Taken by the Hand

Taken by the Hand--October 26, 2016

“As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them." [Mark 1:29-31]

Pay attention to Jesus’ hands.  There is something wonderful about Jesus’ hands.  Pay close attention….

Anytime I am reading a story in the Bible, I find it worth asking, “Why was this story held onto in the first place, and why might it have been remembered in the way it was?”  Why are some details remembered and held onto like precious stones, and why are other details lost in the mists of time?  The Gospel-writers are, after all, a lot like movie-makers, choosing the angles and scene breaks as they tell the story that has been given to them.  Why does one director’s version of the Robin Hood story seem so campy and lighthearted, and another’s seem so dark? Why does one choose to start the story with Robin already a popular folk hero, and another tells an elaborate back-story for how Robin became the person he was.  If we are allowed to ask these questions about movies, it’s fair to ask them about the way the biblical writers tell the stories they are passing onto us.  After all, the gospel-writers think that the story they are telling is a matter of life and death, of history-changing good news—so it’s worth it to take a moment sometimes and to ask why the story goes the way it does, and why some details stick.

Take this short little story for a moment. It’s a short one, but at the same time, you almost wonder why Mark even bothered to tell it, given that he and the other Gospel writers apparently had no problem skipping over just about all of the first thirty years of Jesus’ life.  Mark himself doesn't even given us the birth of Jesus--just a sudden arrival of a thirty-something on the scene at the Jordan River, and then he is off to the races.  But for whatever interesting questions we might have that go unanswered in the gospels—what was Jesus like as a young boy? What was his first word?  How did he come to recognize his calling as God’s Messiah?  and surely many more—Mark stops his camera and parks it on this moment, for this short exchange with Jesus and Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.  Why? (Surely, it’s more than to tip us off that at least some of the disciples were married, which seems to poke some gaping holes in the idea that Jesus can’t use leaders who are married.)

While we’re stopping to ask questions, doesn’t this scene come across as a little anti-climactic, compared with some of the other miracles of healing Jesus does? Whether it's casting out demons, restoring sight to the blind, curing sickness at a distance just with a word even when Jesus isn't in the same room as the sick person, or raising the dead, there is something of a spectacle in the healing. But here, with Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, it’s just a fever. Certainly that was serious in the first century, but by comparison, that just seems like small potatoes up against a story of demon possession or the cry, "Lazarus, come out of the grave!" doesn't it?  This miracle barely seems miraculous, really—no lightning or thunder, no twelve baskets of leftovers. 

But this scene is different.  And it may just be that there is a method to Mark’s madness here.  Jesus touches Simon’s mother-in-law.  He “took her by the hand and lifted her up.”  Curious detail to hold onto, isn’t it, Mark?  You could have just said, “Jesus healed her, and she got up.”  But Mark mentions touch.  He shows us Jesus offering his hand and taking this woman by her hand, and helping her to her feet. Why?

Well, consider this:  obviously, Jesus doesn’t have to touch people to make them well.  Jesus can heal the centurion's servant at a distance without ever entering the house.  Jesus can cast out demons with just a word. So Jesus’ power is not like magic—it’s not about having the right technique, in other words, to get it “right.”  So if Jesus doesn’t have to touch someone with his own hand to heal them, but he chooses to anyway, like in today’s story, what does it mean?  It means Jesus chose to come that close.  It means that Jesus doesn’t worry about the most efficient way to be the Messiah—a quick spoken healing here, a speedy verbal exorcism there—he is willing to take people by the hand.  That’s what the Gospel is all about, after all—the God who comes close to us in our own human life, the God who can take us by the hand, through the human hands of Jesus.  The other kinds of healing stories remind us that it didn’t have to be this way—that means Jesus chose to take Simon’s mother-in-law by the hand.  It means that Jesus is willing to come that close to heal us, too. Not just a booming voice from a distant heaven, but a God who comes and takes us by the hand.

Sometimes, I think we assume that if God is so good and so powerful, God should just blink and nod with crossed arms like a scene from I Dream of Jeannie and fix all the world's ills all at once.  But Jesus shows us a God who has a certain bedside manner--a God who comes close, right at our side, to share whatever we are going through with us, and who is willing to be less than efficient to take us by the hand and help us through.

If you have found yourself wondering at some point in your life, "Why hasn't God fixed this yet?  Why isn't there a cure?  Why am I still waiting for an answer? Why hasn't God filled that empty place in my life? Why isn't there a clear perfect solution right now that appears in my inbox at the end of my prayers?"  then maybe this scene from Mark's Gospel is part of the answer.  The God we see in Jesus chooses, so often, to take the time to take us by the hand and go through the hurt together with us.

What are you facing in your world today where you need to be reminded of the One who is holding your hand? And who are the people in your world today who could use the reminder, too, who might recognize divine fingerprints in their lives because you have been there to take them by the hand?

Come close to us, Lord Jesus, and let us know we are in your good hands.