The Gramazin Blog
18
Jun
Jesus Heals Peter's Mother-in-Law
Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
Tuesday June 18, 2024
Matthew 4:23-25, 8:14-17, Mark 1:29-34, Luke 4:38-41
Father, the Christian life is all about healing. We are spiritually healed from the disease of sin and spiritual death. Our character heals as You transform our thoughts through the work of the Holy Spirit. Our relationships heal as we demonstrate the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Our ministry heals others as we long to demonstrate Your love to our neighbors in need. Father, may it be said of me that I am all about healing those who cross my path. Amen.
Father, Jesus and His disciples left the synagogue where He had healed the man of demon possession. The five men agreed to go to the home of Peter and Andrew, which was also in Capernaum. Upon their arrival at the home, Peter’s mother-in-law was lying in bed with a fever.
Peter and Andrew came into the home and comforted Peter’s mother-in-law with the good news that Jesus has turned water into wine, healed the son of a royal official in town, and He had just healed a man of demon possession. In other words, Jesus can heal her too. She most likely expressed faith that Jesus could heal her as well.
It was after she expressed faith in the power of Jesus to heal her that He touched her hand, rebuked the fever , and the fever left her. I can imagine that, after she thanked and praised Jesus for healing her, her joyful servant’s heart quickly concluded she had to take care of these men, saying something like “I’ve got to get you guys something to eat.” Jesus, concerned she might be a little weak, or perhaps because He was a gentleman, helped the woman to her feet.
Somebody left the home and spread the word that Jesus had healed Peter’s mother-in-law by touching her hand. By the time the sun set, many people, “the whole town”, had showed up at Peter’s door, wanting to be healed by Jesus of demon possession and various diseases. The ailments are likely to have included:
- Alcoholism (there are 9 verses in the Bible that refer to “drunkenness”).
- Atrophy (Job 16:8), such as muscular dystrophy.
- Blindness (there are 91 verses in the Bible that include the word “blind”)
- Boils (there are 23 verses in the Bible that include the word “boil”)
- Consumption (such as dysentery, tuberculosis, malaria – there are 2 verses in the Bible)
- Deafness (there are 20 verses in the Bible that include the word “deaf”)
- Demon-Possession (there are 25 verses in the Gospels that include the words “demon-possessed”)
- Dwarfism (Leviticus 21:20)
- Dumbness (Psalm 98:13, Mark 7:32, Acts 9:17)
- Dysentery (bacteria, worms, Acts 28:8, 2 Corinthians 21:18)
- Epilepsy (Matthew 4:24, Matthew 17:15)
- Fever (Peter’s mother-in-law)
- Fiery heat (heat stroke, 2 Kings 4:19)
- Hemorrhage (especially with women, Luke 8:42-48)
- Indigestion (1 Timothy 5:23)
- Infirmity (John 5:5)
- Inflammation, Itch (Deuteronomy 28:27, Job 2)
- Insanity (Deuteronomy 28:28, Proverbs 26:18)
- Leprosy (there are 27 verses in the Bible that include the word “leprosy”)
- Obesity (Judges 3:17, 22)
- Pestilence (2 Samuel 24:15, Amos 4:10)
- Speech impediments (Mark 7:32)
- Starvation (Deuteronomy 28:53)
- Worms (there are 7 verses in the Bible that include the word “worms”)
The text tells us that Jesus drove out the demons with “a word”. Jesus still has the authority He had at creation when He spoke things into existence (Genesis 1:2, John 1:1-3). The demons cried out, “You are the Son of God!”, but Jesus would not let the demons speak just as He had refused them at the synagogue in Nazareth.
The text also tells us that Jesus healed “all” the sick. There was no one who sought relief from Jesus who was turned away. No one was rejected by Jesus. No illness was too great or too insignificant for Jesus to heal. No one’s life was too corrupt to be healed. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“Surely, he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:4, NIV)
Amen.
The text does not tell us if the men discovered the woman was sick upon arrival at the home or if they deliberately set out to go to Peter’s house knowing that she was sick. Fevers can be caused by a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection of fungi, parasites, a virus, or bacteria. Fevers can also be caused by autoimmune and vascular disease, severe injury, or endocrine and metabolic disorders. We also learn from Job 1 and 2 that illnesses can be brought upon righteous people by demonic attack. This may have been the case because of the wording in the text that Jesus “rebuked” the fever. Peter’s mother-in-law may have had a fever that came upon her suddenly or her fever was the result of a more systemic disease or injury. In either case, she must have felt quite miserable to not get up and serve these men. We gather from the text that she has a servant’s heart, since she quickly served the men once she felt better. Therefore, for her to be in bed means she must have felt quite sick.
Even illnesses and diseases fear and tremble at the voice of God. Jesus can heal us at the command of His voice. If we are not healed when we pray for healing, He has a purpose of some kind that our continued illness accomplishes.
It is quite reasonable to believe this is true, even though the text doesn’t state this. Only a few hours later, many had come to the house to be healed. It is logical that someone spread the news in the afternoon. It is also reasonable to think that Peter’s mother-in-law was very sick and that she had been sick for a significant period of time. Would crowds of people have come to be healed by Jesus if her illness was a mere headache? It must have been an established fact that Peter’s mother-in-law had been ill for a significant time period.
