Be and Do your best at home!

Luke 4:38-44

38 He left the meeting place and went to Simon's house. Simon's mother- in- law was running a high fever and they asked him to do something for her. 39 He stood over her, told the fever to leave-- and it left. Before they knew it, she was up getting dinner for them. 40 When the sun went down, everyone who had anyone sick with some ailment or other brought them to him. One by one he placed his hands on them and healed them. 41 Demons left in droves, screaming, "Son of God! You're the Son of God!" But he shut them up, refusing to let them speak because they knew too much, knew him to be the Messiah. 42 He left the next day for open country. But the crowds went looking and, when they found him, clung to him so he couldn't go on. 43 He told them, "Don't you realize that there are yet other villages where I have to tell the Message of God's kingdom, that this is the work God sent me to do?" 44 Meanwhile he continued preaching in the meeting places of Galilee.

Food for thought!

There are great truths in this short incident.

(i) Jesus was always ready to serve. He had just left the synagogue. But no sooner had Jesus left the synagogue and entered Peter's house than the insistent cry of human need was at him. He did not claim that he was tired and must rest; he answered it without complaint.

(ii) Jesus did not need a crowd to work a miracle. Many people will put out an effort in a crowd that they will not make among their own private circle. Many of us are at our best at work and at our worst at home. All too commonly we are gracious, courteous, generous and polite to outsiders and the very opposite when at home. But Jesus was prepared to put out all his power in a small home. Be and do your best at home, first.

(iii) When Peter's mother-in-law was cured immediately she began to serve them. She realized that she had been given back her health to spend it in the service of others. She wanted no fussing and no petting; she wanted to get on with cooking and serving her own folk and Jesus. Mothers are always like that. We would do well to remember that if God gave us the priceless gift of health and strength, he gave it that we might use it always in the service of others.

(iv) Early in the morning Jesus went out to be alone. He was able to meet the insistent needs of men only because he first companied with God. Once, in the 1914-18 war, a staff conference was due to begin. All were present except Marshal Foch, the commander-in-chief. An officer who knew him well said, "I think I know where we may find him." He led them round to a ruined chapel close beside General Headquarters and there, before the shattered altar, the great soldier was kneeling in prayer. Before he met men he must first meet God.

(v) There is no word of complaint or resentment when Jesus' privacy was invaded by the crowds. Prayer is great but in the last analysis human need is greater. Pray we must; but prayer must never be an escape from reality; going to church should never be an escape from going to market place. Prayer cannot preserve us from the insistent cry of human need. It must prepare us for it; and sometimes we will need to rise from our knees too soon and get to attend human need.

As you know, we shall be judged by our attention to human need: "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you took me into your home. 36 I needed clothes, and you gave me something to wear. I was sick, and you took care of me. I was in prison, and you visited me" (Mt 25,35-36).