I mean no disrespect but in reading this story about Simon’s mother in law, I am reminded of a scene in the classic 1987 movie, Moonstruck in which Loretta’s (Cher) fiancé, Johnny, was summoned to Sicily to be with his dying mother. Johnny, played by Danny Aiello, telephones Loretta in tears, as he and the wailing women of the village keep vigil; “it’s just a matter of time,” he says. Then “miraculously”, out of the blue, Johnny’s mother is suddenly cured of her burning fever and jumps out of the bed and begins to prepare an elaborate dinner for all the “future mourners.” “It’s a miracle Johnny proclaims; my mother lives. It’s a sign and being superstitious, tells Loretta that he cannot marry her. To me, like Simon’s mother-in-law, the real miracle is that the old woman begins to cook and serves all the assembled guests.
While the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law is a classic healing story in Jesus’
ministry (Mark1:29-39), there is
something a little disturbing about this story that goes beyond healing. “Then the fever left her,
and she began to serve them.” Doesn’t that strike us as being a little strange?
Can you see why I am reminded of Johnny’s mother in Moonstruck? Virtually
everyone I know who has had the flu and now I’m not talking about Covid 19, the
scourge of our current lives. I’m referring to the “typical” SARS flu whose
season begins in October and usually ends in April. No, the idea of popping out
of bed and doing anything at all, much less serving guests a 5 course meal, is beyond
inconceivable. I, after giving thanks to Jesus, would have asked the assembled
supporters to help themselves to tea and month-old fruit cake in the kitchen
and leave my home so that I could get some more rest.
I realize that in that time and in a time not so long ago, the matriarch’s role
as keeper of the house was to serve her family and guests. In my own experience
I clearly remember times when my mother, despite being unwell, still went about
her chores and daily activities. But, if you are brought back from the edge of
death, or from the brink of whatever you thought your life was all about,
shouldn't there be something else for you, perhaps a higher calling to a new
vocation, a new career, and a new identity? And yet for Simon’s mother it was
business as usual and she served them? Wasn’t that what she
was expected to do?
But,
what if the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law gave her a new lease on life and a
new purpose, beyond her traditional role as mother and house keeper? And what
if in being brought back to who she was, she became a disciple,
called to minister,
Jesus lifted her up. What if resurrection means being raised up to be the
person you were always meant to be? Being raised up is not just some sort of
spiritual future; it is your present reality, here and now an opportunity to
live as the real you…in mind, body and spirit, everything that you
were destined to be. The story of Simon’s mother-in-law reminds us that God
does not call us to be something we are not but rather he is in the business of
restoring us to who we really are.
Of course, most of the time it’s easier to live in the shadows of your false
self and surround yourself with people and performances that allow you to
pretend that this is you. This enables you to avoid the feelings and
frustrations and fears that come with acknowledging what really is important in
your life. I think a lot of us spend a good part of our lives living on the
periphery of ourselves.
God called Jesus to be who he was. That’s what the incarnation is all
about. God, in Jesus, committed God’s self to be human and to show us how to
live. Being who we really are is what God wants us to be. He brings us back
from the shadows, from despair, from disease and desperation. God decided to
become one of us so that we would know that He needs us to be a of His almighty plan.
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