The Priority of Jesus (Mark 1:29-39)

There are certain things that are priorities in our lives. For most of us, our top priority is caring for and providing for our families, including supporting their health and offering guidance and wisdom to those who are younger in our families. We do that because we love our families! And we love our families because we are relational people, as God has created us to be. As Christians, we emphasize those priorities because we now live with the desire to fulfill the great commandment to love God and to be disciple-makers.

In our scripture text this week, we find Jesus doing the two things he prioritized in His ministry. In verses 29 – 34, we will find Jesus healing many people. Much of Jesus’ ministry was about healing and miracles. Then in verses 35-39, we will find Jesus focusing on the purpose of teaching and preaching. Jesus desired to take the gospel to the people. It was this message that drove the daily events of Jesus. Jesus’ priority was caring for people physically and spiritually. Both were driven by His love for Humanity, which would ultimately be demonstrated on the cross and in the resurrection.

As followers of Christ, we often miss the mark when it comes to our priority as a body of Christ. We, the church we have been called to worship the Lord and to make disciples of the nations. So, often the church gets distracted by the small things and, in that, loses the focus on why God had planted them in the community in which they minister. As we walk through the Gospel of Mark, we will see that the disciples often lose focus on Jesus’ ministry, and Jesus must constantly remind them of the mission. Today, as we walk through this commentary blog, we will be reminded of the priority of Jesus in His ministry and the priority we are to have as followers of Christ.

Following Jesus’ teaching in the Synagogue, he and the four (Simon, Andrew, James, and John) head to the house of Simon and Andrew. The house was not far from the synagogue, and it was time for lunch. When they arrived at the house, Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever. When Jesus was told about the sickness, he immediately went in and healed her, and she went to serving. “Peter’s mother-in-law gives a beautiful example to follow. Her response to Jesus’ touch was to wait on Jesus and his disciples immediately.” (Life Application Commentary).

That evening, the town got word of what had happened, and they brought all who had diseases, sickness, and demon possession, and Jesus healed them. “The people came to Jesus on Saturday evening after sunset. The day had been the Sabbath (1:21), their day of worship and rest, lasting from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. Jewish law prohibited traveling and carrying burdens on the Sabbath, so they waited until sunset (they needed to first see three stars to know the sun had set). After the sun went down, Sabbath was over, and the people searched for Jesus.” (Life Application Commentary). Mark uses some hyperbole when he says the whole town came to the door of the house of Simon and Andrew. Most commentators would say the whole was speaking primarily about all those who were sick and demon-possessed. Most likely, during this time, Capernaum had 1,500 or more residents. But those who were sick and in need were desperate for help because, unlike today, Physicians did more harm than good. Jeremiah J. Johnston, in his book “Unimaginable,” gives us a picture of the desperate nature of sickness in Roman culture. “The quest for healing of sickness and relief of pain in ancient times bordered on desperation, and it is not difficult to see why. Literary and archaeological remains suggest that on any given day, about one quarter of the population of the Roman Empire was ill, injured, or otherwise in need of medical help. Excavations of tombs where three or four generations of a family have been interred often find only about one-third of the members of a given family reach adulthood, and many of those who did reach adulthood did not make it to forty years of age.” (page 34). So, we see the need and desperation for Jesus to heal the people.

As the church, we must have deep compassion for those who are dealing with diseases and illnesses. That compassion must drive us to be the hands and feet of Jesus. The question is, what does that look like? Well, I think it begins by praying fervently for those who are dealing with sickness and disease and asking the Holy Spirit to bring about healing to them. Secondly, we can serve as a physical resource for those in need who have no transportation or family support system. We can pick them up, take them to doctors’ appointments, bring them the medicine they need, and simply be the physical support they need. What we cannot be is the crutch to the need, but we must be the hand up for the need. Again, we notice that once Simon’s mother-in-law was healed, she went to serving. So, once someone is back on their feet, we challenge and equip them to serve the Lord as well.

Application Question: How are you the hands and feet of Jesus?

After an evening of healing, Jesus rose early the next morning to head out to a private place and spend time with the Father in prayer. This was on going component of Jesus’ ministry. As we will read throughout Mark, we will find Jesus going to private places to pray following an active time of serving, teaching, or healing. As followers of Christ, this should be a great reminder that we must constantly spend time with the Father.

Once Simon and the others arose and couldn’t find Jesus, they went out looking for him. People still wanted Jesus’s attention because they wanted the physical touch of healing. “The crowds at Pete’s house came for the miracles. Now apparently, they want more. The call to repent and believe the gospel (1:15) was not on their spiritual radar.” (Christ-Centered Exposition). And it is at this moment that Jesus focuses the disciples on the mission. Jesus tells them, hey I came to preach, and we have other towns to get to, so let’s go.

“Neither the crowds nor the disciples understood why He had come into the world. But He knew! Jesus came to preach, to herald, to proclaim the gospel of salvation, a message that is both by Him and about Him. Indeed, He is the gospel! But sadly, the crowds missed Him.” (Christ-Centered Exposition). Just like the crowds missed Him in His day, people miss Jesus today. They had an idea of what they wanted Jesus to be, and so do many today. The reality is that Jesus is the Divine Son, who came to proclaim the message of redemption to humanity. It was this message that was at the center and was the priority of everything that Jesus did.

As followers of Christ, we have a calling and commission. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20). The message we are to proclaim is a simple one: repent of sin and believe in the Lord Jesus. This is the message that Jesus took town to town, and it is a priority because of its eternal impact.

Application question: Do you impact others with the message of repentance and belief?

As followers of Christ, we are called to a ministry of compassion and a mission of proclaiming repentance and belief. Those are our priorities as the church and as individual Christians. We are gifted in different ways, and each of those gifts has a purpose in serving others and proclaiming the hope of salvation. Today, you have an opportunity to use your gift to help someone with a heart of compassion, and you can share the hope of salvation.

I am going to close out with these words from the book of James. “22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.24For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.25But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:22-25). Let us be hearers and doers of the Word with Compassion and Mission!