Mark 1: 29 – 31
The Doctor Is In
29 Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 But Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick with a fever, and they told Him about her at once. 31 So He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her. And she served them.
There was another Gospel written before Mark wrote down this event. The Apostle Matthew recorded this same situation. Later the disciple Luke also penned this unique miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, let’s see what they say and then compare all three to gather more information.
Matthew 8: 14 – 15, “14 Now when Jesus had come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying sick with a fever. 15 So He touched her hand, and the fever left her. And she arose and served them.’
Luke 4: 38 – 39, “. 38 Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. But Simon’s wife’s mother was sick with a high fever, and they made request of Him concerning her. 39 So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them.
Okay now, as we put the three accounts of the Lord healing Peter’s mother in law, we have some potential confusion.
According to Mark we find that our Lord Jesus took Peter’s mother in law by the hand and lifted her up and immediately the fever left her. Please note who came into the house with our Master. Andrew was Peter’s brother and James and John were Peter’s cousin so they were all family.
In Matthew’s version our Lord touched the woman’s hand and the fever left her.
In Luke’s version our Lord stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her.
I will tell you that they are all correct in their interpretation.
Have you ever been a witness to a crime or an accident? If you have personally took part in the after effects then you will understand fully what I am about to say. Let’s say that there were four bystanders to an accident. After the police arrived the officer is going to interview all four of you witnesses. Do you think that he will get the same story from every person. Since I help out in the Philadelphia Police Department, I can assure you that you will most likely get 4 different versions of the accident. ‘Why’?, you may ask. The reason is because all 4 will for one reason or the other focus on the accident differently. This is why all witnesses are interviewed. Then you can put every finding together and have a clearer picture of what actually took place. One person may be focused on the damage of the vehicles. Another will be inclined to center in on the people involved in the accident and to the extent of their injuries or emotional states. Another person may be focused on the traffic and the amount of people who are gawkers. Another may focus on the police and ambulances. Do you see my point. Now let us look at the healing of Peter’s mother in law again.
Mark as you can remember was Peter’s disciple. In fact in Peter’s first letter he referred to Mark as his son in chapter 5 verse 13, “She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son.”
Mark received his information directly from an eyewitness. Don’t forget they were in Peter’s house and it was his mother in law.
Matthew was a special selected person who was picked by our Lord Jesus Christ to be one of His Apostles. However, as you look at Mark, Matthew was not an eyewitness. He had heard of this event I am sure sitting around the camp fire with all the other disciples of our Lord Jesus.
Now, Luke wasn’t there at all. He came back to Jerusalem and spoke with all the eyewitnesses. From their recollection he penned this information in his Gospel. So, this is what I believe actually happened.
I have had the opportunity to see first hand in Israel the remains of the city of Capernaum where all these things occurred. I stood in he very Synagogue where our Lord cast out the demon of a man. If you picked up a stone you could easily throw and hit the remains of Peter’s house – ‘29 Now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.’
After their time in the Synagogue our Lord was invited to come over to Peter’s house for lunch, however, he was notified that his mother in law was sick.
Have you ever been invited to someone’s house and you found out that someone is this home was sick. What is the thing that you probably will do upon hearing this information? You will not go over to the person’s home. For one thing you do not want to catch whatever the sick person has or that you would feel uncomfortable going over while a member of the family was ill.
Don’t forget that our Lord had just cast an evil spirit out of a man so a few asked our Precious Holy Lord if He would go to help Peter’s mother in law.
There was something more going on here than just a normal illness for when our Lord came into the room where the sick woman was lying, what did He do? It say from Luke’s account that He ‘rebuked’ the fever.
This raises the question on why and how do we get sick. For one thing because of our sinful nature we can just get sick. It can be from the food that we eat or from catching a bug. And of course we can come down with illness or diseases from the enemy. Just look at all the incidents where our Lord goes about healing and you see the tie in with fallen spirits. I believe from Luke’s investigation it appears that Peter’s mother in law was knocked down because of spiritual attacks. This is why I believe our Lord ‘rebuked’ the illness, just like He a few minutes earlier in the Synagogue ‘rebuked’ the evil spirits to come out of the man.
After invoking His Authority the fever left the woman our Lord touched the woman’s hand and helped her up. In all three versions the authors commented how she immediately got up and served. Wouldn’t you?
One thing that you can keep aware of is that our Lord Jesus Christ many times touched people who were sick or had diseases. It indicated that He was identifying Himself with our infirmities as spoken by the prophet Isaiah in chapter 53, “ 1 Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He has no form or comeliness; And when we see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him. 3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.”
