The breadth of need

5 February 2012

Mark 1:29-39

As the hopeful expanse of 2012 lies before us, we choose the Gospel of Mark to guide our progress and shape our thinking. I have chosen the theme of ‘The Breadth of Need’ as descriptive and appropriate to the work in which each of us is involved through a large number of differing programs.

John’s Gospel reminds us that Simon and Andrew originally came from Bethsaida (John 1:44), but in the opening chapter of Mark they appear to be living in the strategic lakeside town of Capernaum at the north-west side of Lake Galilee. It was from here that they ran their fishing business and it is in the intimate setting of Simon’s mother-in-law’s home that we see Jesus meeting something of the increasing human need with which he is daily being presented.

Simon’s mother-in-law had a serious fever and Jesus Christ lifted her to health. He had previously dealt with an evil spirit in the setting of the synagogue, which was located just across the road. This provides a context for us to understand how the people responded to him … and in such large numbers.

Text: Mark 1: 32-34 -
That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

In these early sections, Mark gives us a summary of what might have been typical of the kind of day that Jesus lived through in his busy schedule in the early months of his ministry in the Galilee.

It was a Sabbath day.
It was considered wrong for Jews to carry the sick around.
The day comes to a close (at sunset).
Understandably, people took advantage of the presence of Jesus in the town.

This was a close-knit community and the gathering of ‘the whole town’ is descriptive of a large number of people. Mark makes a careful distinction between physical illness and demon-possession and the way he dealt with such issues … Jesus cured illnesses and demons were ‘driven out’.

This distinction is helpful in our context as we know that we, like Jesus in the gospels, have to deal with a wide variety of human need. Let us think for a moment of the breadth of need we represent:-

Families and children, as well as large numbers of people with disability challenges.
The homeless and those in need of supported accommodation … individuals and families. Young people searching for meaningful mentors in life.
The new generation of older people who are certainly going to live longer … concerned about health and finances.
The different kinds of substance abuse which continue to destroy human dignity and creative living.
The increasing number of people who are wrestling with daily financial stress … and the problems of gambling addiction.

We are grateful for the ‘joined up’ sense in which Wesley Mission is able to respond to human need. The inter-changeability of people in roles continues to assist us in meeting such need … a large number of people over this past few years have taken on new challenges, building on their experience and using it to bless the whole.

In the context of this early insight in Mark’s Gospel, we see that ‘need’ is not just a statement of ‘dependency’ but the avenue in which people look into the face of Jesus Christ and meet compassion and understanding.

Too often we use language surrounding the words that describe ‘need’ in a negative way. When we read the words that suggest ‘everyone’ was looking for him, I don’t conclude from this that everyone was sick, but that human need is something all people share. Crowds beat a path to his door because they saw in him One who could fulfil their need.

N T Wright develops the news that Jesus has become popular very rapidly and the huge crowds seem to gather as a result of his authoritative healings. He writes, ‘That in itself would have been threatening to the authorities.’ Wright’s analogy is that ‘Jesus came to be the human bridge across which people could climb to safety.’

Let us hold in our minds the breadth of need to which Jesus responded and relate it to the context of the wide and ever-growing need to which Wesley Mission seeks to offer hope and meaning in the name of Jesus Christ.

This is:-

A need which will draw people to him

What people had observed in the Synagogue was a demonstration of God’s healing power which meant ‘the news about him spread quickly over the whole region of the Galilee’.

We must acknowledge that sickness was a great fear to people … without the resources of today.
One of the Chadwick brothers gave a lecture on the Middle Ages, commented on the pain of ‘toothache’ and how it affected people.
Human need today continues to impact upon people’s total life experience.
When we look at the needs of people today, we reach out towards them and we know such needs are inter-related … and hardly ever singular!

People undoubtedly required more than mere physical or emotional healing … they needed reconciliation with God and that points to the ‘wholeness’ aspect of Jesus Christ’s ministry … and a helpful indication of the God-centred characteristic of our work.

The vast majority of our work at Wesley Mission is part of a greater story. The phone rang at home on one occasion; it was a person who had been helped by one of our programs and they rang to talk. I appreciated the opportunity to listen, because it was clear that the person had now gained a confidence that was totally beyond them before. Need drew people to Jesus, but the outcomes were far greater.

A need which he will not ignore

It is worthy of note that what we have here is a two-sided aspect of need:-

The need in which Jesus took the initiative – the house call! In the ‘pastoral ministry’ in which I have been privileged to share, I have discovered the importance of such ministry that the ‘house call’ speaks of. Its beginnings are clearly in Jesus Christ.
The need which meant people headed for where he was. The fact that people came to Jesus in such large numbers tells us not only was he accessible, but he was willing to meet them.

With regard to the first of these aspects, we affirm the fact that Jesus was always willing to take God’s grace to the point of human need … and the second related to people having seen (in the Synagogue) or had already heard of him and they made their way to him.

In the latter verses of this chapter, we notice that Jesus took time to be alone for prayer. It was in this setting that the disciples found Jesus when they reported that everyone was looking for him – and his response was not a negative one, when he says, ‘Let us go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.’ His all-embracing message is one that reaches beyond the merely ‘local’.

One of our challenges is that we easily become narrowly focused.
Another is that we can become so global or wide-ranging that we fail to see the immediate and local.
The vital connection between the two is plain in the ministry of Jesus.
It is a helpful aspect of our work that we understand both.

In Mark 1:29-39 there are three distinct scenes which comprise the passage. We have a terse miracle story (29-31), a summary of Jesus’ healing (32-34), activity and a mild conflict between Simon and Jesus over what he should do next (35-39). Many struggle to understand the final section, for we are told ‘everyone is searching for him’. Jesus chooses not to return to Capernaum, but to move to other towns.

It would appear that Jesus subordinates his power for healing and exorcism … to the greater need for proclamation of the kingdom of God. It is an interesting point and a helpful contribution to a conversation on priorities!

A need which will give shape to his ministry

The message of Jesus was a ‘message on the move’ and people were always looking for him and wanting his help. Jesus Christ is:-

A teacher who responds to need for knowledge of God and how best to live.
A healer who responds to the need for total oneness with God – physically, spiritually and emotionally.
A leader who responds to the dearth of prophetic insight and the need for One to bring hope.
A Saviour who responds to the deepest of all human need in the reconciliation of people to God.

As we begin to think of our history and particularly the two hundred years since the first Methodists gathered together in a class meeting in the Rocks area of Sydney, I have found myself re-reading the account of W G Taylor’s ministry at the heart of Sydney in those challenging early days of the Central Methodist Mission.

Taylor lists characters whose lives were changed by the grace of God and he described such people as ‘Christianity’s Unanswerable Argument!’ On Taylor’s desk was a portrait of an old man … and remember this is the latter part of the nineteenth century. He was almost a hundred years old when he found peace with God through Jesus Christ. He was known as ‘The Old Frenchman’. He was born in Champagne, France, in 1793 only a few months after the death of John Wesley and right in the midst of the notorious days of the French Revolution. He fought the English at Waterloo and walked around the Central Mission sporting a small French tricolour in his buttonhole. His face was scared and yet his heart told the story.

In a class meeting he displayed true French politeness, yet with imperfect English, testified, ‘It was not Monsieur Taylor here vat converted me. No, no, no! It was not dese kind friends around me – God bless them and all they hev done to help me – vat changed my heart. No, no, no!’ Then he pointed up and said, ‘It vas the dear Lord Jesus Christ himself vat came down … into dis poor heart of mine.’

The language is old and the story needs telling for our generation, but the message remains true, for the breadth of need is enormous. Our programs are wide-ranging but still it is Jesus Christ that makes sense of our mission and purpose.

As our people spend time alongside those in need.
As compassion is offered in the midst of much rejection and hurt.
As practical help is applied to difficult situations.

In these and all ways, we are motivated by care and love. A father was standing on his deck watching his son mow the lawn when he was joined by his wife who was impressed and asked her husband, ‘How did you get him to do that?’ He replied, ‘I told him I lost the car keys in the grass.’

We don’t require any incentive, save that of ‘the breadth of human need’. It is no wonder that John Wesley looked on all the world as his parish.

We cannot possibly know all that lies ahead of us in this significant year at Wesley Mission, but that should not prevent us grasping the future with a confident spirit.

It is interesting that Geoffrey Rush should be appointed Australian of the Year. Although I tend to agree with those who suggest it should be an ordinary person who makes an extraordinary contribution, no-one could deny Rush’s outstanding gifts. The King’s Speech was one of the most compelling films of last year. One aspect that I feel is underplayed is the fact that King George VI never expected to become king. To all intents and purposes his brother was to have played that role. In his Christmas message in 1939, he read these words to people across the world: ‘And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.”’

Christian Life