People of God, we come to the end of Mark 1. We continue where we left off last week. Mark is an action-packed gospel filled with movement. Jesus is moving from wilderness, synagogue, city, and the world. This is a constant pattern we see not only in Mark, but in the other gospels, and that we ultimately see in the entire Bible. God begins with a little garden in Genesis, and he moves to create a bigger garden throughout history.
God is active in his work of restoring the world to the way it should be. In C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, there is a scene at the end of the book—where after Aslan has been raised from the dead—he goes into the Witch’s home. The Witch has turned all her opponents into stone. When they arrive at the Witch’s home Lucy declares: “What an extraordinary place! All those stone animals—and people too! It’s—like a museum.” To which Susan filled with the vigor and joy of Aslan’s resurrection utters: “Hush, Lucy. Aslan is doing something.”[1] In our narrative Jesus is doing something wonderful. Though he is not turning statutes into humans or animals again, he is turning sickness into health; turning despair into joy. Susan’s attitude is something we should keep in mind as we consider this narrative. Sometimes we need to just hush and ponder and enjoy the sheer movement of Jesus’ healing ministry. Continue reading “Sixth Sunday of Epiphany: Mark 1:40-45”