The miracles of Jesus have been classified into four categories: 1) casting out demons (which we observed in vv23-28); 2) physical healing; 3) the raising of the dead; and 4) miracles of the natural order. We find examples of all of these in the Gospel of Mark, with nearly half of the first ten chapters of this gospel dealing directly or indirectly with miracles performed by Christ.
We have before us today the first account in the Gospel of Mark of a physical healing. It is shortest miracle account in the Gospels. The parallel accounts in Matthew and Luke are no longer, amounting to only two verses in each one. That this story even appears at all in the Gospel of Mark is considered part of the evidence that he was writing information received from Peter. But even with such brevity, we see some enlightening truths concerning the power and authority of Jesus Christ.
Mark’s favorite word euthus (meaning immediately) occurs nearly 40 times throughout this gospel, eleven times in Chapter 1 alone, and twice in these three verses. They serve to show us not only the quick progression of time, but also the deliberate and decisive action of Jesus as He conducted His earthly ministry. One brief commentary on the Gospel of Mark by Ralph Martin is entitled simply, Where the Action Is.[1]
“Immediately” in verse 29 serves to show us that Jesus and his four new followers, Peter, Andrew, James and John, had just left the synagogue from Sabbath worship where Jesus had taught with authority and demonstrated His authority by casting a demon out of a man there. They went directly to the house shared by Simon Peter and Andrew. John tells us that Peter and Andrew were from
That Peter was married is evident from this passage and 1 Corinthians 9:5, which states that Peter’s wife was in the habit of accompanying him in his ministry travels. This is important for us to understand, for the Roman Catholic Church enforces a policy of celibacy in the priesthood, and views Peter as their founder and first leader of their historic movement. However, it is plain from Scripture that he was in fact married, and there seems to be no biblical reason for priests to be celibate. The early church father Clement of Alexandria reports that he also had children, and that his wife was martyred prior to Peter’s own death, taken from his side as he called out to her by name saying, “O thou, remember the Lord!”[2]
It was not uncommon for a married couple to live with extended family, owing to their own financial needs or the need to provide care to their relatives. It is possible that Peter’s father-in-law had died, and his mother-in-law was welcomed into his own household, or else that he and his wife had relocated to
It also seems apparent from several references in Scripture that Peter’s home in
Upon arriving at the home after the short walk from the Synagogue, Jesus learns that Simon Peter’s mother-in-law is lying sick with a fever. We cannot know exactly what illness she had, for in those days “fever” was considered an illness unto itself, not as a symptom of some other condition. In John 4:47-52, we learn from an unrelated account that fever was sometimes fatal. Just how sick Peter’s mother-in-law was, we do not know, but Luke adds the physician’s detail that her fever was “great.”
There is a movement within Christianity (just barely within I might add) today which says that sickness is an indicator of God’s displeasure with a person, or a sign of a lack of faith on the part of the afflicted. However, here was a home that was close to Jesus – the home of His first followers, a home that He loved and that loved Him, and yet to this home sickness came. We must put aside any notions that any and all sicknesses are God’s judgment or indictments of faithlessness.
The fact is that all of us are prone to sickness because of our fallen nature. Sickness and death were not the initial plan of God for humanity, but because of the entrance of sin at the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, all of our bodies are subject to corruption. Because of sin, we are subject to at least three forms of suffering. There is natural suffering – the kind caused by earthquakes and tornadoes because God’s created order has been defiled by sin. There is moral suffering because sin has so corrupted the hearts of mankind that we often inflict pain upon one another because of sinful choices. And there is physical suffering – cancer, heart-attack, infection, even the common cold – because we have inherited corruption in our bodies because of our fallen state. If anything, our physical infirmities ought to cause us to long all the more for the resurrection and for heaven, where we have been promised that there will be no more of it! But meanwhile, while we occupy these fleshly bodies, we will do battle with sickness. It will affect us directly, and we will be affected indirectly as it strikes our loved ones.
Peter’s mother-in-law lay sick with a great fever. Perhaps she was at death’s door, we do not know. But the passage before us indicates three realities that we must bear in mind as we seek the healing touch of Jesus.
I. Sickness and hardship provide us with an opportunity for intercession (v30).
Immediately they spoke to Jesus about her.
Because of the mention of fever in Leviticus 26:16 and Deuteronomy 28:22, many in that day viewed it as a mark of God’s judgment, and often it went untreated. The rationale was that if God inflicted it upon someone, then it should be left to God to intervene to relieve it. Perhaps this was how Peter’s mother-in-law had been treated. Perhaps no one would even seek the advice of a physician on her behalf, or having sought it, treatment had been refused for this reason. We do not know. It may even be the case that she was like the woman with the issue of blood in Mark 5. That woman, Mark tells us, had for twelve years “endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse.” Some of you can relate to that I am sure. It is also possible that the fever had come on her all of a sudden so that Peter and Andrew were at the synagogue and so they were unaware of her condition. Surely no wife or mother would look kindly on their husband or son bringing home distinguished company when they are in such sad shape. Perhaps it had come upon her while they had been away on a fishing enterprise, or traveling with Jesus.
But whatever she had been through in the past, her loved ones seized upon the opportunity they had before them and immediately spoke to Jesus about her. Now, what was their motive? Some have suggested that they were embarrassed by her condition. According to Jewish custom, the Sabbath meal was served immediately following worship at the Synagogue around the sixth hour, about 12:00 noon. So, perhaps it is the case that they were apologizing to Jesus that the meal was unprepared because the mother-in-law was unable to fix it, or the wife couldn’t prepare the meal because she was attending to her mother. But Luke specifies in Luke 4:38 that they were doing more than apologizing. They asked Him to help her. Having seen His authority over the demonic powers employed at the Synagogue, maybe He could also exercise authority over this sickness as well. So they interceded.
Intercessory prayer has been defined by many people and in many ways, but perhaps nowhere more vividly than in Tom Elliff’s book A Passion for Prayer. “Intercession is, by nature, the exercise by which an individual positions himself between two parties—one with a need and the other with the answer—and seeks to bring the two together. It is a matter of reaching out to take the hand of the one with the problem and reaching up to take the hand of the One with the provision and being willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary so that they meet.”[4] And when our loved ones are in the midst of sickness or hardship, or both as is often the case, we have the opportunity to become participants in the activity of God through intercession.
Often times, we may think the need is unimportant to God. He must have much more pressing business to tend to, we figure, than our loved one’s illnesses. What with all the wars and pestilences in the world, you know. Or we may wonder if our own motives are pure. Were Peter and Andrew really compassionate about the woman’s suffering, or did they merely want Jesus to tend to her so they could have their midday meal? But we must realize that God sees beyond our motives to the heart of the matter, and He is infinitely able to care for all matters in the world at the same time, be they great or small in our estimation. So we must seize upon the opportunity to place ourselves in the gap on behalf of the one in need and intercede for God to work in their lives, just as this woman’s loved ones did in her time of distress. Their need is our invitation to prayer—our opportunity to intercede to God on their behalf. And it would be sin on our part to fail to tell Jesus about it when He has said we may come boldly to the throne of grace, and that we may cast all of our cares upon Him, for He cares for us.
Now notice, if you will, the second reality present in these verses.
II. Jesus operates according to His own initiative (v31a)
He came to her and raised her up, taking her by the hand.
There are three verbs here. The subject of all of them is Jesus. He came. He raised. He took her by the hand. All that He did was according to His own initiative.
When the Peter told Jesus about his mother-in-law, He could have responded and said, “That’s a shame.” When they asked Him to help her, He could have said, “You know, I have had a busy day already, and it is the Sabbath, so I just want to rest for now.” He could have even made that sound spiritual by saying, “You know there are religious restrictions on what can be done on the Sabbath.” Later on we will see that Jesus becomes the target of a controversy because of healing on the Sabbath. The Rabbinic writings say that the only the only medical assistance that could be given on the Sabbath were when someone’s life was in danger (which may have been the case) or in a case of childbirth. One of the writings says, “If a man has a pain in his throat, they may drop medicine into his mouth on the Sabbath, since there is doubt whether life is in danger, and whenever there is doubt whether life is in danger, this overrides the Sabbath.”[5] Otherwise, people had to wait until sundown, marking the end of the Sabbath. You notice in verse 32 that this is what the rest of the townspeople did.
But Jesus did not do this. On His own initiative, in response to the intercession of His friends, He went into the room of the sick woman and administered His healing touch. The casting out of the demon in v25 occurred publicly, to validate for the people at the synagogue His divine authority. But this episode is private. There was no vindication of His identity or His mission, no confirmation of a doctrinal truth involved here. While this act of healing undoubtedly served to bolster the newfound faith of the fishermen, we cannot say this was His purpose. He does this simply and solely as an act of His divine love. He acted to relieve the suffering of one woman, and to lift the burden on the hearts of her loved ones.
There were no spells, no rituals, no incantations or magical methods. There was just the touch of the Master’s hand, the operation of His divine will, and the outworking of His authoritative power. And she was raised up and the fever left her. Neither conditions, nor diagnoses, nor prognoses, nor man-made religious limitations affect Jesus. He is all-powerful to perform His miraculous work on His own initiative whenever He so desires. We may intercede—in fact we have been invited and even commanded to do so—but, our intercession must allow for Him to take the initiative and do His work if He so desires, and accept His grace of endurance when He does not. In 2 Corinthians 12:7, when Paul prayed repeatedly for his thorn in the flesh to be removed, the Lord comforted him with the assurance that His grace was sufficient, and that His power would be manifested through Paul’s weakness.
God does not always heal. In the passage that follows this one in Mark, we see that the whole city brought their sick to Jesus, and He healed many, but Mark does not say that He healed them all. Sometimes God has a purpose in not healing just as He does in healing. When we intercede, we must leave room for God to operate according to His own initiative. Samuel Chadwick said, “I am bound to believe that sickness may be in the will of God, for the purpose of discipline, for the glory of His grace, and the Ministry of Christ.”[6] The question is not, “Do you have enough faith to be healed?” The question is, “Do you have enough faith to stay sick, and to hold on to Christ when He does not heal?” When He heals and when He does not are up to Him. We pray, and then we allow Him to work according to His own purposes. Sometimes His purpose is to act upon our prayers. Sometimes His purpose is to act differently, and through prayer, He helps us to understand His purposes better.
In the case of Peter’s mother-in-law, He healed her. And this brings us to the third reality in the text.
III. When Jesus works on our behalf, we should respond appropriately (v31b)
…and she waited on them.
More literally, we might say, she served them. If you have ever been sick with a high fever, you know that once the fever breaks, it takes a while for you to regain your strength to resume your normal activities. Over the summer, when I had pneumonia for three weeks, it was about two months before I could get back into the full swing of things. But this was not the case with Peter’s mother-in-law. Her healing was instant and complete. She needed no recovery time, no convalescent care. And out of gratitude to the One who had delivered her from her suffering, she instantly began to serve Him with love in her heart.
Some of you today could testify to great and mighty wonders that God has worked in your life. In fact, if you are born-again, you have received the greatest miracle of all. Now, how have you responded to Jesus in the wake of His work? Do you serve Him? If so, how? And if not, why not? If not, have you considered that perhaps you have taken His grace for granted, and responded with ingratitude as if you somehow deserved what He has done for you? Friends, if you deserved it, then it wouldn’t be grace. The only thing any of us deserve from God is wrath. But He has given us His grace in salvation. Others of you have experienced healing, provision, and deliverance from great needs and burdens in addition to salvation. With our mouths perhaps we pause for a moment and say, “Thank you God!” but with our lives which have been handed back to us through the grace and power of God, there is more that can be done. We can serve Him, and we should.
Now notice that the text does not merely say that she served Him. It says that she served them. Love and gratitude for God expresses itself not only in some devotional service that we render to God in our prayer closets, but in tangible and practical service that we render to God’s people. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 25? He said, “I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” But we will say to Him, “Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” And He says, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”
In your daily activity, you have the opportunity to show your love for God and your gratitude to Him for all that He has done for you as you serve one another in His name. Don’t try to be spiritual and say, “I serve God, not man.” Jesus says when you serve one another, you are serving Him. And this is an appropriate response for all the wonderful works of His grace we have experienced. This is how Peter’s mother-in-law responded. It is how you and I should respond as well.
I wonder today, do you take Jesus home with you from worship? Or do you leave Him at church? Like Peter and Andrew, invite Jesus to come home with you today. Don’t worry about the hardships or the ailments He will find there. Just tell Him all about it and ask Him to help. And allow Him to do that just as He sees fit. Maybe He will heal; maybe He will save; maybe He will deliver; maybe He will provide. Or maybe He will give an extra measure of grace for you to endure that hardship. Invite Him home with you and tell Him everything that concerns you and your house today. And when He moves to answer your prayers, serve Him. And serve one another in His name as a response to His grace.
[1] Ralph P. Martin, Mark: Where the Action Is (Ventura, Calif.: Regal, 1977).
[2] Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History [Complete and Unabridged, New Updated Edition, Translated by C. F. Cruse] (
[3] James R. Edwards, The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to Mark (
[4] Tom Elliff, A Passion for Prayer (
[5] Mishna Yoma 8:6, cited in R. T. France, The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Mark (
[6] Samuel Chadwick, The Path of Prayer, cited in Donald E. Demaray, Alive to God through Prayer (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1965), 105.
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