"After leaving the synagogue, Jesus, James, and John went home with Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed, sick with a fever, and they told Jesus about her at once. He went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up. The fever left her, and she served them. That evening, at sunset, people brought to Jesus those who were sick or demon-possessed. The whole town gathered near the door. He healed many who were sick with all kinds of diseases, and he threw out many demons.
Gospel of Mark
Most of you probably recall the intriguing story surrounding Jim and Tammy Faye Baker. Back in the eighties, they were well known for their involvement in the PTL (Praise The Lord) Club. I'm sure that when this couple graduated from Bible school in Minneapolis in 1961 to become itinerant evangelists, their intentions for being good Christian witnesses was probably real. As they clung to their early victories and successes in their ministry, their fame eventually rose to where they had an audience of over twelve million TV viewers, and they had contributions in excess of one million dollars a week flowing into their coffers. At the peak of his ministry, Jimmy Baker had been recorded as saying: "I believe that if Jesus were alive today, He would be on TV." Of course, we all know that the Baker reign finally ended when it was revealed that he had lost large sums of money donated by thousands of people for the right of memberships in a luxury hotel at "Heritage" which did not exist.
Its easy for any of us to get caught up in our successes to the point where what started out as God's will becomes only our will. Many times this happens at a subconscious level even before we are aware of it. Has this happened to me? Many times. The fact is, we like to do what we do well. We like the attention it brings us, and often times, we see our successes as God's special gift to us.
In the above Gospel account, Jesus is having all kinds of those successes. He cures Simon Peter's mother-in-law. He cures all the diseases of those who are brought to Him. Devils are being cast out, lame people are walking, blind people are seeing, deaf people are hearing. If anyone could lay claim to being a great healer, it is Jesus. We read: "The crowds were looking for Him and when they caught up with Him, they wanted to prevent Him from leaving." Jesus' response to them was: "That's not the reason I'm here. "I've come to proclaim the good news in other places as well."
If anything should convince us that Jesus is who He says He is, it should be the fact that He refuses to get caught up in our ego centered world. He refuses to cling to all those illusions of success, illusions of importance, illusions of power that so easily take us off God's path and place us on our own path. Often this path that we take leads to greater suffering, not only for ourselves, but for others.
Jesus' success to sticking to God's plan is tied up in one line of our Gospel reading. "When daylight came, He left the house and made His way to a deserted place to pray."
If Baker had taken the time to leave his glittery life style and go to a deserted place by himself and really pray, then perhaps he would have heard that quiet voice within that spoke of God's plan for him, and not the plan he had for himself.
"Doing" is great. We all need to be "doing"; but if our "doing" is not guided by the Spirit discovered during the times that we spend in secret, in a deserted place; then how can we get in touch with God's hidden presence to seek the guidance we need. We will only be guided by our own illusions, our own little successes, our own need for recognition or power.
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