Striking a Balance

The Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

February 4, 2024

Mark 1:29-39

 “Striking a Balance”

Work and leisure, nutrition and exercise, time alone and time with others, professional demands and responsibilities at home, accommodating others and self-care – it’s all about finding the right balance between different demands in life. We all work to achieve that right balance in each of our lives, but it’s not always easy. And when these opposites get out of balance in life, that’s when problems arise. In today’s Gospel lesson, we see Jesus striking a balance between the demands of ministry – healing, casting out demons, preaching – and nurturing his own spiritual life as evidenced by rising early, going out to a quiet place, and spending time in prayer. It’s not either/or, but both/and. All of this becomes the theme for preaching today under the theme “Striking a Balance.” May the Lord’s rich and abundant blessing rest upon the preaching, the hearing, and the living of his Word for Jesus’ sake.

Remember last week how we heard about Jesus’ authority in teaching and casting out an unclean spirit (Mark 1:21-28)? And how that word “immediately” (εύθύς) occurs some forty times in Mark’s Gospel? Jesus is on the move! Again today, that word “immediately” is before us as Jesus brings healing to Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, who was sick with a fever (Mark 1:31). All of this happens on the Sabbath day. The first-century equivalent of the old “blue laws” were in force in Israel. These were meant to uphold keeping the Sabbath holy, and kept people from buying and selling, working and traveling on the Sabbath, except for going from home to the synagogue and back again. But as soon as it was sundown and the Sabbath was over, boom! All of these people with all of their ailments show up outside the door of Peter and Andrew’s house where Jesus was staying. Good news travels fast! Everybody had a need and wanted a piece of Jesus. Did all of these people and their needs take a toll on Jesus? Did Jesus get stressed out or worn out from all of this? Scripture doesn’t tell us this, only that “he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him” (Mark 1:34). The demons knew, even if God’s own people did not, who Jesus really was. The intense activity of Jesus’ preaching and healing ministry must surely have exhausted him. Jesus is true God and true man, and in his human nature, Jesus became like us in every respect, except for sin (Hebrews 4:15). This means that Jesus knew, like us, what it means to become weary and worn out; needing rest and refreshment. Mark’s account here skips over what is an essential part of what it means to be human: getting a good night’s sleep! The text jumps from Jesus’ healing and casting out demons to his rising up early the next day. But what was surely in between the two was that much-needed rest.

In our own lives, we can get stressed out and worn out from the burdens, cares and demands of life. Sometimes this happens all at once due to overwhelming circumstances that seem to come out of nowhere. At other times, it’s a slow buildup from many things that accumulate over time until we hit saturation point. When this happens, what do we do? Maybe we go into shut-down mode and retreat within ourselves. Maybe we lash out at others in anger and frustration. Maybe we try to tough it out until it becomes too much and we just drop in our tracks. Jesus’ own example is helpful to us. Jesus is both our sacrifice for sin and our model of the godly life. Here in today’s Gospel, we see Jesus striking a balance between the demands of his own mission to rescue and redeem us from sin and death, and taking time to be alone in prayer with his heavenly Father. Jesus begins his day early, before dawn; before the noise and activity of the day starts up. He begins by going out to a “desolate place” to pray. It’s quiet and peaceful in such places. If Jesus needed this in his own life, how much more do we!

There is wisdom here for us. I have found in my own life that this is what I need for myself. It’s not time to do sermon work or Bible study prep, it’s time in the Word of God and prayer for me. This is important time. At the beginning of the day I have a need to come before the Lord and seek his face. If I need this, so do you – so does every child of God. Not everyone is a morning person who likes to get up before dawn and start your day. You have to find what works for you, but do find what works for you. Maybe it’s not early in the morning; maybe it’s late at night when everyone’s gone to bed. Maybe it’s over the noon hour, or at some other time. Find that time that works for you. There will always be things that can easily pull us away from this time with God – deadlines, family responsibilities, work obligations, things on our to-do list, etc. Sometimes necessity dictates that these things will overtake this precious time with the Lord, but let this be the exception rather than the rule. It’s all about striking a balance. Jesus reminds us in his Sermon on the Mount: “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).

Even when we do take that time, it doesn’t mean that it won’t be interrupted. It was for Jesus, and it will be for us at times also. Simon Peter and the others hunt Jesus down, and having found him, blurt out: “Everyone is looking for you” (Mark 1:37). And so it begins. How would you respond? How do you respond when your own personal, quiet time is rudely interrupted? The balance in Jesus’ own life shifts back from personal, quiet time to the duties of ministry. Jesus doesn’t growl or snap at his own disciples about this. No, he acknowledges that this is the very thing he came to do: “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out” (Mark 1:38). Duty calls and Jesus goes forth to preach and teach, to heal and cast out evil spirits. Jesus goes forth to fulfill his mission. He goes forth to Jerusalem where his mission would culminate on a hill outside the city. Jesus goes forth to give his life on the cross of Calvary for you and for me, so that “whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Romans 14:8). When our own lives are hopelessly out of balance, when we are stressed out and worn out, when we are overwhelmed by life itself, the love of Jesus remains constant and unchanging. It is the redeeming, unchanging love of Jesus that puts our lives back into balance.

As our Epiphany series, Serving Jesus – Living in Community, comes to a close, this is really more of a commencement – not so much an ending as a beginning. In Jesus, who loves us and gave his life for us, we make a new beginning each day as we reclaim our Baptismal identity as God’s beloved sons and daughters, dying to sin and rising to new life in Jesus. Walking in newness of life (Roman 6:1ff), we seek to join Jesus on his mission in daily life. This is not another thing to do that brings added stress and pressure. This is how we see all of life as Jesus opens doors and presents opportunities. We see our own lives through the eyes of Jesus. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we open ourselves up to what Jesus is showing us; what he wants us to learn; how he would have us serve in his Name. The great adventure of joining Jesus on his mission is before us! Amen.