Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
February 8, 2009
Sermon by Pastor John Marboe
The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark. (Mark 1:29‑39)
As soon as [Jesus and
the disciples] 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
sundown, 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
The Gospel of the Lord.
It’s a well-known fact, but perhaps little understood
especially by Christians, that Jesus was a Jew.
This may not at first appear the most profound thing to say, but it is,
when you think about it, a bit startling—that Jesus is Jewish. Amy-Jill Levine, in a very fine book that I
recommend, called The Misunderstood Jew, makes this case convincingly;
that in order to understand Jesus, he must be understood as a Jew who lived and
taught in a Jewish context. And when
that is forgotten, or at least not appreciated, it leads to a misunderstanding
of Jesus as well as a misunderstanding of our Jewish neighbors.
Christianity, as I think we know, was born within
Judaism. Only later in history did the
Christian church split off from Judaism.
Jesus was a Jew; so were all of his disciples. Paul was a Jew, and so
was Mark, the author of today’s Gospel.
Jesus worshipped in the temple, he kept kosher, he never ate pork, he
observed the Passover, he went to synagogue; he knew the scriptures, we call
the Old Testament, inside and out, and he loved them. He was bar mitzphaed at twelve or thirteen
years old. He wore fringes on his
garments, just as some Jews do today to remind them of the Commandments.
Jesus was a Jew, and he was really Jewish. I know this sounds almost funny to say,
because we all know that. But do
we? Do we know what it means,
really? Most of us don’t really know
what it means to be Jewish.
I recently went to my first bar mitzvah. I’m a little embarrassed to say it was only my
first bar mitzvah. One of the things
that happened for me there was that I learned something about Jesus. Even though there was no mention of Jesus, I
learned something about Jesus because, as I watched Noah up there being bar
mitzvahed and reading for the first time publicly from the Torah, I realized
that this was also Jesus’ experience. Jesus was not confirmed in a Lutheran
church. Jesus was bar mitzvahed, which literally means to “become a son of the
law.”
Most of us don’t really think of Jesus as a Jew in a
Jewish context, not naturally. Look at
our depictions of Jesus. Look at our
statue, for example, this Torvaldson statue of Jesus in the front of our
sanctuary. Does it look Jewish to
you? No?
It’s Greek. It’s Greek, in terms
of its idealization and proportional features.
One of our confirmation students looked and said, “Jesus is cut!” That’s
very Greek, to show well chiseled male form.
It’s Western; it’s Anglicized.
Think about the depictions of Jesus in your children’s Bible. I remember those in mine. Jesus looked a lot more like a Smith or a
Nelson than he did a Cohen or a Levine.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to depict Jesus in a variety of ethnic
ways. Spiritually speaking, Jesus
belongs to all people of every race and color.
But to forget, in practical and historical terms, that Jesus is Jewish
is to misunderstand much of the story about him.
Our text this morning is from the beginning of the
Gospel of Mark. Here’s how Mark begins: “There was a Jew named Jesus, who
passed through water, spent 40 days wandering in the wilderness, was tested
there, crosses back over the
Now, “salvation,” you will maybe recall, is a word whose
literal meaning is “healing.” It’s the
same word from which we get the word “salve.”
And sure enough, our Gospel reading this morning shows Jesus delivering
people from unclean spirits and healing people of their illnesses. And then, just like Moses, he goes off by
himself to be with God and to pray.
Sometimes Christians think the Old and the New Testament
almost depict two different Gods—that the Old Testament God is harsh and
angry and rule-based, and the New Testament God is loving and kind and gentle. Jesus would be offended by this notion, as
would Mark, the Gospel writer. The Old
Testament was their only scripture, and that God was their God.
The New Testament does not replace or supersede the Old
Testament. Think of it like this: the
New Testament is like another act in the same basic play about God’s salvation
in the world. Sometimes Christians make
the mistake of thinking that God’s salvation in the Old Testament was physical,
while God’s salvation in the New Testament is spiritual. But our text today shows that Jesus saved
bodies as well as souls.
How is God’s saving presence manifest in our world
today? The story of
Last week, nearly a thousand Jews, Christians, and
Muslims from around Minnesota gathered at the State Capitol to pray, to
discuss, and to advocate for the needs of our most needy neighbors and least
powerful citizens. When budget decisions
are made at the Capitol, it’s easy to overlook what Jesus called “The least of
these, my brethren.” But God does not
overlook them. God saw the children of
Our stories are there to help us to see. Most of our neighbors without access to
health care and without homes to live in, in
Our text today tells us that tending to the healing of
those who are sick is a sign of the kingdom, wherever and however it is
done. It’s not enough to be saved; it’s
not enough for our neighbors. Jesus
healed Peter’s mother-in-law. What did
that involve? First, he saw the
need. And this is no small thing. Do we notice needs? I know a young mom who brings her children
every week to a nursing home. Why does
she do it? Well, in part, to be helpful
to people in need, but also to teach her children to see the needs of the
elderly in our community. Those kids
will always see the world differently because of that.
Jesus responds with compassion. “Compassion” means to “suffer with.” Caring always involves the cost of
suffering. It means not insulating
ourselves from the pain of others. Next,
Jesus took the hand of the sick woman.
Healing involves touch, it involves contact, it involves involvement.
What are we to be about as Christians? What is the church about? We are to be no less than a healing presence
in the world, a liberating presence in the world, and a people of prayer. This was the way of Jesus. This was Jesus’ ministry, rooted deeply in
the Jewish teachings of a saving God in the world. This is what it is to be church, in the
tradition of Jesus.
Amen.