Time to Plan

Time to Plan is the third Sunday in our Stewardship series on time.  Planning a great way to not waste time.  Today we see why God gives us health.

Sickness

Peter’s mother-in-law got sick… really sick. She was consumed by a fever, so bad that she couldn’t attend synagogue and was laid up in bed. Well, Jesus had just driven out a demon that day at the synagogue. Immediately following that we’re told that Jesus, Peter, Andrew, James, and John started walking over to Peter’s mother-in-law’s house because it was the common practice to attend a special Sabbath meal. When they got to the house, Mark records it so simply and tenderly that Jesus went to her, took her hand, helped her up, and the fever she had been suffering from left just like that! The man who had cast out a demon from a stranger now cast out the fever from Peter’s beloved mother-in-law. Peter would remember that.

For Service

But here’s where I want us to pay special attention. What did she do after she was healed? She didn’t go and shave her head and join a convent. She didn’t become arrogant and declare herself the queen of Capernaum. She didn’t try to sign a book deal or do the talk show circuit. She didn’t even leave the house. No. Jesus healed her, and her first question was, “Let’s see now, where did I put the eggs?” Or as Mark puts it so simply, “She began to wait on them.” She used the gift of health she had been given to do what she could do out of thanks to Jesus. She served. It’s why Jesus gives gifts to us like time, health, wealth, education and so on. It’s why he heals us. It’s his plan… so that we can serve.

Want to hear more?  Watch this week’s message taken from Mark 2, Time to Plan.