One Day With Jesus

Mark 1:29-39

I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were here.

Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (San Francisco, CA.: Harper San Francisco, 1998), 283.

Service

One of the gifts Jesus exercised is on display in vs 29-31, as well as vs 32-34.

1. vs 29-31

Jesus, with His disciples, enters Peter’s home. Upon entering, the household shares with Jesus that Peter’s mother-in-law was ill. Notice how Jesus responds:

a. ‘He went to her...’ Often, as will become clear in vs 32-ff, those who were ill came to Jesus. Here, Jesus initiates the action. Jesus breaks multiple cultural traditions by ‘going’ to her.

b. He ‘took her by the hand...’ In an era when disease was thought to spread simply by physical contact, Jesus risked His own health by physical proximity and physically touching her. Of course over the course of Jesus’ ministry He will go to many and touching those who are in need is never a barrier for Jesus.

c. He ‘raised her up.’ By His touch the fever was broken and immediately she received strength. Her healing was such that she immediately set about serving her son-in-law and his guests.

2. vs 32-34

The Jewish Sabbath began at sundown Friday and ended at sundown on Saturday. Sabbath service at the synagogue probably occured mid-day on Sabbath.

No work was allowed on Sabbath. ‘Healing’ not allowed. So, after sundown a families and friends brought their ill and possessed people to Simon Peter’s home - looking for Jesus that He might heal them just as He had healed the man at synagogue service hours earlier.

Mark relates healings of fever (1:29–31), skin disease (1:40–45),

paralysis (2:1–12), atrophied muscles (3:1–6) and continual blood loss (5:25–34),

and of people who were deaf and dumb (7:32–37), blind (8:22–26; 10:46–52), had epilepsy (9:14–29) or had died (5:21–43).

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mark: An Introduction and Commentary, ed. Eckhard J. Schnabel, vol. 2, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2017), 60.

When Mark records that Jesus healed ‘many’ he isn’t suggesting that Jesus failed to heal some. Rather, he was indicating that Jesus healed all who were brought to Him.

What impact might this experience have had on those early disciples?

It is clear that Jesus had the ability to heal and to expel demons. As His disciples watched Jesus respond they saw genuine compassion, the acts of a true servant - one who does whatever is required.

What reward did Jesus receive in serving these many people? None - except the satisfaction of knowing His Father’s favor for obedience.

Serving is listed in the later NT as a ‘spiritual gift.’ Serving is also defined as an activity in which all believers engage.

All are expected to serve. Some are spiritually gifted to serve beyond what might be considered humanly possible. The real question facing us - in the same way it faced those early disciples is this: Are we willing to serve - without reservation, without hesitation as Jesus did?

I am learning from Jesus to live my life as he would live my life if he were here. (Dallas Willard)

Solitude

An overlooked spiritual discipline in our era is simply being with God.

I confess. Being alone is not something I enjoy. For years being alone prompted increased anxiety attacks, causing me sleepless nights and stress filled days.

After a busy day filled with activity we find Jesus slipping away just to be alone.

Moses, Paul Elijah, and many other men and women of God is God’s Word were shaped by periods of alone-ness.Some of these men and women were isolated for years - and some for months or even hours.

In his helpful book, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald Whitney lists the following reasons for practicing solitude:

To hear the voice of God better; To express worship to God (Habakkuk 2:20 (HCSB)

But the Lord is in His holy temple; let everyone on earth be silent in His presence.);

To express faith in God;…

To Be Physically and Spiritually Restored;

To Regain a Spiritual Perspective;

To Seek the Will of God;

To Learn Control of the Tongue.

Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines For the Christian Life (Colorado Springs, CO.: NavPress, 1991) 178 - 186.

Prayer

“…there He was praying...” vs 35.

Praying is the act of talking to and listening to God. God expects His people to pray. Jesus taught His disciples to pray - by example and specific patterns to use in prayer.

Jesus, having served so many the night before, may have been physically exhausted. He found rest and restoration not in sleep, but in spending time alone and using that time to pray. One commentary notes:

Jesus cannot extend himself outward in compassion without first attending to the source of his mission and purpose with the Father;

and, conversely, his oneness with the Father compels him outward in mission

James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 66.

If Jesus cannot serve without a powerful sense of God’s purpose and presence, how in the world can we expect to serve when we are prayerless?

Dallas Willard, whom I have quoted often in this series of messages because of how insightful his books are once defined prayer like this:

“Talking to God about what we are doing together.”

[Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1998), 243.]

I just love that definition. Talking with God - a conversation, enjoying a relationship, about what we are doing ‘together.’ Jesus did not act apart from His Father’s specific will and instruction. I look forward to the time in heaven I can overhear Jesus talking to His Father!

Jesus is often described at prayer in the gospels. Mark only records three places - each one at a critical point in Jesus’ life.

First, here in Mark 1:35. Next, Mark records

Jesus praying in Mark 6:46

Mark 6:46 HCSB

After He said good-bye to them, He went away to the mountain to pray.

This was after Jesus had fed 5,000 men and their families. He sensed that they were about to crown Him as their earthly king. He dispersed the crowd by making His disciples get in a boat headed for the opposite shore of the Sea of Galilee. Then He went to the top of the mountain and prayed…talked with God about what they were doing together.

The final time Mark’s gospel records Jesus at prayer is in Mark 14. Prior to His betrayal, arrest, trial, execution, and resurrection Jesus takes three of His closest followers and asks them to wait and watch with Him in prayer.

Mark 14:32–36 HCSB

Then they came to a place named Gethsemane, and He told His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be deeply distressed and horrified. Then He said to them, “My soul is swallowed up in sorrow —to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake.” Then He went a little farther, fell to the ground, and began to pray that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him. And He said, “Abba, Father! All things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

Going

This is not necessarily a word you might find when you think about spiritual disciplines. Going…doesn’t sound very ‘spiritual.’

Yet in the context of what Jesus is doing in transforming His disciples, ‘going’ is an important discipline.

Listen to Peter and his companions when they locate Jesus:

Mark 1:37 HCSB

They found Him and said, “Everyone’s looking for You!”

They were asking Jesus to stay there in Capernaum. Crowds had likely gathered at Peter’s house to experience healing and listen to Jesus teaching ‘as one with authority.’

Jesus’ reply is not to ignore those gathered at Peter’s house. Rather His reply is that His message, His purpose cannot be confined to just one location.

“This is why I have come....” Jesus came to go - into the villages and communities in Galilee.

After His resurrection He gathered His followers and gave them a clear command:

Matthew 28:19–20 HCSB

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 everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Acts 1:8 (HCSB)

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you,

and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”