| Reading 1 | Response | Reading 2 | Gospel |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job 7:1-4, 6-7 | Ps 147:1-2, 3-4, 5-6 | 1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23 | Mk 1:29-39 |
| RCL: Is 40:21-31 | RCL: 1 Cor 9:16-23 |
Fitting discipleship and mission into a busy life
During Ordinary time the Lectionary presents stories and teachings from Jesus’ everyday ministry. This week’s readings focus on discipleship, mission, and the burdens of everyday life.
First reading (Job 7:1-4, 6-7)
The first reading is from the book of Job, a post-exilic Wisdom writing that took final form in the fourth century BC. Like other Wisdom writings, Job begins from the human point of view. Job is trying to live wisely every day; when his life falls apart (he loses his family, his wealth, and his health), he begins questioning God and God’s way. Job’s story invites readers to work out their own solutions to Job’s dilemma of why a just person suffers.
In today’s pericope, Job laments that his life has become a struggle (“I have been assigned months of misery”), like all other humans (“life on earth [is a] a drudgery”). The poetic image “my days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle; / and are spent without hope” contains a Hebrew pun. The Hebrew word תִּקְוָה/tiqvâh means both “thread” and “hope.” The weaver’s shuttle moves thread back and forth across the loom; just as weaving ends when the thread runs out, so also life ends when hope runs out. Job’s poetic lament ends in despair (“I shall not see happiness again”).
The Lectionary editors chose this reading because human miseries provide a backdrop for Jesus’ physical and spiritual healings in the gospel.
Second reading (1 Cor 9:16-19, 22-23)
The second reading is the fourth part of a five-week, semi-continuous reading from Paul’s first letter to the Corinth ekklesia. Paul writes to real flesh-and-blood people working out how best to live their faith. Paul teaches disciples to reject any words, actions, or distinctions that disrupt the community’s unity and holiness. Love is the basis and context for community life.
Just before today’s reading, Paul builds a case for his apostolic freedom and his right to support from the Corinth community for his teaching. In today’s pericope, Paul renounces his freedom and his rights to give the Corinth believing community a model of Christian service.
In the pericope’s first part, Paul explains that he preaches the gospel “unwillingly” because God has imposed the “obligation” on Paul. If Paul preached “willingly,” the Corinth believing community (his “stewardship”) would owe him support or payment (“recompense”). Instead, Paul renounces his right to the community’s support (“not make full use of my right”), offering “the gospel free of charge.”
In the pericope’s second part, Paul describes his reason for renouncing his apostolic right (“I am free”): he places himself in service to everyone (“a slave to all”) to win as many people as possible to the gospel. Some powerful people in Corinth exercise their legal rights to oppress and to destroy the socially, politically, or financially weak. Paul chooses to live constrained (“I became weak”) by others’ beliefs “to save at least some.” Paul’s enslavement to others is, paradoxically, true freedom to serve others’ needs.
The Lectionary editors chose this reading to continue Ordinary time’s semi-continuous reading from First Corinthians.
Gospel (Mk 1:29-39)
Mark’s gospel concludes Jesus’ “typical day” at the start of his ministry. Today’s pericope continues from last week’s authoritative teaching and powerful exorcism: Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law, heals Capernaum’s physically and spiritually sick, prays in private, and continues his mission.
- Discipleship. At first glance, the cure of Simon’s mother-in-law looks like a healing story. English translations often bury two important messages. First, Jesus “raises up” (ἐγείρω/egeírō) the woman. This is the same word Mark uses to describe Jesus’ resurrection (Mk 14:28, Mk 16:6). This story foreshadows Jesus’ own raising up and foreshadows the raising of all humans. Second, the woman immediately begins to “serve” or “give hospitality” (διακονέω/diakonéō). This is the same word Mark uses when Jesus says he has come “not to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10:45). Simon’s mother-in-law becomes the first person in Mark’s gospel to act as Jesus does, something his new disciples don’t yet understand (they are happy to be served).
- Action vs contemplation. Mark shows Jesus engaged in ministry (“For this I have come”) and in private prayer (“He went off to an empty place and prayed there)”. In Galilee, people called the spaces between villages deserted or empty places; Mark’s use of “deserted places” here recalls Jesus’ time in the wilderness (Mk 1:3-13). Mark recognizes the tension between Jesus’ outreach to heal/save and his need to withdraw for private conversation with God. This story suggests that even in the empty places/wilderness Jesus cannot escape the crowds that need his healing/saving.
Summary and reflection
This week’s readings ask us to think about the balance between real life, discipleship’s service, and conversation with God. Job finds real human life so overwhelming he has no time for others. Paul finds time in his busy life to serve everyone. Jesus’ mission to bring God’s reign near through healing and teaching consumes his days, but he makes time to reflect with his Father.
Discipleship is demanding. Our lives can already be so filled with family, work, and friends that adding others who need our attention and service seems impossible. We often have no “empty spaces” for self-reflection and prayer. Yet, in the middle of “full catastrophe living,” God still calls all humans to serve others and encounter the divine. To whom to can give hospitality? Whom can we heal with a simple word or action? Where can we make time to pray? Where is our deserted place to meet God? To what personal mission is God calling us?
—Terence Sherlock
The Lectionary In Context 