No Service for Jesus is Small: The Mundane Matters
Most of us live most our lives doing mostly mundane things.
We might experience a few pivotal, defining moments in life. But most days we don’t get married, receive a positive pregnancy test, or achieve a breakthrough in our field. Most days, we’re commuting, studying, parenting, working, doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, or paying the bills.
Do those activities count in God’s eyes? Does the mundane matter to him?
Recently, while watching a movie about the first man on the moon, it struck me that simple, ordinary activities on Earth matter more in space. Eating is everyday on earth; in zero gravity, where food floats, it’s an adventure. Walking on Earth is forgettable; a step onto the moon’s surface is immortal. If you find a screw lying around your home, it’s no big deal; if you find one floating in your space capsule, it’s a huge deal. The context of an ordinary activity can supercharge its significance.
A little three-verse story early in Mark’s Gospel shows that a mundane deed can matter enormously when offered in response to Jesus’s goodness and for Jesus’s glory.
Immediately [Jesus] left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. (Mark 1:29–31)
Do those activities count in God’s eyes? Does the mundane matter to him?
Recently, while watching a movie about the first man on the moon, it struck me that simple, ordinary activities on Earth matter more in space. Eating is everyday on earth; in zero gravity, where food floats, it’s an adventure. Walking on Earth is forgettable; a step onto the moon’s surface is immortal. If you find a screw lying around your home, it’s no big deal; if you find one floating in your space capsule, it’s a huge deal. The context of an ordinary activity can supercharge its significance.
A little three-verse story early in Mark’s Gospel shows that a mundane deed can matter enormously when offered in response to Jesus’s goodness and for Jesus’s glory.
Immediately [Jesus] left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. (Mark 1:29–31)
Ordinary Service, Person, and Place
The word for serve in verse 31 refers to attending, caring for, and helping others, including waiting on them at table. Simon’s mother-in-law is probably bringing bread, refilling cups, wiping crumbs, clearing dishes. Her service is ordinary. She’s not painting a masterpiece to honor Jesus, or building a cathedral for him, or composing a song to be performed by a two-hundred-member choir. Her service is more ordinary than that. She herself is an ordinary person. In fact, she’s not even named in the story — instead, she’s identified by means of her relationship with her famous son-in-law (Simon). Moreover, she’s performing her humble service in a humble town: the fishing village of Capernaum, which had perhaps fifteen hundred residents.
The word for serve in verse 31 refers to attending, caring for, and helping others, including waiting on them at table. Simon’s mother-in-law is probably bringing bread, refilling cups, wiping crumbs, clearing dishes. Her service is ordinary. She’s not painting a masterpiece to honor Jesus, or building a cathedral for him, or composing a song to be performed by a two-hundred-member choir. Her service is more ordinary than that. She herself is an ordinary person. In fact, she’s not even named in the story — instead, she’s identified by means of her relationship with her famous son-in-law (Simon). Moreover, she’s performing her humble service in a humble town: the fishing village of Capernaum, which had perhaps fifteen hundred residents.
“An ordinary deed, done in response to Jesus’s goodness and for Jesus’s glory, matters enormously.”
So, her service for Jesus is not an extraordinary effort by a famous person in a famous place. It’s not Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling, Bach’s Mass in B Minor, or a Charles Spurgeon sermon. It’s just a no-name woman in a no-name place putting bread on a table.
And yet it gets a mention in the Bible. “She began to serve them.” Mark considers her service worth including. We still read about it two thousand years later. It matters greatly. Why? To understand, let’s draw two implications from this passage for our own service to others.
And yet it gets a mention in the Bible. “She began to serve them.” Mark considers her service worth including. We still read about it two thousand years later. It matters greatly. Why? To understand, let’s draw two implications from this passage for our own service to others.
From Jesus’s Goodness
The things we do — even the most ordinary, everyday, blasé activities — matter when offered in response to what Jesus has done for us. Notice that, in the story of Simon’s mother-in-law, Jesus is the initiator of the action. He leaves the synagogue with his disciples. He enters Simon and Andrew’s house. He approaches the mother-in-law. He takes her by the hand. He lifts her up. We’re not even told whether she believes in Jesus or whether she speaks a single word. We’re just told that the fever leaves her, and she begins to serve. Clearly, she acts not to secure Jesus’s attention or favor — he’s not holding auditions to see whom he’ll choose to heal! — but because he’s already healed her. And that response to Jesus’s goodness is worthy of inclusion in Holy Scripture. Her mundane work matters.
It’s the same for us. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). A meal cooked for a neighbor, a patient interaction with a child, a kind word to a discouraged colleague — each can become an echo of Jesus’s full provision, perfect patience, and infinite kindness to us. When we love and serve others because we’ve already received infinitely more from God, the deed (as simple and mundane as it may seem to be) grows great. What a liberating and hope-giving truth! It blows the dust from our ho-hum days, causing them to sparkle with significance. It means the world is bursting with opportunities for us to act in ways that matter forever.
It’s the same for us. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). A meal cooked for a neighbor, a patient interaction with a child, a kind word to a discouraged colleague — each can become an echo of Jesus’s full provision, perfect patience, and infinite kindness to us. When we love and serve others because we’ve already received infinitely more from God, the deed (as simple and mundane as it may seem to be) grows great. What a liberating and hope-giving truth! It blows the dust from our ho-hum days, causing them to sparkle with significance. It means the world is bursting with opportunities for us to act in ways that matter forever.
For Jesus’s Glory
We’re not told the mother-in-law’s motivation for serving Jesus. But by reading the story in its immediate context, we get a clear sense of why Mark (the Gospel writer) included it. The immediately preceding story of Jesus casting out an unclean spirit in the Capernaum synagogue emphasizes Jesus’s authority in teaching and exorcism (Mark 1:21–28). The verses that immediately follow rapidly summarize lots of Jesus’s additional activity, thereby showing that his authority extends far beyond a single exorcism or healing (verses 32–34). His authority is over every spirit and every disease.
In context, the main point of the story of Simon’s mother-in-law is Jesus’s authority over her sickness. His authority is clear from the immediacy of the healing — the fever dissipates instantly. It’s also clear from the completeness of the healing, which not only deals with the fever but also heals the weakness that normally follows sickness. The key proof of both the healing’s immediacy and its completeness is recorded in verse 31: “She began to serve them.” Her service — simple and humble as it is — therefore carries massive significance. It’s exhibit A for the authority of Jesus, which is the main point of this section.
It’s the same for us: Our smallest, simplest acts can display Christ’s majesty. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). When ordinary people perform ordinary acts in order to display an extraordinary God, those acts grow great. They’re aligned with the ultimate purpose of the universe (Romans 11:36).
In context, the main point of the story of Simon’s mother-in-law is Jesus’s authority over her sickness. His authority is clear from the immediacy of the healing — the fever dissipates instantly. It’s also clear from the completeness of the healing, which not only deals with the fever but also heals the weakness that normally follows sickness. The key proof of both the healing’s immediacy and its completeness is recorded in verse 31: “She began to serve them.” Her service — simple and humble as it is — therefore carries massive significance. It’s exhibit A for the authority of Jesus, which is the main point of this section.
It’s the same for us: Our smallest, simplest acts can display Christ’s majesty. “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). When ordinary people perform ordinary acts in order to display an extraordinary God, those acts grow great. They’re aligned with the ultimate purpose of the universe (Romans 11:36).
Good News for Today
An ordinary deed, done in response to Jesus’s goodness and for Jesus’s glory, matters enormously. Here’s some good news: You can practice this today. Pick any of the umpteen mundane tasks that lie before you: vacuuming the carpet, driving a kid to soccer practice, fixing a faucet, completing a spreadsheet. Now surround it with these two phrases: “from Jesus’s goodness” and “for Jesus’s glory.” If you really feel the first phrase, it will yield cheerfulness, eagerness, generosity, and humility in doing your task. And if you really mean the second phrase, it will ennoble and enliven what you do, granting it direction, purpose, and consequence.
Jesus calls his followers to lives of humble, ordinary, deeply significant service, from his goodness and for his glory. The mundane matters.
Jesus calls his followers to lives of humble, ordinary, deeply significant service, from his goodness and for his glory. The mundane matters.
Posted in Grow
1 Comment
A gloriously happy young couple had to move back into a family home when his job had ended after only a brief period time. The economic downturn had affected many people and jobs were difficult to find so he took temporary work in their hometown.
nHe later found work in his profession nearby. When they moved, they were ultimately connected with an elder couple who introduced them to people at church. During their time there, they encountered many opportunities to serve in simple ways regarding food and small groups, fully enjoying their time together as they served and worshiped. All these things were simple and ordinary, seemingly as they made friends and just moved around in the Church community. They fully enjoyed their life together, even though in his mind, the world had ended when his first real job ended, having had so much hope for a lengthy career with that huge company.
nThey both enjoyed the work they did in their hometown area. That enabled them to be close to family and old friends.
nDecades later, a woman told them that they were responsible for her finding a hope that she might have a happy life someday. Indeed she did, so surprisingly to her and her husband.
nShe had given up hope given her horrible family situation at the time that she met them. We see now that the Lord moved people together into the same proximity that they would meet, enjoy community in Sunday school classrooms and youth activities, forming bonds of lasting joy.
nThose seemingly ordinary things make tremendous positive impact on the world as the woman revealed that she had planned to end her life for all her struggles until seeing how much joy one happy couple had in being together. Ministry happens as seed grow while enduring ordinary things in an ordinary church in an ordinary town. The lessons and leadership while well researched, purposely taught, and enjoyed by all, were only the vehicle through which God showed a teenager a reason to live and look forward to a happy life. She is now happier than she ever thought she could’ve ever been, happier than she knew anybody could be. She cheerfully gives thanks to the Lord for this ordinary, happy couple and for His hand in her life. Meanwhile, she works daily in a profession that saves lives and makes lives better in addition to raising, happy children and making one grateful and good man amazingly happy for having married her.
nYes, that was my late wife and myself, the happy young couple doing ordinary things, enjoying life together. And the woman is one of the youth that had encountered my wife as my wife drove the youth for certain summer activities. At the last of the summer activities, some simply asked an ordinary question of the couple, “you are teaching our Sunday school class when it starts up soon, aren’t you?“ One interesting fact there is that the young couple had been asking the Lord and looking for a place to serve.
nThis fits with a lesson I’d taught even to senior citizens,“do what you do.”There’s no struggle. There’s nothing unusual. Just give it all to God and He does something. Like Paul said, “I planted. Apollos watered. God gave the increase.“
nDo what you do. Give it to God.
nHe does what He does!