In the 1^st Century world of Jesus, sick people had only very few options. The first thing they could do, of course, was to try a ‘folk’ remedy.  These varied from sensible potions and poultices, to downright dangerous “fixes.” Many folk remedies are still practiced today in the industrialized world, and most are completely ineffective, especially with serious diseases and injuries!

The second thing a sick person could do was to pay for a physician to see them. This was costly, and was in reality not much more effective than the folk remedies. Most Greek physicians in the 1^st century followed the teachings of Hippocrates, who is best known for his famous oath. Hippocrates codified the principles of ‘Humourism’, a belief that human health is defined as the perfect balance of four fluids, or humours. It was holistic, in that it saw the need for harmony between the mental and the physical, but the interventions by physicians often involved bleeding, and draining of fluids, which would regularly result in making the condition worse, alas. Treatment in any case was expensive, and therefore only accessible to the privileged!

Another option for sick people in Jesus’ world was one or many religious healing practices.  Every ancient religion had extensive teachings on healing, and most of it inevitably cost money.  With these limited and ineffective options, sickness in the ancient world often completely changed a person’s identity.

Sick people would stand out in a village.  They were often visibly scarred, or marked.  Lepers were required to announce their coming by shouting ‘unclean, unclean’, or ringing bells. Most sick people became beggars, or wholly dependent on their family members for food and shelter.  Being labelled a sick person led to a very low status in society.

The identity of a sick person, in Jesus’ day, also carried with it the stigma of God’s judgment.  In this society, most illnesses were linked to some sin or indiscretion, rather than a scientific cause.  In Jesus’ ministry, he confronted some of these beliefs, showing just how widespread they were.  In Buddhism, such misfortunes are frequently put down to various ‘misdeeds’ in a previous existence – remember here that ‘reincarnation’ is an essential tenet in Buddhist teaching!

The sick person here, in our Gospel reading, is Simon Peter’s mother-in-law. She has a fever, and is so weak that she cannot get out of her sickbed. Her condition is of concern to the disciples, and so Jesus is ushered in to see her. Perhaps a fever would not warrant such concern in our world, prior to the advent of the Covid virus, but it most certainly did in Jesus’ day – nowadays a couple of doses of paracetemol or ibuprofen would in all probability have done the trick!

Jesus touches her hand with his hand.  There is that touch that we see in Jesus’ ministry, over and over again.  She rises up at once, and the fever leaves her. It is not a very dramatic scene; there isn’t any music or fanfare. There aren’t any spells or incantations. There is only a hand touching another hand. There is only Jesus reaching out to this sick woman!

And then we are told that she starts to serve them. She now has the strength to offer the customary hospitality to her guests.  Her identity is no longer that of a bedridden, fevered person, but a gracious host to a visiting teacher and his disciples.

Then the circling multitude descends – a horde of sick, demonized, and injured people swarm around Jesus, begging for healing. What we saw happen to Simon’s mother-in-law, we now see happen to a whole host of people in the village.

Jesus reached out his hand to a sick woman. Now he reaches out his hand to the multitude, just as he reaches out his hand to us today.  Jesus is here to heal us. Jesus is here to restore us to the community we lost. Jesus is here to restore us to a place of service in our society, so that we can find dignity and purpose again.  This is what Jesus does: he brings people back to wholeness and health.  Jesus can bring us  back to wholeness and health too!

But all this healing takes its toll on Jesus; he disappears in the dark of night, to pray – he needs to ‘recharge his batteries’!  On these occasions of night-time prayer, we are seldom told of their content. They seem to be a conversation between the beloved son and his heavenly father, an intimate dialogue that may have seemed utterly incomprehensible, either then to the disciples, or now, to us!

The only time we know the content of Jesus’ private prayer in this context, is in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night he was betrayed.  On that occasion, he strained and wrestled under the weight of what he was called to do, as the Son of God.  He pleaded for the cup to pass from him, even as he accepts God’s will for his life.  This glimpse of Jesus’ prayer life may not be identical to all those other nights, when he prayed for hours in the dark, but we can be sure it was intense, as the sweat poured from him.  Jesus’ sense of mission empowered him to do the work God had called him to do. When he is exhausted, he goes off and prays in the night, and he comes back renewed and refreshed to continue his task!

Perhaps we do not so much need rest, as a renewed sense of our mission, and calling from God.  Perhaps more people would experience wholeness and healing, if we spent more time in the dark, and in solitude with God.  It was how Jesus found strength, and many Christian saints through the ages, found time alone with God to be both renewing and refreshing, not to mention essential.

Jesus is reaching out his hand to each and every one of us now, today, calling us to a life filled with service and community.  Jesus is praying for us, so that we might have the strength to go into the dark with God, and wrestle with our calling and mission.  Jesus is with us, going before us, into the world, which God loves so very much.   Amen