Let's review where we’ve been... As Christmas ended and we sang the last carols of the Christmas Season, I reminded you of the meaning and spirit of Epiphany as the Season for Celebration of the revelation of the Divine.

So it is as we have gone through the stories selected from Mark's Gospel that Jesus has been revealed as:

·         King of the Jews

·         Son of God

·         Lamb of God

·         Preacher

·         One Who Calls Disciples

·         Teacher with Authority, Exorcist... and

Today, Jesus is revealed as Healer!

Today's story along with others read in Mark, Ch. 1, remind me of "serials" some of us remember from childhood...

We would go to the movie on Saturday A.M. for 10 Cents and get a bag of popcorn for a Nickel... Some of the Saturday A.M. heroes I remember were Tarzan... Red Rider... Gene Autry... Roy and Dale Rogers... Then, there would be the comedies... Laurel and Hardy, Bud Abbot and Lou Costello, the 3 Stooges... During the War, World War II, we had the newsreels of the Battles in Europe and in the Pacific... Then, there would be the "serial"... a short movie that always continued to bring you back the next week.

These stories in Mark 1 are very short, and they seem to be building on the previous week...

I am thinking in today’s imagery, they are building a data base for us to know "Who is the Man from Nazareth?"

Jesus has moved from...

·      Calling disciples on the Sea of Galilee to go with him to Capernaum...

·      Last week, they went immediately to the Synagogue on the Sabbath where Jesus taught "a new teaching" with authority, not as the Scribes... He exorcised the evil spirit from the man possessed.

·      Today, Mark tells us,

Immediately, he left the synagogue, and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

Use your imagination and you can "see" the 5 of them entering the house!

Then, Mark tells us,

Simon's mother-in-law lay sick with a fever, and immediately they told him of her (condition).

Jesus steps over and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her;

and she served them!

That evening at Sundown, "They" brought him all who were sick or possessed with demons.

The scene is building... the crowd is growing... our "serial" builds, and next we are told...

(Word had spread) And the whole city was gathered about or outside the door of Simon and Andrew's house.

Can you picture the scene?

Next, He (proceeds to heal) many who were sick with various diseases, and (HE) cast(s) out many demons...

In reading and “listening to the story, we learn...

        He wouldn’t allow the demons to speak!

It may lead you to wonder why?

Mark tells us (as we were reminded last week) they, the demons, knew him!

At this point in our growing "serial" in getting to know Jesus,

We expect the story to build and the healing and exorcisms to continue right there;

But, instead... Our story takes a sudden, unexpected turn...His work there is ended.

The following morning, a great while before day, Jesus rose and went out to a lonely place to pray.

Simon and the others followed him, and they found him and told him,

"Everyone is searching for you."

Jesus tells them,

"Let us go on to the next towns, so I can preach there also... That is why I came!

Today's "serial" story ends, and we are told,

“He went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Clearly, each of the stories or episodes in the serial build on the other giving us... and all the readers who have followed Jesus... a picture or understanding of...

"Who is the Man from Nazareth?"

If that was not the intention of Mark, it certainly has been the effect of the selected passages we have followed as our readings have progressed through Mark’s 1^st chapter.

Not having access to the mind or the intent of Mark or the committee who selected the Gospel texts, we can be safe in saying it is probably the intent of both to help us who listen and desire to know Jesus to acquire a growing data base about the Man from Nazareth... The Man Sent from God!

Such efforts to know the Man from Nazareth began early even before the Church was established.

Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote the book, The Man from Nazareth.

In the Prologue Dr. Fosdick points out the fascination with the person of Jesus was inevitable.

No doubt, this was what drove the crowds to seek him out.

Not only have people had a curious fascination, but people have sought him out ever since!

The research to get behind the history and psychology of Jesus has been the object of endless research, especially during the last century.

The results... have been far from satisfactory... (and is practically an impossible task). The search at the end of the 18^th century and more recently became known as the Quest for the Historical Jesus.

There are a lot of reasons why the efforts to recover the Historical Jesus have failed... Namely, the Gospels are not, nor were they ever written as historical or psychological portrayals of the Ministry of the Man Jesus.

It is very important for us to understand... Gospels are what they are... Gospels... Good News literature... filled with the stories of the Man Jesus who mysteriously and miraculously entered into the lives of people.

The Gospels speak of the mysterious power of His Spirit to touch and reach the very depth of any man, or woman to bring us freedom and life!

As I reflected on the stories we have been following since our celebration of Epiphany, the "serial" of stories selected have the capacity to touch and do for us what they have done for generations before us.

I came across something, I copied years ago from the Preface of a book... Jesus: The Face of Man, by Louis M. Savary.

Louis Savary reminds us of something each of us could easily miss as we focus on what Jesus means or does not mean to us as individuals. He says,

Jesus is significant to many different kinds of people...

·         Some (people) find in Jesus a source of ethical direction or moral strength...

·         Some speak of him as their Lord and Savior...

·         Some look to him to find a meaning in life.

·         Others hope through Him to conquer death.

·         Some believe him to be the incarnation of God...

·         To some, Jesus brings joy, to others forgiveness...

·         Some he blesses with exuberant vitality, to others he gives the strength to bear a lifetime of suffering and pain.

It is important for us to see the different ways, Jesus is present to all of them...

·         shaping and transforming their lives,

·         opening their consciousness,

·         enriching their awareness of life,

·         directing their efforts,

·         changing their system of values,

·         influencing the communities in which they live.

What a thought about the Man from Nazareth in contemporary terms!

As we conclude and prepare to gather at the Lord’s Table, Mark helps us to see Jesus was the Man sent from God who had "others" to see and to tell about the Good News that could make a difference to them!

Yes, Jesus Healed Many People and he still does!

In different ways, Jesus is still present... shaping and transforming lives…opening our consciousness, enriching our awareness of life, directing our efforts, changing our system(s) of values, AND, through us, influencing the communities where we live!