Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time - B
The Good News
Mark 1:29-39

ON LEAVING the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.

When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. The whole town was gathered at the door. He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.

Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.

To proclaim the Kingdom of God was the real purpose for which Jesus came. It was his mission. It was his life. It was something that he was so passionate about that nobody could ever take him away from it. To confine him therefore to just one place such as Capernaum which was Simon Peter’s hometown, or to make him pursue only one aspect of that mission such as to heal the sick would be tantamount to a violation of that personal mandate. Hence, we can understand that when Simon Peter and his companions sought out Jesus, they found him in a deserted place, praying. They told him that everyone was looking for him, presumably for another round of healing. Jesus replied by urging them instead, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” And we are told, “So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.”

The concluding part of the Gospel episode this Sunday is prefaced actually by a summary report of sorts, that is, of Jesus’ healing stint in Capernaum. Early during that day, he healed Simon Peter’s mother-in-law who was “sick with fever.” Later after sunset people brought to him their sick and those “possessed by demons” and he obliged, responding to them generously as he, “He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons...” Most probably that surge of healing and exorcisms lasted late into the night. The Gospel tells us however that, “Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.” Jesus sought thus to be with God. After a long day of work, after an over-extended ministry to the people, of giving himself to them, all he wanted was to be with God. It has become evident to us by now that an essential part of Jesus’ life ministry or program was spending time alone with God, through which obviously he found his purpose or mission renewed, namely, to preach the Kingdom of God to all and not just to a few. Consequently, even his newfound friends and disciples, like Simon Peter, could not persuade him to stay on in Capernaum and to perform healing there for more people. For Jesus, healing the sick was not the sole purpose or the entirety of his goal; his mission was much broader than healing. It was primarily the preaching of the Kingdom of God and with it, of course, the teaching of what that Kingdom of God all meant and what it all implied, namely, conversion.

Though important, healing was simply an act meant to validate or confirm the truth of what he was preaching and teaching all along. Healing, in the language of the Gospel of John for example, was more of a sign through which people were invited to believe in Jesus, to be converted to him who is the herald of the Kingdom. That is why healing would often accompany Jesus’ preaching of the Kingdom, but it was certainly not his major preoccupation or purpose. And while it is true that later on he would be more popularly known as a healer and wonder-worker, it would not be healing that would really set him apart. For there were in fact many other healers and wonder-workers in his time, but Jesus was quite different from them in that his healing activity was simply a part of a much larger whole, that is, of the broader project or program of his preaching of the Kingdom of God.

Understandably, therefore, Jesus would not allow himself to be confined to any particular place, not even to Capernaum, Simon Peter’s hometown. Thus, although he has made it a sort of home base apparently because of Simon’s hospitality and friendship, Jesus would nonetheless always be on the go, preaching the Kingdom of God to every town in Galilee. Because of this he would be known to many as the itinerant preacher from Nazareth. He is one who would travel without staying long in any one place or making any place a permanent home.

How passionate Jesus truly was with the Kingdom of God! Indeed, for its sake he would give everything he has got: his time, talent, and strength. He would, for its sake, also give up everything like home, family, and even marriage. In the end, he would give his very own life. Jesus was totally the perfect herald, teacher, and witness of the Kingdom of God. He was, as he still is today, the Kingdom of God in person. If Jesus was and is so passionate with the Kingdom, we, his disciples or learners, should also be the same. Our person, life, and work must itself be a proclamation, an announcement of the Kingdom of God, an account as well as a clarification of what it means; a sampling and concretization of what it entails. As the Kingdom of God found an embodiment in the person, life, and ministry of Jesus, our master, so too must the Kingdom of God find the same in the person, life, and ministry of his followers—you and me.