3rd Sunday before Lent

1 Corinthians 9.16-23; Mark 1.29-39

As with every set of readings, there's many a theme embedded in them and very often, a number of ways of interpreting them. If there's a link between the two readings today, and one that we can get something from, it seems to me that it might be something to do with Jesus and Paul's ministry; one in evangelism and the other in healing. And the way these two go about their respective ministries gives us something to think about in how we relate to other people.

St. Paul is talking about how he preaches the gospel and the terms on which he preaches it. He preaches for free, he says. But the point is, he reminds his readers, that he feels an obligation to preach. He feels it is his commission. He feels the burden to do it. He does it of his own will, and the reward he gets is when people are converted, when they are 'won over.' I suppose that's a very natural reaction. Anyone of us is delighted when someone sees our point of view and even more delighted when they change their point of view to ours. So St. Paul feels rewarded.

What's more interesting though, and what seems to link in with how Jesus works is what St. Paul says next about how he goes about his preaching. He says that he is 'all things to all people.' 'To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law so that I might win those under the law....to those outside the law... I became as one outside the law to win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so I might win the weak....I have become all things to all people, that I might be all means save some.'

At first sight this might seem that St. Paul could be compromising himself. But he is too committed to the gospel for that. I prefer to think that what he means is that he is first trying to see the other person's point of view so that he can put over his point in a way that the other person will warm to. He tries to see the world as the other sees it. That way he can be sure that the risk of offending the other person will be minimal. I don't think he's trying to 'trick' anyone here. He's not trying to pull a fast one on anybody. He's simply doing his best to step into someone else's shoes. From there he'll see all the difficulties they'll have in taking on this new way of thinking about God and about the man Jesus. Having done that he'll understand the size of the task and realise how great the grace of God when someone turns to Christ and has their life changed because of it. But as well as that, it means that St. Paul has a greater understanding of his fellow human beings anyway, and in that learn to honour, respect and value God's children all the more.

When we come to the gospel reading we see Jesus in HIS dealings with other people, especially those who are sick. And just as an aside before I say any more, I noticed for the first time that St. Mark says 'they brought to him ALL who were sick or possessed with demons.......And he cured MANY with various diseases, and cast out many demons...' I think we tend to get the impression that Jesus cured everybody but here quite clearly, he didn't. He didn't cure them all, he cured many.

But what I want to say about this particular passage from the gospel, to link it to the passage from 1 Corinthians is about the impression we get that Jesus was someone who could so easily stand in the shoes of others. We know of his intuitive abilities when we read about the woman at the well for example and how he knew of her domestic situation. And as the nails were being hammered into his hands and feet on the cross he asked God to forgive his executioners. He could only do that if he knew what was going on in their hearts and minds. All along, in every story about Jesus, his response to people is clearly attuned to their own particular circumstance. And his response was one for the moment, whether it was something that gave them a challenge or something that met a need for greater wholeness or healing or for their greater knowledge of God and his presence in their lives. And paradoxically, because he was so attuned to other people he could make firm decisions about where he would preach and heal, which wasn't always where people expected.

So maybe the message for us from these readings today is that if we are going to make any difference to peoples' lives then we've got to first see the world how they see it, to see themselves as they see themselves. And maybe then we will be seeing them as God sees them and His grace will find a way through us, to meet their need in that moment.