5 Epiphany (B)

I imagine that most of you have heard the phrase “The Tyranny of the Urgent.” The idea is that we spend too much of our time on those things that are urgent, the things that clamor for our attention, and often neglect the truly important things. At work it may feel like you are always putting out fires, taking care of the things that make the most noise, and you neglect some of the more important issues or projects. And at home it’s just as bad. We spend our time taking care of business, doing things, and neglecting our relationships with people. What is needed is to balance the truly important with the merely urgent. If I remember right, there was a tool whereby you analyzed your tasks and gave them various priorities depending on where they fell on the scales of important and urgent. Lowest priority would be those things that are unimportant and not urgent. Next up the scale would be those things that are urgent, but not important. After that would be the things that are important, but not urgent. If you spent most of your time on the things that are important but not urgent, it will pay dividends with fewer things becoming truly urgent. And finally of course, the highest priority is automatically given to those things which are both important and urgent.

For Mark the evangelist, the author of our gospel, pretty much everything Jesus did seems to be both important and urgent. Mark’s writing almost leaves us out of breath, it goes at such a fast pace. And everything happens “immediately” or “at once.” These words appear 7 times in the first chapter alone. It’s all about action, more activity and less words. More action than teaching. Mark’s is also the shortest gospel, it can easily be read about an hour, and in fact at seminary I saw 3 people do a play-presentation on the whole gospel of Mark—in an hour.

While we get a strong sense of urgency in Mark’s writing, Jesus doesn’t neglect the important but not urgent things—as we will see.

Mark begins his gospel with a sentence proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and moves on to John the Baptist, and Jesus’ own baptism, his temptation in the wilderness, the calling of the first 4 disciples, all in the first chapter. And we are still in the first chapter. It is a Sabbath day in Capernaum. Earlier, as we heard last week, Jesus had been teaching in the synagogue, speaking with astonishing authority. He was interrupted by a man with an evil spirit, the spirit who called out “I know who you are. You are the Holy One of God.” And Jesus rebuked the spirit, and it came out of the man, and the people were amazed at this!! First he taught with authority, and then he demonstrated authority over evil spirits. While the reader knows that this is Jesus Christ, Jesus Messiah, the Son of God, those around him get that knowledge more gradually, in bits and pieces. But his fame spread rapidly, as gossip normally does. It is one of the few loads that can be carried on the Sabbath.

As soon as they left the synagogue (there Mark did it again), they entered the house of Simon and Andrew. It’s even possible that this house was adjacent to the synagogue. It as probably a larger house for the extended family—Simon and Andrew both apparently lived there, and also there was Simon’s mother-in-law—evidence that Simon was married. But this unnamed mother in law was ill with a fever. And they told Jesus about it “at once.” Now in those days they thought fever was an illness itself, not a symptom. It was perhaps even a heavenly fire sent by God. And the Son of God was able to quench the fire. By his touch the fever left her—and immediately, suddenly she was well. I don’t know about you, but when I’ve had a fever I don’t usually jump out of bed and begin cleaning house and cooking dinner. When we have fevers we are weakened. It usually takes time to recover. But not this woman. The fever left her and she was restored to health—instantly. And she began to serve them—the first deacon!!

For the Jews, the Sabbath began at sundown, and so it ends at sundown. And that evening, at sundown, the people were released from Sabbath restrictions. People could carry things again, work again, travel again, and they brought people who were sick or possessed with demons to Jesus. Again, good news travels fast, doesn’t it!! Mark says that the whole city was at the door, and Jesus healed very many people, and he cast out demons, again telling them not to speak—because they knew who he was. Like the demon last week. Jesus silenced the demons, but not those who needed his help. Not the sick or even the demoniacs. The demons knew he was the Messiah, the Holy One of God, but Jesus wanted to let the people discover it for themselves—after all he wasn’t exactly the type of Messiah they were hoping for. He wasn’t what they expected. And in truth, it’s impossible to begin to comprehend that this man, this Jesus, was the Messiah, the Son of God, until we know not only his life, but his death, resurrection and ascension.

The next day, in the very early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus went out to a solitary place to pray. He did not neglect the important for the urgent—I told you we’d get back to that. It was of the utmost importance, in fact, for Jesus to connect with his Father, to have time apart with Him. This is they key to his life and his power and his authority—an intimate connection with God. Jesus made time for this communion.

But Simon and the others hunted him down—and told him that “everyone” was searching for him. Everyone wanted a piece of Jesus—they wanted his words, his healing, his restoration. We might imagine that the disciples wanted to set up this miracle worker. They might even organize a healing crusade, with all the best gospel bands, and a theme park. Right there in Capernaum. What fame, what power!!

But Jesus wouldn’t be confined to just Capernaum. He came to preach the gospel not just to Capernaum, but to the neighboring towns and villages, and he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message—the good news—in their synagogues, healing and casting out demons. Jesus is on the road. No longer are just rumors going around about Jesus, but Jesus himself is going around. Because that is why he came. That is what he set out to do. To bring the good news of the kingdom of God in word and in deed.

That was the main thing, the important and urgent thing. But the most important thing for Jesus was to spend time with his Father. To find a quiet place and pray. To connect with God. Because Jesus was fully human, his connection with the Father wasn’t automatic. He had to make time, take time.

In the fictional book, The Shack, Mack asked God about Jesus, about his humanity and divinity, and how they interacted. God told him that while Jesus too is fully God, he didn’t draw on his nature as God to do anything. He lived through his relationship with the Father—perfectly. Even when he healed, “he did so as a dependent, limited human being, trusting in [God’s] life and power to be at work within him and through him. Jesus as a human being had no power within himself to heal anyone. . . .That’s how he lives and acts as a true human, how every human is designed to live—out of [our life with God].”[1]

We were created to have intimate communion with God, and we can. We too need to take time away from all the urgent and unimportant things in our lives and spend time with God in prayer—the most important thing. That’s part of being a disciple. So why don’t we do it better? Why don’t we do it more? Why is it such a struggle to make time and take time to pray? Why is it so hard to get up an hour—or a half hour—earlier and spend time with God? In an article titled “How to be a Disciple,” Dallas Willard said the problem is we don’t have the intention to please God.

He wrote, “It was this general intention that made the primitive Christians such eminent instances of piety, that made the goodly fellowship of the Saints and all the glorious army of martyrs and confessors. And if you will here stop and ask yourself why you are not as pious as the primitive Christians were, your own heart will tell you that it is neither through ignorance nor inability, but purely because you never thoroughly intended it.”[2]

When we fail to plan, we plan to fail.

So we are called to make decisions. Do we want to be good disciples? Do we intend to be lifelong students of Jesus? Do we intend to do all the things we know we should do? Think about it. Make a decision and intentionally give the most important thing the highest priority. Amen.




[1] William P. Young, The Shack, p. 99-100.
[2] Willard, Dallas. “How to Be a Disciple.” http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=336.