happens. People are not just healed, but we see and feel the presence of Jesus among us. And we see and feel how Jesus is healing and freeing our whole community to be closer to what the Kingdom of God is. It is for us to consider how we might follow Jesus in this way. Yet we do so, knowing that Jesus freely and graciously comes near to us in our suffering and affliction, just as he did in Capernaum so long ago. Amen.