Wow, Jesus is busy.

As you may remember from last week’s gospel, Jesus has just healed a possessed man in the synagogue at Capernaum.

And, according to today’s gospel, as soon as Jesus and his disciples leave the synagogue,

Jesus is asked to perform another healing, of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, at her house in Capernaum.

Now when I visited Capernaum, on my recent trip to the holy land, I saw both the synagogue and Simon Peter’s house.

As you leave the synagogue, you can see the house, less than 50 meters away . . .

So Jesus is literally ushered directly from place to place; one healing follows immediately after another.

But this second healing, the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, is different from the first.

If you remember from last week, when Jesus heals the possessed man in the synagogue . . .

 . . . Jesus shows us that the importance of being restored to wholeness in God.

And this second healing, of Simon’s mother-in-law, shows us what being restored to wholeness in God looks like.

As today’s gospel says: “Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.

He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.”

While on the surface, it appears that Jesus simply restores Simon’s mother-in law to health . . .

Her fever left her; she was back on her feet, back to work . . .

Jesus does more than just cure her of fever.

Jesus, today’s gospel says, “took her by the land and lifted her up.”

The verb that is translated as “lifted up”, in the original Greek, is egeiro.

It is a verb used to describe healings throughout Mark’s gospel, but it is also used in Mark 16: 6—to describe Jesus’ resurrection.

Lifted up, raised up, resurrected—it’s the same verb.

Now obviously, Jesus’ healing of Simon’s mother-in-law is not quite the same as Jesus’ resurrection.

After all, Simon’s mother-in-law was not dead, merely sick, and the gospel doesn’t tell us how serious her illness was.

But the fact that the writer of Mark’s gospel uses the same verb for Jesus’ resurrection, to describe this woman’s healing,

. . . suggests that, when Jesus lifts her up, he is doing more than simply restoring her to health.

There’s an element of transformation, of new life, of being restored to strength in order to take on a new and different place in the world . . .

And this idea of being restored to something new, different, transformational, a new role in the world . . .

 . . . is born out by what Simon’s mother-in-law does, immediately following her healing.

As today’s gospel says:  “Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.”

Now those words seem mundanely domestic at first.

The first thing Simon’s mother-in-law does, it seems, is to get up and make Jesus and his disciples lunch.

What’s transformational, what’s new or unusual, or wonderful about that?

Well, the verb translated in today’s gospel as “to serve” is, in Greek, diakoneo.

Diakoneo is the root of our modern word, deacon or deaconate.

It is a word that carries connotations of service in the world, of ministry, of vocation, of discipleship.

In other words, upon being healed, Simon’s mother-in-law, begins to deacon, to minister, to serve them.

And if you think about it, this woman’s fever prevented her initially from fulfilling a ministry of hospitality . . .

. . . of welcoming Jesus and the other disciples as guests in her home.

Once she is lifted up by Jesus, restored to strength, she is able to live more fully into her ministry . . .

. . . to serve others, rather than simply be served.

Simon’s mother-in law is, in Mark’s gospel, one of the first people to take on active discipleship, service to others.

And it all follows from her being healed, “lifted up,” restored to fullness of life in God.

And here’s where Jesus’ healing of Simon’s mother-in-law, shows us what being restored to wholeness in God looks like.

Wholeness in God does not mean simply being restored to health, to physical, spiritual, mental, or emotional wellbeing.

It means more than simply feeling cared for, loved, healed . . . although that is an important part of it.

Being restored to wholeness in God also means, once we are healed, once we feel and realize that we are loved, cared for by Go, by each other . . .

Then the next step is for us to be transformed, made new, restored to life so that we can live into our ministry, our vocations, our calling . . .

. . . as active disciples of Jesus Christ.

At the risk of over-simplifying and over-categorizing, it would seem as though, in the life of faith, there are fundamentally two different stages.

And each of us moves between the two stages at different times in our lives.

Simon’s mother moved through the two stages in the span of today’s gospel, for example.

The two stages in the life of faith are: those who need to be cared for, and those who need a calling.

Sometimes in our lives, we need to be cared for.

Like Simon’s mother-in-law, being laid low with a fever, we are sometimes prevented from living fully into our lives of faith . . .

 . . . whether by illness, by outside circumstances, by loss, by emotions, you name it.

We do need to feel and to know compassion, love, care in our lives, in order to live our lives of faith.

Sometimes that means taking care of ourselves, sometimes it means acknowledging our need, asking for help . . .

Or even opening ourselves up to the possibility for new life, for healing, renewal.

But that is only one part of the life of faith.

Part of being restored to wholeness in God, also means being transformed,

. . . to a new life, a new way of being and living in the world.

Yes, we need to be cared for  . . . we also need a calling.

We also need to be ministers, to be disciples, to serve God and others in this world, rather than simply being served ourselves.

We must also show the world what the care and love of God, what the love we ourselves have experienced, actually looks like.

This is the other stage of restored to wholeness in God.

In our lives of faith, we move between needing to be cared for and needing a calling.

And we must do both, at different times in our lives, on our journey towards wholeness.

Where are you, right now in your spiritual journey, in your path towards wholeness in God?

Do you need to be cared for? How? And in what way? Where are you broken, or lost, or in need?

Or do you need a calling? What can you offer the world? How can you be transformed, how can you help show the world the love of God?

Jesus shows us how to do both, both need to be done . . .

Where are you, on your path towards wholeness?