We note again that this passage is one of four healing stories which inaugurate Jesus' ministry. Healing and exorcism play a role in Mark's Gospel that is far greater than either our customary summarizing of the themes of Mark's Gospel or our theologizing about the nature of Jesus' ministry. Healing and exorcism stories do not translate well into our modern or postmodern world. Rudolf Bultmann once tried to rid the Bible of these stories once and for all with his program of demythologizing. The fact is, however, that people do still get sick.