Week 1 of Lent - Capernaum
March 1, 2020 Psalm 34
Deborah Laforet Mark 1:21-34
“Capernaum”
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Wednesday was the first day of Lent. Lent is a period of 40 days or six weeks, not counting Sundays, that go right up until Easter. Many know Lent for being a time when people give up something. Some give up chocolate. Some decide to stop swearing. Some decide to take something on like daily devotions or more exercise.
I read a blog post this week that put this in perspective for me. I read: “We take up or give up, lift or put down, for specific purposes, but whichever we choose, the important thing is remembering that Lent is not about self-improvement—it is not New Year’s take two, a time to re-up on failed resolutions— it is about drawing closer to God’s will for your community, for the church, for the world…We put down so that when the desire for the thing dropped arises, we are reminded of what, or Who we have set it aside for.”
Now, you don’t have to put down or take up during Lent. This is not mandatory. Lent is a season of the church when people are encouraged to take time and find ways to become spiritually centred, to focus less on physical wants and more on the needs of the Spirit, whether that be the Spirit within or the Spirit that surrounds us, in which we live, move, and breathe.
During worship for the next six Sundays of Lent, we are going on a journey. Each Sunday I am going to focus on a city to which Jesus and his disciples journeyed. We will travel through the gospel of Mark, that begins at the River Jordan and ends at the tomb in Jerusalem. The six places we will visit:
(Show map) Capernaum, Nazareth, Tyre, Decapolis, Bethsaida, Ceasarea Philippi
In the gospel of Mark, there is no birth story. We begin with Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River. Now the Jordan River runs right down the middle of Palestine, with the Dead Sea in the south and the Sea of Galilee in the north. My assumption, because Jesus was born in this region, is that he was baptized in the Jordan River in Galilee, but that is a guess. After his baptism though, and after his journey into the desert, we find Jesus in a village called Capernaum.
Throughout most of Mark’s gospel, we find Jesus doing his ministry around the Sea of Galilee and Capernaum seems to be kind of a central base for him. He is in and out of Capernaum throughout the gospel. In chapter two, after a preaching tour around Galilee, we read, “When he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.” It’s possible that, although his home town was Nazareth, that Capernaum was his home as an adult. Capernaum was also the last place he visited because he changed direction and travelled south into Judea. So, it’s a significant place in Mark’s gospel.
We also know that Peter, the most well-known of the followers of Jesus, lived there. In the gospel lesson we heard today, Jesus visited the house of Simon and Andrew and healed Simon’s mother-in-law. (For some who may not know, Jesus later changed Simon’s name to Peter, ’the rock’.) Maybe they were neighbours. At this point, we can only imagine whether Jesus and Peter knew each other previously. These are not large villages.
Today we heard a story of Jesus entering the synagogue on the Sabbath and doing some teaching. We read that the people listening were “astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” Although this is one of the many healing stories of Jesus, this story is more about his authority and where it came from. We read that this authority was not like that of the scribes. It seems the scribes read and interpreted the text. Their authority came from the text and from their position. Jesus though was not a scribe. He was not a pharisee, a priest, a levite. From where did his authority come, this son of a carpenter? The way he spoke to them, the way he taught, must have been different, possibly saying what they weren’t used to hearing, probably speaking on exactly what Mark says he preached after walking out of the desert, where he was tempted by Satan: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
During that sabbath service, a man with an unclean spirit interrupts by crying out against Jesus. “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, O Holy One of God.” With this authority, Jesus tells the unclean spirit, or demon as we read in some interpretations, to be silent and to come out. And with those few words, the unclean spirit leaves the man. This is less a story of healing and more a story of the authority behind those words of healing. The observers in the synagogue say to one another, “What is this? A new teaching - with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
We continue to ask this same question today. What is this? Who was this man? This was a man who suddenly shows up, seemingly out of nowhere, at about 30 years of age, pretty much mid-life in those days, and he is commanding spirits, he is healing people, he’s got people following him, and he speaks with such knowledge and wisdom about the kingdom of God that is near or coming.
If you’re watching or have seen Messiah on Netflix, it’s the same story. This man has come out of nowhere. No one knows his origins. He performs miracles and always seems to have an answer that confuses, comforts, or incites. Do we believe him? Do we trust him? Is he just another would-be Messiah that will only disappoint? From where does he get his authority? For whom is he working?
How might we respond to someone in our midst who stood up to speak with such authority, who spoke of the coming kingdom and performed unexplainable acts? A person who was not in a recognized position of authority, to whom no one has given permission to say and do such things, and who is making us uncomfortable about our own lives and the way our society is treating the poor and marginalized, the ill and the outcast, the differently abled and unloved?
Jesus acts with this authority throughout his ministry in Galilee. Sometimes it’s accepted, sometimes people are incredulous, and other times people reject him. As he draws closer to Jerusalem, closer to the established Jewish authorities, and closer to the power of Rome, the more attention he draws and the more suspicions he raises. Who is this man? From where does his authority come?
When the sabbath is over, when the sun sets, people crowd Simon Peter’s home, needing to be healed by Jesus. Jesus heals many and the next morning goes out to pray on his own. When Simon comes to retrieve him, to bring him back to his house to do more healing, Jesus refuses. He tells him that it is time to move on to neighbouring towns, he says, “so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do.” The ability to heal people is a wonderful gift but it’s not what Jesus was there to do. He had a message to proclaim and he needed to proclaim it to as many people as he could. This is what he was there to do, but who or what is guiding him? What is his motivation? His goal? The people of Galilee called him Messiah, God’s chosen one. What do we think?
May this journey towards Jerusalem during Lent help us to lean into our faith. May we find the time in our busy lives to focus on the Spirit, to reorient our lives to the sacred around us. May we be open to the authority of Jesus in our lives and may his teachings give us wisdom as we create the kingdom of God on this earth. May it be so. Amen.