Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed"

 Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.  But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once.  So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her.  And she served them.

At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.  And the whole city was gathered together at the door.  Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.  And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.  When they found Him, they said to Him, "Everyone is looking for You."  But He said to them, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth."  And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.

 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, "If You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."  As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.  And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."  However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.

- Mark 1:29-45

Yesterday we read that after John the Baptist was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.  Repent, and believe in the gospel."  And as He walked by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men."  They immediately left their nets and followed Him.  When He had gone a little farther from there, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the boat mending their nets.  And immediately He called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went after Him.  Then they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath He entered the synagogue and taught.  And they were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.  Now there was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit.  And he cried out, saying, "Let us alone!  What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?  Did You come to destroy us?  I know who You are -- the Holy One of God!"  But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!"  And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him and cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.  Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this?  What new doctrine is this?  For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him."  And immediately His fame spread throughout all the region around Galilee.

  Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.  But Simon's wife's mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once.  So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her.  And she served them.    This story of the healing of Simon Peter's mother-in-law is so well-known that it appears in all three Synoptic Gospels.  It tells us that Peter was married and had a family.  His home was to become a kind of headquarters for Jesus' ministry.  But the attention paid to the fever does not seem to be simply about Jesus' miraculous powers of healing.  Rather, what we see is a restoration of this woman to her own place in Jesus' ministry, in an important and essential role of service, just as Jesus' ministry would be characterized importantly by the women who ministered to Him and to the disciples.  In fact, the word in Greek translated as served also means "to minister," and is actually the root of the word for "deacon."

At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed.  And the whole city was gathered together at the door.  Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him.   Mark's Gospel gives us the events of a day in the life of this early ministry.  We note how the sick and the demon-possessed are gathered together, in an understanding of both needing healing.  In fact, it fits with the traditional understanding of the Church as hospital.  My study bible remarks on the fact that Jesus did not allow the demons to speak because they knew Him.  The revelation of Christ's identity must come through His ministry, which unfolds in a particular way.  Moreover, the people have great expectations of the Messiah, as one who will lead Israel back to worldly greatness.  Moreover, Jesus will need to contend with a growing hostility from the religious leadership, and He also desires a genuine faith not based only on miraculous signs.

Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.  And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him.  When they found Him, they said to Him, "Everyone is looking for You."  But He said to them, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth."  And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.   Again, we are given the events of a day; in this case, the early morning of the day following the Sabbath.  Jesus rises a long while before daylight, and goes to a place where He can be solitary in order to pray.  My study bible calls this an example of spiritual life, set forth for all of us.  Although Christ is God incarnate, He prayed continually.  Frequently, as in this example, He found solitary places in order to be free from distraction, despite the fact that "everyone is looking for You."  Christ's ministry springs directly from  His communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, and from there flows to people in their needs.  His praying in the morning, my study bible says, teaches us that we must put as first priority our commitment to God, and only then will we be equipped to appropriately serve others.  Let us note also Jesus' next priority.  Although the multitude demands His attention, His emphasis to Peter is the priority of preaching, "because for this purpose I have come forth."  Healing takes place after this, just as it did after His preaching in the synagogue at Capernaum (in yesterday's reading, above).

 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, "If You are willing, You can make me clean."  Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."  As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.  And He strictly warned him and sent him away at once, and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."  However, he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.  Here we have an expression by Christ that will define what it is to be "God-like."  In this particular healing, Jesus displays His characteristic personality in that He is moved with compassion, an expression that will repeat itself in the Gospels (Matthew 9:36, 14:14, 18:27, Mark 6:34).  It is a turn of phrase that in the original Greek interestingly involves body, soul, and spirit, for it indicates an actual movement in the body, as the word for compassion is rooted in a word for the "inward parts" of the body, in particular heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys.   This is the word from which we derive the English word for the "spleen."   To touch a leper was forbidden (Leviticus 7:21), and so Jesus' compassion drives Him in a similar way that will get Him in trouble with the authorities, such as healing on a Sabbath.  We note, at the same time, Jesus' respect for the law and the community, as He commands the healed leper to go to the priest and also offer to God what Moses commanded.  (See Leviticus 13, 14 for the biblical law; Deuteronomy 24:8 describes the purification of lepers and leprous houses, a duty entrusted to the priests.)

In the parable of the Judgment, which Jesus gives in Matthew 25:31-46, Jesus speaks figuratively of dividing sheep from goats, as does a shepherd.  On the one hand are those who have shown compassion through what they have done in their lives.  On the other hand are those who have been, for want of a better word, neglectful.  If we chose to, we could look at these actions in psychological terms, as dynamics within a family or a community.  Acts of compassion are those which nurture and heal, and address what is harmful, hurtful.  Neglect is akin to abandonment, leaving a person or persons on their own to deal with distressing, disabling, harmful circumstances.  In short, compassion is the act of doing what one can to help.  But in the language of the Scriptures, this is anything but a detached kind of charity or duty.  In the language used for Jesus being moved with compassion, we are taught directly about an inward reality, even about empathy.  It is in the inward, physical parts of Jesus, where He is moved to care for the sight of one afflicted before Him.  This beautiful understanding is one that makes us think of what it means that Jesus is God incarnate, the Son who has become a human being through the Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary.  On the one hand, His compassion is a characteristic of God who is love and who loves (1 John 4:8, John 17:26).   But on the other hand, the expression itself tells us of what it means to be a full example of a human being, and no doubt also reflects something of the human nature derived from the woman who was His mother, the Virgin Mary.  In the history of the Church, it is she who is the saint above all saints, known above all for her unfailing compassion.  In historic hymns, both Jesus and His mother Mary are called those who never turn anyone away.  As "moved with compassion" also indicates a bodily feeling, it gives us a sense in which Jesus' humanity is fully at work with His divinity, manifesting His identity in the world as Son of Man.  The expression also indicates to us in a powerful way that our charity is not meant to be merely for show, nor is it merely something we do as a good work.  To be "like Christ" involves not just our pocketbook or a willingness to do good things in the world.  It involves a capacity for a hands on (in our present reading, literally so!) capability to sense, see, and know what is happening with those who are around ourselves or in our community in some way.  It is a tangible way of understanding and knowing what is happening to others, and not at all a theoretical design for making life better in the abstract or simply doing something as a duty.  Everything we do also involves our own inward parts, our own capacity for growth in a particular direction, our capacity for compassion, to respond to need.   This does not mean that we fix problems, so to speak.   If we look closely at Christ's parable of Judgment in Matthew 25, we read that among those things done by the sheep, Jesus includes, ". . . I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me."  Let us note carefully that visiting and coming to others is not about alleviating their circumstances physically, but rather a clear expression of compassion -- of simply being with another in their circumstance of difficulty.  Jesus also says, "I was a stranger and you took me in."  In English this would indicate shelter, but in the Greek it does not.  It is about welcoming, literally gathering together.  It is a verb that is the root for "synagogue."  Therefore the operative sense here is about how we treat strangers, whether that be a person who wanders into a church for the first time, a new student, or perhaps someone simply left out because they are an outsider, a guest, a "foreigner" in any sense of that word.   Even the actions of giving food or drink, as Jesus states them, are responses to need.  The Greek reads, "I thirsted"  and "I hungered."  Well, we all know that to thirst and to hunger can take on many meanings, many needs, just as Jesus through His ministry offers food and drink that feed us spiritually; see, for example, John 4:13-14, 32).   My study bible also notes of today's passage that, as Jesus touches the leper, He shows that He is not subject to the Law but over it.  It comments that "to the clean, nothing is unclean."  What He shows us through this healing, and the others that will get Him into trouble with the authorities, is that He lives the purpose of the Law, its entire structure meant to create community and preparation for His gospel.  For us at this time of Lent, it is time to spend our own time in prayer, and seek out as much as possible the solitary time we need without distractions, as He does early in the morning before it is light.   This valuable time with God is meant to strengthen us in our own capacity for this movement of our inward parts, a union of body, soul, and spirit that unifies our capacity for faith and not merely for abstract ideals.  It is all about the fullness of what it means to be a human being.  What we seek to develop is a deeper communion with God, and so we grow organically with our faith, in a holistic fashion that does not leave aside anything of who we are.  We are called to identity in this way:  to find ourselves as to whom we truly need to be, and to discard that which is false or based on a false set of values and misleading idols in our lives.  The true circumstances of our faith should render us, also, more whole and healed, for this is what we seek in Him and in the entire community of believers, present, past, and future.   To know that we are loved is to be capable of loving; it is here we find faith, hope, charity even in all kinds of circumstances -- and above all else, love.