From the Daily Lectionary for Wednesday in the First Week after the Epiphany
Mark 1:29-45
As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening, at sunset, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered around the door. And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, “Everyone is searching for you.” He answered, “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.” And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.
A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
Unlike John’s ethereal speculations as to the theological considerations of the identity of Jesus, Mark’s Gospel is terse narrative action. Whereas John uses Greek philosophical categories to get at the theological significance of Jesus of Nazareth, Mark lets his narrative action speak for itself.
There are a number of things that make Mark’s Gospel unique, but perhaps the most prominent is that there is no resurrection appearance in Mark, only a young man dressed in white at the empty tomb, saying, second hand, that Jesus is alive and has gone to Galilee.
Luke and Matthew wrote their Gospels some ten to fifteen years after Mark’s Gospel, and they are using Mark’s text as a template, including much of Mark’s material in their narratives. Both Luke and Matthew add resurrection appearances to their Gospels, unsatisfied with Mark’s finale. Apparently, not just Luke and Matthew had problems with Mark’s ending. The early Church fathers some years later commissioned an alternative ending to Mark, which included a resurrection appearance. Some modern translations of the bible include as a supplement to Mark’s text the alternative ending.
So, what’s the deal? Does Mark not believe in the Resurrection? Is he taking literary license, adding a little mystery, a little intrigue? Well, here’s why, I think, this Gospel is the most relevant of the four for us postmodern believers. Throughout Mark’s text the Greek root word for resurrection appears nine times. This passage is the first instance. Jesus takes Simon’s mother-in-law’s hand and “raises her up.” The very same word for resurrection. It will punctuate the action of Mark’s narrative: The Synagogue leader’s dead daughter “raised,” the paraplegic told to “stand, and take up his bed” same word; the man with the withered hand is told “stand up.”
The point, I think, is that resurrection is not just about Jesus. It is an ongoing and present reality occurring amid the mundane iterations of our suffering world. Jesus is baptized into the vocation of raising up the suffering of our world; and that vocation, brothers and sisters, is ours as well.
A Prayer from the Great Vigil of Easter (BCP p. 291)
O God, by the Passover of your Son you have brought us out of sin into righteousness and out of death into life: Grant to those who are sealed by your Holy Spirit the will and the power to proclaim you to all the world; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
