He laid his hands on each of them and cured them. After ‘wowing’ those who had gathered in the synagogue, Jesus must have accompanied Simon to his house, perhaps to rest for the remainder of the day. But if rest is what he was after, he was mistaken. For the news of him having travelled through the surrounding countryside (the ending of yesterday’s Gospel), Jesus was a highly sought-after individual. By sunset, Simon’s house was turned into a temporary mobile clinic as the sick were brought to Jesus for healing. And Jesus did not disappoint them. He healed those who were sick and drove out demons from those who were possessed. It must have been a sight to behold considering how Jesus performed the healing. We know that Jesus could have just said the word and the sick would have been restored to wholeness (those who were brought to him were suffering from all kinds of sicknesses, some of which could have been contagious requiring him not to have contact with them). Jesus did not just say the word. In addition to healing them, he wanted to give them what they must have been missing the most, something whose lack added to their misery: human touch. Rather than healing them ‘from a distance,’ as it were, Jesus proceeded to lay his hands on each of them, letting them know that they were still fully human, that their illnesses did not take away their human worth. Be reaching out and laying hands on them, Jesus showed those who were present what the good news of the kingdom he was preaching was really about, what it constituted, and why it was good news. It could only be good news if it restored men and women to wholeness. It was only good news if it restored a sense of worth to those who had lost it because of sickness.