Gospel Reading for the Fifth Sunday of Epiphany: Year B
Mark 1:29 to 39
“He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.” (Mark 1:31)
We can miss so much when we don’t know the original words used to record our Lords deeds and healings as they were intended. The mother-in-law of Simon Peter was healed and then she got up and “served” them. The Greek word used to serve is (diakonie), or deacon for them. We don’t hear any more about deacons until we get to Acts of the Apostles where seven deacons were ordained to feed the poor.
Having this understanding about Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law causes me to see Jesus as ordaining her as perhaps the first ever deacon. We miss so much when we don’t have a complete understanding of the ancient words. But sometimes we don’t get messages about how we should follow Jesus’ example when there is no misunderstanding of the words. Jesus was found praying.
“In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed. And Simon and his companions hunted for him. When they found him, they said to him, ‘Everyone is searching for you.’” (Mark 1 35 – 37)
This again reminds me that my children never disturbed me during my prayer time. As the kids were growing up they would often come to ask me something while I was on the phone, mowing the lawn, or watching the game; but never did they interrupt me during prayers like it seems Simon and his companions did to Jesus. Long story short, I was never praying. If it’s one thing I could change while raising my children it would be that I would be found praying regularly. Kids are learners, if parents curse, their children will curse, if parents smoke, kids will smoke, it stands to reason then that if parents pray kids too will pray.
I wish I had been found praying like Jesus was when they were searching for me. Maybe then my children would have grown up praying, and who knows, maybe they would have been called to be deacons or priests like Simon Peter’s mother-in-law.
Please keep up your thoughts and prayers and hopes for Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, and our schools.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and serve, and to teach others to love and serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 