The Gospel reading set for Morning Prayer
today continues in Mark chapter one, and continues the theme of the physical
realm mirroring the spiritual realm.
Earlier in the chapter, we have already seen
Jesus being driven out, with some force, into the wilderness by the Spirit [of
God]—the very action Jesus himself will take towards the compromised spirits,
and, by chapter 3, give his disciples authority to take towards the compromised
spirits. Spirit > human > spirit, and Spirit > human >
human > spirit patterns. There in the wilderness, Jesus meets the Satan,
Job’s restless wanderer after the pattern of Cain. There also, angels—gods in
the service of the Most High God—serve Jesus.
Today’s reading opens with the first woman to
appear in Mark’s Gospel, the mother-in-law of Peter. Raised up from fever, she
serves Jesus. The weak English translation suggests a domesticity, pouring cups
of tea and passing round plates of cucumber sandwiches. But Mark uses a word he
only uses on one other occasion, indeed, has already used. Peter’s
mother-in-law mirrors the angels. She is raised up the equal of the gods.
In Mark’s world, what happens on earth is as
it is in the heavens. And, without removing the free will of angels, demons or
humans, through the central actor Jesus, all things are being reconciled, in
the heavenly realms and the earthly realm.
This confronts our Western worldview, within
which only the physical realm is acknowledged. Nonetheless, plenty of people
believe in a spiritual realm, whether with fear or fascination. Mark holds out
a third way, the good news of Jesus.
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