Epiphany V B He Lifted Her up

Jesus took the hand of Simon’s mother in law who was suffering from a fever; he lifted her up and her fever left her.

These few words seem very simple and at the same time are a short summary of a miraculous event—the healing of a mother by Jesus lifting her up by her hand.

Touch is so important to our emotional health.  Psychologists’ studies prove again and again that lack of enough touch in babies can scar them emotionally for life.  We know that residents of nursing homes often don’t get enough touching and when I visit our own parishioners I make it a habit to do healing prayers with touching.

The touch of Jesus makes such a difference in this woman’s life, she is motivated to start serving Jesus and his followers immediately. In a way she becomes the first deacon, a person who serves others in the name of God.  She is healed and her first impulse is to give back by being of use to the people of God who have come to attend to her.

It is our impulse too. Have you had the experience of having something wonderful happen in your life?  When I was a professor and had good news about a grant or was given an award, my first impulse was to celebrate by giving a gift to my church.  It just came naturally to thank God for the gifts I had been given.  This mother, who was not able to do motherly things because of her illness, suddenly was well again, and she celebrated by giving of herself.

In this story Jesus not only touches her hand but he lifts her up. This extra information conveys a sense of her being laid low in her illness, of needing Jesus’s help to rise above her illness and be healed.  We too get Jesus’s help to rise above the things that may afflict us, get a sense of the love of God, of the presence of Christ and the peace that passes all understanding, in the midst of whatever challenges we are facing.

Being lifted up by Jesus takes us from the lows of our life, from whatever challenges our sense that we are loved by God.  If we allow ourselves, Jesus stands ready to lift us up in healing us, so that we can be prepared for service to God’s people. 

This is a gift from God. Christ was sent into the world understanding that we our humanity, the challenges we face both physically and emotionally and mentally, and knew that we needed the reassurance of divine care and healing. That we needed to be lifted above our lowliness into the divine realm of health and wholeness if the world would be healed. Because God needs us to be healed so we can spread the good news. God needs our hands and feet, our hearts to be engaged with the world in the service of justice and peace for all.

Open your hands to be lifted, to be healed and made whole for God’s peace and justice.