Restore and Quicken, Soothe and Bless
5th Sunday after Epiphany, February 7, 2021
Isaiah 40:21-31 • Mark 1:29-39
I live with a chronic medical condition called pseudotumor cerebri. It is a condition marked by an increase of intracranial pressure because of a malfunction in the way the body absorbs the cerebrospinal fluid it creates. There is no known cure for it. Pseudotumor is often managed by a shunt, and I have lived with one since the age of 7. The shunt is supposed to keep pressure within a very narrow range – not too high, and not too low. Most peoples’ bodies do this naturally. When the shunt malfunctions or gets blocked, intracranial pressure rises, first causing irritability and just feeling “off,” then leading to headaches, nausea, and vision disturbances, all of which eventually become debilitating. Similar symptoms occur when the shunt drains too much fluid and pressure falls. And shunts are prone to malfunctions and problems. Since 2009, I have had 10 shunt-related surgeries and hospital stays, including one last June.
At times, my symptoms have been so bad that they have absolutely broken me. In 2017, for example, a new shunt was placed and set far too low. Fluid was released from my brain far faster than it could be replaced, causing intracranial pressure to plunge within 48 hours of the surgery. The doctor reset the shunt and admitted me to Stanford’s emergency observation unit, but it would take 12 hours to notice any difference. For 12 hours, I was absolutely broken, unable to hold a conversation, writhing in pain. The drugs they gave me made no difference. We just had to wait. 12 hours. It was the closest thing to torture I’ve ever experienced. I know it was torture on my wife who spent the night watching it.
My experiences since age 7 have made me more aware of how dependent we are on God and one another for healing. The healing stories of Jesus, the healing message of Jesus, the healing God are truths that I place a lot of hope in because I have experienced what it means to be broken.
Jesus’ healing ministry addressed real brokenness, real affliction, and real pain. Last week, we saw Jesus in the temple casting out an unclean spirit, and we cannot really be sure whether Jesus waged spiritual warfare that day, or whether he healed a medical condition not yet understood by the Gospel’s author. In today’s Gospel text, on the same sabbath day, Jesus enters Simon’s home and finds Simon’s mother-in-law in bed with a fever. Fever could be quite serious in the ancient world. Perhaps being familiar with the coronavirus helps us appreciate the fear and trepidation that a fever would bring to a home in the ancient world, and the concern one might have encountering a person with a fever. But, in this encounter, Jesus does not stay distant; he does not shy away. Jesus takes Simon’s mother-in-law by the hand. There is physical touching, physical closeness, which probably defied all advice that might be given. And Jesus doesn’t just touch her. He lifts her; he elevates her. Maybe he embraced her. The fever leaves, and she responds by returning to serve others.
Jesus’ companions were so astonished that they gathered people who needed healing, brought them to him, and let Jesus go about the work of casting out demons and curing disease.
And word got around. But rather than seeking out the crowds, Jesus quietly moves on. Jesus moves on to proclaim his message in other places, to other people, seeking to reach all. He continues his ministry in new places proclaiming the message that God’s Reign has come near – a Reign defined by healing.
Today’s Gospel teaches us that healing is not a wholly private affair; it is not something done out of concern or sympathy only for an individual. Healing is offered to maintain the family. It is offered to maintain the social fabric of the community. Without healing, individuals are unable to offer their gifts to the community. And, without healing, the uncured diseases and afflictions of individuals weaken the corporate body. In this way, healing and care for the individual is integral to sustaining the community. Jesus’ message of the Reign of God having come near is enacted by restoring to health those who suffer – for their sake and for the sake of the community.
As in the ancient world, today’s illnesses impose a heavy social and economic cost. Illness can prevent people from earning a living, or from being a productive member of a household, or family, or community. Illness prevents people from pursuing their callings. And the cost of medical insurance and medical care can be prohibitive, leading to people delaying care until they cannot bear pain any longer. Sometimes, that point comes too late. And, for many who are insured, when they do seek care, there is no guarantee that the cost of that care will be covered by insurance. For those who do have some form of insurance, the high cost of life-sustaining prescription drugs, high deductibles, co-insurance, and other out-of-pocket costs can still make medical care prohibitively expensive. In the United States, the high cost of medical care contributes to hundreds of thousands of personal bankruptcies every year. We live in a country where tens of thousands of people each year create “Go Fund Me” webpages when medical catastrophe strikes. And while I have contributed to them and encourage others to do the same out of love and concern for their neighbors, I find them to be a symptom of a societal disease. These are problems not experienced in any other wealthy nation.
Because of the comprehensive health insurance that my wife and I receive through her union employer, in each of the 10 shunt-related surgeries I have had since 2009, my wife and I have never paid more than a nominal copayment, and we pay a modest portion of the monthly premium. Yet, in each of several hospitalizations, I have been a curtain away from someone less privileged – a person who was forced to exchange healing for greater financial burdens, if not financial ruin. In the experience I described earlier in Stanford’s emergency observation unit, I was a curtain away from a man who had failing kidneys and no health insurance. We shared the same space and the same air, we had the same nurse, we both sought relief and healing, but our circumstances were so very different.
According to The Reverend Kelly P. Carpenter, who served as pastor of Green Street United Methodist Church in Winston-Salem, North Carolina:
“When the compassion that Jesus demonstrates on an interpersonal level, through healing and exorcism, is realized and practiced by the masses, then the world knows not only God’s compassion for the individual, but also justice for the crowd. Justice is compassion raised to the institutional level.”
What Jesus’ ministry of healing teaches us is that the care and compassion we have for those in our private lives must be replicated on a social level. A healthcare system that breaks people already afflicted, a system that makes comprehensive, affordable health care accessible only to the privileged, a system that allows insurance companies to profit off of restricting, withholding, and delaying care, a system that makes care unsustainably expensive for families – that is a system that is the antithesis of the Reign of God; it is a system devoid of the compassion and love that define Jesus’ healing ministry. And justice demands that we do better.
If our experience with coronavirus leaves us with anything, I hope it stirs in us a new appreciation of how intimately intertwined our lives are. May it leave us with an understanding that the health of the community – the health of the body – depends on the health and wellbeing of each person. May we, as a people and society, follow the example of the Crucified One who walked among us and offered care to anyone in need, lifting the sick and restoring them to good health, for their good and for the good of all. God “restores and quickens, soothes and blesses.” May we, as a society, have the courage to go and do likewise.