When God Heals You, Do You Have to Go Back to Work?

After I first became a Christian, I went from being the guy counting the seconds until the sermon was done to the guy eagerly listening to every word. There’s one sermon I remember about Mark that stayed with me, and I still think about it. It was based on Mark 1:29-31.

As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up. The fever left her and she began to wait on them.

Mark 1:29-31 (NIV)

Imagine you’re sick and call off work, school, church, or whatever. However, you also pray, and after praying, you’re healed. What do you do? If you’re like me, you praise the Lord and enjoy the rest of the day, returning to your obligations tomorrow.

In that sermon, the pastor said we shouldn’t do that. Instead, we should be like Simon’s mother-in-law, returning to our obligations because the Lord has healed us. That wasn’t all. The pastor suggested that we were sinning and taking advantage of God’s healing if we stayed home and rested.

Is that true? Should we skip the rest because we’ve been healed?

What Was Jesus Waiting For?

Many wonder why Jesus didn’t begin His public ministry earlier. Luke tells us Jesus “was about thirty years old when he began his ministry” (Luke 3:23, NIV). I noticed something in Mark today that suggests why Jesus began His public ministry when He did:

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.

Mark 1:14 (NIV)

I think Jesus couldn’t really ramp up His public ministry until John had “completed” his ministry.

Blasphemous buzz

around town,
burning bushes
preaching
words
of
wisdom,
death
and
destruction,
heartache
and
woe,
judgments
to come…

What We Forget About Paul

In his first letter to Timothy, Paul says something we shouldn’t disregard lightly:

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

1 Timothy 1:15-16 (NIV)

Paul calls himself “the worst” of sinners, and to a degree, he’s talking about a mindset we should have regarding our relationship with sin and Jesus’ redeeming sacrifice. In this mindset, there aren’t “degrees” of sin—as if any one person is a “worse” sinner than another. Instead, we must all recognize that Jesus died for us all; we must also recognize that even the “least” of our sins is worthy of separation from God.

Once we’ve understood this premise, we shouldn’t overlook the reality of Paul’s statement or why he might have called himself the “worst of sinners.” Paul probably said it because he was a murderer who persecuted the Church.