Jesus’ ministry in Galilee begins with a remarkable day, a “paradigmatic day,” a day you can see everything you need to know about Jesus. That’s the day described in Mark’s gospel. A Sabbath day. (Mark 1:21-34)

Just before it, Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee and called Simon and his brother Andrew, then James and his brother John. “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They accompany him into that day. .

They enter the synagogue in Capernaum on a Sabbath Day and Jesus begins to teach. The people are amazed; no one has taught like him before. Then, as it happens through his life, evil appears. A man with an unclean spirit cries out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

The man with the unclean spirit is humanity helpless, fragile, beset by fear that it is forever in the hands of Evil.

Jesus rebuked him and said,“’Quiet! Come out of him!’ The man becomes a promise of humanity redeemed. The people who leave the synagogue tell everybody they meet. News spreads quickly in Capernaum, a trading center, and the day is still not over.

From the synagogue Jesus enters Peter and Andrew’s house in Capernaum where Peter’s mother in law is ill. “He grasped her by the hand, and helped her up and the fever left her. Immediately she began to wait on them.”

We shouldn’t dismiss this miracle or Mark’s simple observations: “He grasped her by the hand and helped her up.” In our drawing above, Rembrandt noticed that too. “She began to wait on them.” Now she was back, doing what she wished to do, feeding the others. A woman feeding others. A symbol of humanity restored. The mystery of the incarnation revealed in Judea at Christmas, now revealed in the miracles of healing in Galilee.

Again, the news spreads. “After sunset, as evening drew on, they brought all who were ill and those possessed by demons. Before long, the whole town was gathered outside the door. He cured many who were variously afflicted.” The whole world is represented in that crowd who come to the door to receive the Sabbath grace.

Truth and Life came to that town, and from that town other towns receive the promise: “ I must proclaim the good news to them too,” Jesus says.

Jesus confronts evil of all kind, wherever he goes. It won’t be long before leaders come from Jerusalem to question his authority to cure on the Sabbath. His own disciples and his own family do not understand him either. The towns that welcomed him, reject him. Still, he announces the good news.

To appreciate Mark’s remarkable day in perspective, try reading the gospels of these three days in our lectionary all a once. You can see Mark at his best, describing God’s beloved Son announcing the good news to the towns of Galilee and to the world as well. (Mark 1:16-39)