Scripture Reference: Mark 1:14-45

This Is Why He Has Come

Please read Mark 1:29-39 for the background to this section.

That Sabbath evening, Jesus finds Himself surrounded by intense excitement. The next stage of the story contains two major surprises. The synagogue service is over and the people spill out, full of excitement with their news. But Jesus and His group of four go home with Simon and Andrew, very likely they are still in Capernaum, and in what follows we can hear Simon Peter’s voice as he sits down years later and recalls it all for Mark. This is clearly his own, eyewitness account:

“We went back to my place, the five of us. My mother-in-law was sick; she had had this fever for weeks. Normally she was so active, but she was just flat out. Well, of course we told Jesus, and you know what He did? He simply walked into the room, took hold of her hand and hoisted her to her feet! And that was that! The fever was gone! No trace of weakness, she insisted on sorting out the meal for us all then and there.”

So Peter’s mother-in-law is healed. But Jesus does not have peace for long after His lunch. As soon as the sun goes down and the Sabbath is over, the crowd starts to gather. There has been just long enough for everyone in Capernaum and the surrounding area to hear what happened in the synagogue this morning; it’s not hard to guess that in a densely packed village like Capernaum, news of the healing in the house has got around too. I doubt that there is an orderly queue outside Simon Peter’s house in Capernaum that night. There are at least dozens, maybe scores of sick, injured and demonized people outside the door. Some have brought themselves; others have been cajoled, carried or dragged here by their families. No matter, because Jesus heals them all. There is no illness, no condition that Jesus can’t tackle. There’s no demon that can resist His command. Such is His divine power; such is His authority.

Finally the crowd clears, the last straggler has gone and Jesus can rest. It had been dark for hours by this time. Surely He will need a good rest, but apparently that is not His priority. Again we hear Simon Peter’s voice behind Mark’s narrative:

“It was just getting light when we got up. We looked round for Jesus, but He was gone!”

So they go looking, and somehow they find him. Jesus is out praying in “a desolate place.” Literally, Mark is telling us that it was a “desert, a solitary, place.” That is odd, because the whole area was in fact thickly populated, with well-cultivated farmland among the towns and villages. But, as you can see back in the very beginning of the chapter, the desert is the place where people go in order to meet with God, to see spiritual realities more clearly.

To Be Continued

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