An Innocent Incident

Seeing how Jesus’ healings lead to service

09/02/2020

Luke 4:38-44 After Jesus left the synagogue, he entered the house of Simon. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a severe fever, and they interceded with him about her. He stood over her, rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up immediately and waited on them. At sunset, all who had people sick with various diseases brought them to him. He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. And demons also came out from many, shouting, “You are the Son of God.” But he rebuked them and did not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ. At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they came to him, they tried to prevent him from leaving them. But he said to them, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.” And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

Today’s gospel story seems like an innocent incident of Jesus healing, but it is not at all. If we peer below the surface, we see the whole gospel in a nutshell, with a dramatic and decisive difference for Christianity and for the cosmos. Of course, who can forget Archbishop Fulton Sheen’s insight into this innocent incident? He joked that the real reason Peter denied Jesus three times was because Our Lord healed Peter’s mother-in-law. Only priests who don’t have mother-in-law’s can joke about them, so don’t try this at home.

I would like to look for a moment at Luke 4:39, where we read, after the healing: “She got up immediately and waited on them.” In other words, the healing had a hidden purpose: not only to restore to full health, but also to reinvigorate the healed person into a life of service. Healing, therefore, is for the purpose of service. We are not healed just so we can go back to life as normal, living for ourselves. We are healed, rather, so we can be more like Jesus and spend our life in service, or even give our life in sacrifice. Do you know of people who have prayed for healing, and then once healed, live with a new orientation and objective in life? Our church pews are filled with many such people.

But what’s the consequence for the entire cosmos from this healing? Medieval theologians taught the whole creation was organized and structured into a great Chain of Being or Hierarchy of Being: with God at the top and nothingness at the bottom. They explained this Chain had essentially seven levels or links: God, angels, man, animals, plants, minerals, and nothingness. And in some cultures this hierarchy of being is carried over into society, ranking people in society. For example, in my home country of India, an older brother (like my brother Paul) ranks above me. But priests rank higher than all siblings. So, when I was ordained a priest, I leap-frogged over him. See, how fun knowing the hierarchy of being can be? You can get back at your older brother.

But the coming of Christ effected a dramatic reversal of this hierarchy of being, basically turning it on its head. How so? Now, following the example of our Lord, the higher serves the lower, the stronger takes care of the weaker, the rich serves the poor, the smarter assists the slow of mind, and the healed (like Peter’s mother-in-law) wait on the needy and hungry. This up-ending of the Chain of Being can be summed up in Mark 10:45, where Jesus declares: “For the Son of Man [Jesus] did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Put more pointedly, Jesus, who is God himself, became a slave to those who should have been his slaves, that is, me and you. That is why immediately after being healed, Simon’s mother-in-law waited on them. She experienced not only physical healing but the larger (indeed, cosmic) healing Jesus was preforming on the whole of creation, so that the rightful rulers would become saintly servants, like Jesus himself.

What does this mean for us on a practical level? Well, for one thing, be careful what you pray for because you may get more than you bargained for! Peter’s mother-in-law only wanted to be free from her fever, but she ended up learning the law of love and became more like Christ who came not to be served but to serve. Likewise, when we pray for healing from cancer, when we ask help to find a job, when we pray for our children and grandchildren to be successful and happy, be careful. Why? Well, because Jesus answers those prayers by giving us not only that healing but also what we failed to request: the deeper healing of our hearts and the reversal of the hierarchy of being.

Could this also explain why Jesus says “no” to some of our prayers? He knows that once we are healed physically we might ignore the spiritual healing and go back to life like before. That is, we return to living for ourselves rather than living for others, indeed, even giving our lives for others. In Luke 12:48, Jesus gives another summary statement of the whole gospel, saying: “Much will be required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.” Keep that warning in mind next time you pray for something. When Jesus answers your prayers, it is anything but an innocent incident.

Praised be Jesus Christ!