Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – Sunday, 7th February 2021

The Bible passage this week, the week beginning 7^th February, is the account of Jesus healing Simon Peter’s mother-in-law as well as many who were possessed with evil spirits.  After driving out many demons, Jesus prevented the demons from speaking because they knew who he was.  Why did Jesus do this?  Why did Jesus not want his actions to be known?  There are two inter-related reasons.  Firstly, Jesus did not want to become a celebrity faith healer or celebrity exorcist.  That was not his main aim but there was another, related reason.  To understand this, we need to understand Jesus’ primary purpose in coming to this world.  Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of God.  This was his over-riding concern and he talked more about the Kingdom than anything else.  For this, he needed to spend time with his disciples.  He needed time to teach them and train them because, when he was gone, they would have to take over the work of building the Kingdom.  Now, if Jesus was known as someone more powerful than even Caesar, he risked immediate imprisonment by the Romans.  If that happened, he would be unable to teach his disciples and his ability to establish the Kingdom of God would be hampered.  We too should have an over-riding concern for the Kingdom of God.  For this, we too should be wise as the best way to promote it.