From cynic to believer

In this post-modern world that we live in, we question the motives of everyone. We cannot imagine that someone would act with altruistic motives. Everyone wants something and no one does anything for nothing. Those words are the true mark of a cynic. Hopefully in a post-pandemic world that type of cynical attitude will give way to the good news of the Gospel.

The Gospel for the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time from Mark 1:29-39 is a continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel when Jesus healed the man with the unclean spirit and did it with authority. In Mark 1:29-39, Jesus heals the mother-in-law of Peter and once again he does it with authority. People who lived in the ancient world were not used to hearing and seeing religious leaders act with authority; they were cynical because their religious leaders had let them down in the past and they never did anything without getting something in return. There is certainly a connection in that attitude to the Church and world today, where people have been let down by religious and civil leaders.

Jesus was different. He did not heal the man with the unclean spirit which we read on the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time from Mark 1:21-28 because he was looking for something in return. He does not heal Peter’s mother-in-law in today’s Gospel seeking personal gain for himself. So why then does Jesus perform these signs and miracles? 

These signs and miracles become clues in revealing the messianic secret. When Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, he does it in a gentle and simple way: “He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her, and she waited on them.” The translation from the Greek says that Jesus raised her up, her healing becomes a foreshadowing of the healing we would all receive from Jesus’ own suffering, death and resurrection. The sickness is sin and death. The healing for the believer is resurrection.

We receive healing in the waters of baptism and we are raised up with Jesus in the same way that he raised up Peter’s mother-in-law. Her response to being healed (raised up) was to wait on them. Again, the actual Greek says, she got up and served. Again, this is a foreshadowing; Peter’s mother-in-law witnesses to her healing by serving God and neighbor.

In Mark 10:45, we are told that the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as ransom for the many. This is a selfless act that will bring people to belief and move those who are cynics from disbelief to belief. We are called to witness to this selfless act of the one who gave his life as ransom for the many by selflessly giving our lives in service as Peter’s mother-in-law did by serving.

So why then did Jesus heal? Why were these signs and miracles so important to his mission? As I wrote previously, they give us clues to the messianic secret and what is the messianic secret? That Jesus is the Son of Man. As people moved from cynicism to belief by witnessing these signs and miracles being performed on Peter’s mother-in-law, more and more people gathered around the door of Peter’s home and ultimately Jesus would heal them of their brokenness and despair. He healed them of their alienation and estrangement from God through his suffering and death on the Cross. He brings rest to the tired and weary and restores the sick to health. Again, another foreshadowing from the first reading from Job 7:4,6-7: “Is not man’s life on earth a drudgery?” The sadness of life is a burden for us to bear or, maybe not; Jesus comes to lift that burden. This is the fulfillment of the messianic secret. Jesus is the Son of God who comes to free us from life’s burden, by delivering us from sin and death.

The second reading from 1 Corinthians 9:16-19, 22-23 represents the most cynical of all ancient cultures: the Greek culture. The Greeks valued freedom and they were cynical at anything that they perceived as limiting their freedom. Paul comes with a message that turns the concept of freedom upside down. He tells them that their lives are lived in slavery, because they live their lives in sin and only Jesus can heal and free them from sin and death. Paul tells them that he does this not for personal gain but rather for the salvation of souls. “All this I do for the sake of the Gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.” The only gain Paul hopes to receive is salvation, not only his own but ours as well.

Just as the signs and miracles of Jesus revealed the messianic secret, so too did Paul’s mission to the Gentiles and in the same way we too help to continue to reveal the messianic secret that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to save us from sin and death. The cynic says, “What do I need to be saved from?” The believer gives thanks!