Mark 1: When Your Soul Has a Fever, Get Up and Serve

Introduction

"I am not a preacher." Elder Franco Varchetta opens his message with this admission, and he says it without false humility. The pastor was away, so he could not get out of it. He searched for a word for several days, and the Lord gave him one. With a smile, he asks the congregation to have mercy on him that morning.

His text is short: Mark 1:29-31. Leaving the synagogue, Jesus goes into the house of Simon and Andrew. Simon's mother-in-law is lying in bed with a fever. Jesus comes to her, takes her by the hand and lifts her up. The fever leaves her, and she begins to serve them.

At a time of changing seasons, when flu and colds come back, Franco Varchetta talks about fever. Not only the fever of the body, but another, more important one: the fever of the soul. He describes its symptoms, its remedies, and the test that shows healing is real: "Get up and serve."

Message Outline

1. A God of Great Miracles and Small Miracles

While preparing the message, the preacher wanted to count the miracles of Jesus. He found about 37, until John "threw him off": Jesus did many other signs that are not written in this book (John 20:30), and if they were written in detail, the world itself could not contain the books (John 21:25). "Lord, it is true, you did miracles," he concludes as he gives up counting.
He recalls the most striking ones: the water turned into wine at Cana, the raising of Lazarus, and the raising of the widow's son at Nain.
He dwells on the way Jesus acted, which was sometimes strange: at Bethsaida, he spits on a blind man's eyes before laying hands on him; for the man born blind, he makes mud with his saliva and sends him to wash in the pool of Siloam; for the deaf man who could hardly speak, he puts his fingers in his ears and touches his tongue with spittle. The crowd said: "We never saw anything like this."
Among these spectacular miracles is the quieter one of Simon's mother-in-law. "We have a God of great miracles, but we also have a God of small miracles."
We are drawn to the spectacular. The preacher tells how in Giugliano he saw a sister in a wheelchair, who had not walked for more than 25 years, stand up and walk after a brother prayed: "Rise up in the name of Jesus and walk." But in everyday matters, we do not want to "bother Jesus." We tell ourselves, "I can manage on my own," until the moment we have to run to him and say, "Lord, I did not make it."

2. The Fever of the Body, a Valuable Signal

Fever is the first symptom of an illness: the temperature climbs above 37 degrees. Then come the headache, sweating, loss of appetite and above all dehydration, because our body is more than 70% fluid.
The causes are infections, viruses and bacteria. Fever is "something precious": God designed the body to react, signal the problem and start fighting the infection.
What do we do? We stay in bed and rest. We drink a lot of water. We dress lightly so the body can release heat, even though we often do the opposite and add blankets. We take medicine to bring the fever down.
If the fever persists, we call the doctor, who examines us and orders tests, X-rays, sometimes a scan.

3. The Fever of the Soul

A small headache is enough to alarm us and send us looking for a solution. "That same importance, we often do not give it to our soul." And sometimes we do not even realize it.
The soul can be feverish for several days: we listen to the songs and the preaching, and nothing happens. We come to church, but the fever persists, to the point that we stay in bed, like Simon's mother-in-law.
Luke tells the same scene with one more detail: she had "a great fever," and Jesus, leaning over her, "rebuked the fever" (Luke 4:38-39). Luke, "who, by the way, was a doctor," noted that this fever tormented her. Mark says Jesus raised her by the hand; Luke says he had to rebuke the fever, a greater commitment to set this woman free.
When the soul is tormented, the first thing to do is to acknowledge our need of Jesus and ask for his help.
The thermometer of the soul is the Bible. Medicines come with a leaflet, which Italians call the "bugiardino," the "little liar." "Here, there is no bugiardino. Here, there is truth." At God's pharmacy, which is his Word, we check whether our life and behavior line up with what is written. If not, Mark's fever can become Luke's fever, the one that torments.

4. Symptoms Not to Underestimate

Joy starts to go missing, and you come to the service out of habit: "start to worry."
Your desire for the things of God fades: you really need to take it seriously.
Desires you had before your conversion come back: here, you should be even more concerned.
You no longer want to be in God's presence: "Then it is serious, you need to be hospitalized."
"Brothers and sisters, let us not underestimate these symptoms, our eternity is at stake."

5. Remedies for the Soul

Rest. Jesus said: "Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Our rest is in Jesus: we need to rest on his promises and hold on to them, because on the cross he bore our sicknesses and our sins.
Water. The soul needs a lot of water: the Word of God must be the spring that fills our hearts.
Taking off the blankets. "But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). It means bringing the soul into the light: confessing sin and leaving it behind.
These blankets are the works of the old nature described in Galatians 5: sexual immorality, idolatry, hatred, strife, jealousy, quarrels, lies. Just as we take them off in the natural world, we need to take them off in the spiritual world.

6. Jesus, the Doctor Who Takes the Illness on Himself

According to the preacher, a feverish person was considered unclean at the time, and anyone who touched her became unclean. A rabbi would have kept his distance, and at most prayed from afar.
Jesus, "the doctor above all doctors," takes her by the hand, lifts her up and heals her, without worrying about uncleanness.
He did not only remove her illness: he took it on himself, just as he took our sins. Isaiah had announced it 700 years earlier: "Surely he has borne our sickness and carried our suffering" (Isaiah 53:4).
Peter writes later: "who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed" (1 Peter 2:24).
"In Capernaum, Jesus touched the feverish hand of Simon's mother-in-law, but on the cross, those hands were nailed," so that we could be saved, set free and destined for eternal life.

7. The Test of Healing: Get Up and Serve

After a treatment, we check that we are cured. "Franco, how do you feel?" "A little better." But feeling a little better does not mean being healed, and relapses are often worse than the first fever.
Simon's mother-in-law did not stay in bed and did not just say thank you: she began to serve them. "This is what the Lord asks of us this morning."
Jesus is here. You may not see him, but he is near you and he holds out his hand. Your part is to take that hand, hold on to his promises and believe they are for you, personally. Getting up to leave is not enough: "if you get up and serve the Lord, then you are truly healed."
Serving the Lord is not only taking care of the church's tasks. It is above all fulfilling the mission he entrusted to us: reconciling people with God, as others did for us by bringing us the Word.
The preacher shares his testimony: he considered himself an honest person, beyond reproach in his work, so much so that a wonderful party was held for him when he retired. But he was a sinner. He justified himself with sins that "everybody commits." The Lord showed him his life "like a film": "Repent, ask forgiveness." It was the first time he truly asked for forgiveness. He describes "a fire from heaven" running through him down to his feet, and he began to praise the Lord.
Honest people are often the hardest to bring to the Lord, because they do not recognize their sin.
Like the priest and the Levite in the parable, we sometimes see the needs of others without stopping. In Giugliano, he says, a revival came when the church went to clean homes, took care of drug addicts and supported families. He quotes a pastor who had written: "Do not put my name on my tombstone. Put the names of others."
"I do not like that person." That is exactly the person who needs help. The Gospel runs against our way of thinking: turn the other cheek, let him have your cloak as well (Matthew 5:39-40).
"Jesus is coming back soon." Our life does not belong to us, it must be devoted to the Lord.

Key Takeaways

God does great miracles, but also small miracles: you can bring him your everyday affairs without fearing you will "bother" him.
We take care of the body at the slightest fever, but we often neglect the soul. The Word of God is the thermometer that tells the truth about our condition.
Lack of joy, habit, a fading desire for the things of God and the return of old desires are symptoms to take seriously.
Jesus did not just remove the illness: he took it on himself, and on the cross he bore our sins.
The sign of healing is to get up and serve, first of all by reconciling people with God.

Personal Application

If you take the temperature of your soul with the Word of God, what does it say today?
Which of these symptoms do you recognize in yourself: less joy, going to church out of habit, less desire for God, old desires coming back?
Which "blankets" do you need to take off by bringing them into the light before God, through confession?
In which everyday situation do you hesitate to "bother Jesus"?
Who around you needs you to get up and serve them, even if you do not like them?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the fever of the soul according to Franco Varchetta?

It is a spiritual condition that sometimes sets in without our realizing it: joy starts to go missing, we come to the service out of habit, the desire for the things of God fades, and the desires from before conversion come back. Franco Varchetta urges us not to underestimate these symptoms, because "our eternity is at stake."

Why does Luke specify that Simon's mother-in-law had a great fever?

Mark simply speaks of a woman lying in bed with a fever. Luke, who was a doctor, adds that she was tormented by a great fever and that Jesus rebuked the fever (Luke 4:38-39). For the preacher, this detail shows that a neglected fever can become a fever that torments the soul.

What is the sign of true spiritual healing?

After she was healed, Simon's mother-in-law did not stay in bed: she began to serve them. For Franco Varchetta, this is the test that proves healing. Serving the Lord is not limited to the church's tasks: it is first of all the mission of reconciling people with God.