Mark 1:29-39

“…in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”[i] (Mark 1:3b, NRSV)

In the gospel lection for this Sunday, the wilderness is mentioned for the third time in the first chapter of Mark.  Jesus has an intriguing relationship with the wilderness.  John the Baptist suggested that it is in the wilderness that the way needs to be prepared and the Lord’s paths made straight.  After his baptism, “the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” (Mark 1:12-13) It was there he was tempted by Satan and that the angels waited on him.  In our text today, after an evening of healing and casting out demons, Jesus returned to the wilderness.  “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted(wilderness) place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35)

With Lent close at hand, it would be wise for us to lean in and listen for what the wilderness work of Jesus might entail.  The wilderness was a deserted and lonely place on the outskirts of civilization.  Solitary locations where no one wanted to go, the wilderness was desolate where things would grow only with great difficulty.  The wilderness could be deadly; a place where most things were either indifferent toward visitors or outright hostile to them.  “It was commonly believed that demons were especially attracted to places like bathhouses, graveyards and deserts.  Readers would thus sense the suspense as Jesus battled with Satan on Satan’s own turf.”[ii] (Keener, 136) 

The wilderness was where Israel had wandered, meeting their Holy God and coming to grips with their own identity, slavery and separation.  In the first chapter of Mark the destructive features of the wilderness do not seem to be contained to the desert.  They spilled over into the synagogue where an “unclean spirit” made a loud appearance.[iii]  The deadliness of the wilderness seeped into the home of Simon, whose mother-in-law was stricken with a fever.  The evils present in the desert also seemed to be present in many homes through Galilee as people brought the sick and the demon possessed to Simon’s door to see Jesus.  The temptations in the desert, became an ongoing battle with destructive forces that bled over into the synagogue, Simon’s home, and the town and region.

“…they told him about her, at once He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up.”

Jesus responded to the wilderness that had entered into Simon’s home in the form of a feverish Mother-in-Law by going to her at once.  Proximity and closeness to those suffering from the creeping wilderness is what Jesus modeled for us.  He drew near enough to take her by the hand.  He got close enough to help lift her up.  No words were spoken.  No command was given.  The close proximity of Jesus alone was able to heal and the fever left her.  Lest we think it unjust that Simon’s mother-in-law rises from her fever to serve Jesus, we need to remember that she was only continuing the work of waiting on Jesus that the angels did while Jesus was in the wilderness being tempted. The angels and Simon’s Mother-In-Law become, in a way, the first deacons.

John Wesley saw such proximity to the sick as a means of grace.  Like prayer, fasting, and the Lord’s Supper, Wesley viewed visiting the sick as an ordinary channel, “which convey[s] the grace of God to the souls of men.”[iv]  Wesley goes on in his sermon, On Visiting The Sick, to speak forcefully against our tendency to distance ourselves from the those in need.  He writes…

One great reason why the rich, in general, have so little sympathy for the poor, is, because they so seldom visit them. Hence it is, that, according to the common observation, one part of the world does not know what the other suffers. Many of them do not know, because they do not care to know: they keep out of the way of knowing it; and then plead their voluntary ignorances an excuse for their hardness of heart.[v]

On that sabbath day Jesus had cast an unclean spirit out of a man in the synagogue, and then lifted up a woman stricken with a fever.  That same evening, as the sabbath came to an end and the new day began, we discover that Jesus’ proximity to the sick and suffering, and his authority to cast out demons and heal, drew a crowd.  “And the whole city was gathered around the door.” (Mark 1:33, NRSV) Forbidden by sabbath laws to move to far or be healed, the community of the vulnerable ceased to cloister and hide and instead gathered around Jesus to be made whole. No voice meant no power.  By not permitting the demons to speak, Jesus made it clear that their power and influence had no place in the lives of the people he was liberating[vi]

“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.”

After the crowd went home for the night, but before first light Jesus went and found a wilderness place and turned it into a place a prayer.  Where earlier in the chapter Jesus had been cast out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted, now he went to the solitary place with no mention of prompting.  In the dark, Jesus created a new landscape; he altered the topography of the wilderness making it into a place of prayer.

Simon and the disciples searched Jesus out insisting there was more work to be done amongst the crowds in Capernaum.  But, Jesus came not just to weed the wilderness out of Capernaum.  Going to his neighbors was what he came to do.  “He will not make his headquarters in Simon’s home and wait for the people to come to him.”[vii] So he called the disciples to go with him so he could proclaim, heal, teach and cast demons out in other towns as well.

In a few weeks as we follow Jesus down from the mountain of transfiguration into the valley of the season of Lent, I wonder if listening only to Jesus might look like us seeking to imitate his wilderness work.  The isolation, separation and desolation of the wilderness has likely crept beyond the outskirts and into our churches and homes.  Perhaps walking the way of the cross and suffering with Jesus might look less like giving something up and more like taking up the visitation of the sick.  What if, like Jesus we would make proximity with the sick, “a duty to which we are called, rich and poor, young and old, male and female?”[viii] It is possible that by drawing near to the suffering of another, our hearts would grow soft and humble, our pain might ease as we approach with divine assistance and without words or commands healing could flow.  Like Simon’s mother-in-law let’s be a people who rise up from our fever and serve Jesus disguised as the sick and suffering around us.  

The crowds that came to Simon’s door for healing and freedom from bondage, found welcome and were invited in to meet Jesus. A suitable Lenten discipline, consistent with imitating Jesus may well be to intentionally invite in the lost, the least and most vulnerable.  The isolation of the wilderness that has stolen into our hearts, communities and homes can best be undone by imitating Jesus and inviting the sick and suffering to draw near and join in.

Jesus turns the barren wilds, into a lush garden by entering intentionally and replacing loneliness with solitude through prayer.  Never in our lives have we prayed alone.  Our Father in heaven has always been near and heard our cries.  As Lent settles upon us, we would be wise to meet the creeping wilderness with consistent prayer.  Wherever we feel the pain of another, pray.  Whenever we discover our own sin and folly, pray.  In the moments where evil tempts and feels overwhelming, pray.  If like Jesus we pray, then with Jesus we will be able to rise and go to our neighbors to spread hope, healing and the good news that the kingdom of heaven has drawn near.       

[i] All Biblical quotations are taken from the NRSV found at www.biblegateway.com

[ii] Keener, Craig S. The Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. 1993.  Pg.136.

[iii] It is worth noting that the word translated “unclean” is the Greek term akathartos from which we get the term catharsis.  Does a lack of catharsis, unsettledness, or restlessness suggest an unclean spirit?

[iv] Wesley, John, On Visiting the Sick, https://www.biblesnet.com/john-wesley-on-visiting-the-sick.pdf

[v] Ibid.

[vi] It is worth reading the summary of demonic forces and their possible links to Roman military language in chapter five of “The Gospel of Mark and the Roman-Jewish War of 66-70CE” by Stephen Simon Kimondo.

[vii] Collins, Adela Yarbro, Mark: A Commentary, Hermeneia – A Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN. 2007, pg. 177.

[viii] Ibid. On Visiting the Sick.