And straightway going out of the synagogue, they came with James and John into the house of Simon and Andrew.
The day began with teaching and a demon cast out in the synagogue at Capernaum. It ends in a fisherman's house, and Mark moves from the one to the other without a pause.
The move from a place of worship to a family home is not a step down in this Gospel. One writer sets the two scenes side by side.
Directly after the Lord's service in the synagogue we are called to witness His service in the home. His activities and perfections glorified God in the public synagogue. Here they are shown to be just as active in the privacy of the family circle.
Human need did not stop at the synagogue door.
There was no waste of time with our blessed Master, and none with His new followers either. They bring to Him at once the case of need in that house. Human need, the fruit of human sin, met Him at every turn. It was as clear in the house of His new followers as it had been in the synagogue, their local centre of religious observance.
One writer sets Peter's house beside Matthew's, and the mood in each was different.
Matthew's home was a place of feasting on that occasion (Luke 5:29); Peter's home was rather a place of mourning. His wife's mother lay sick with a fever — "a great fever," adds Luke the physician. Peter's home appears to have been shared not only by his mother-in-law but also by Andrew his brother. A godly family circle, we may be sure.
Simon was a married man, and that did not keep him from following the Lord.
It has often been taught that a man must remain unmarried to follow the Lord fully. But here we learn that Simon was a married man. His affections were large enough to take in his wife's mother, not only into his heart but into his house. We live in a day when mothers-in-law are often thought little of. It was not so here, and God has not recorded this in His Word for nothing.
Mark's order of events fixes when this healing happened.
So we have positive certainty, from God's own word, that the healing of Peter's wife's mother took place a short time after the call of Peter and Andrew, and considerably before the healing of the leper.
Simon's family brought their trouble straight to their Guest. Who He was makes that remarkable.
How wonderful this is to us, especially when we remember who He was. He was the High and Holy One who inhabits eternity, and the hosts in heaven bow down before Him in worship. Yet Simon's family were not afraid of Him. To them He was so gracious, so approachable, that they could bring their trouble to Him and talk to Him about it. He is the same today. He invites our confidences and wants us to let Him into our homes and lives.
The healing in that house was not the end of the day.
Leaving the synagogue He enters the house of Simon and Andrew. The apostle Peter had a wife, and her mother was sick with a fever. The Lord takes her by the hand; the fever disappears, and the woman begins to serve them in perfect health. As soon as the Sabbath is over, the whole city gathers at the door of the house… Still He remains the Servant of God. He gets up before sunrise to go to a solitary place to pray.
- Straight out. He leaves the synagogue and walks into a home. The perfections that glorified God in public were just as active in private.
- Straight in. Peter's house held a brother, a wife, a mother-in-law, and a sickbed. Following the Lord had not made his home trouble-free.
- Straight to Him. They told Him of her at once. The family were not afraid of Him, and that access is open to us in our own homes.
- Straight up. He took her by the hand, the fever went, and she began to serve — health given and at once used for Him.
- Straight on. After the crowds at the door, He rose before dawn to pray — still the Servant of God.
And the mother-in-law of Simon lay in a fever. And straightway they speak to him about her.
In a moment the scene shifts from a crowded synagogue to a sickbed in a fisherman's house. Mark reports only an illness and a household that tells its guest at once — yet the question underneath is whether the One with power over demons also cares about trouble at home.
The house belongs to Simon (Peter) and Andrew. One writer notes how rarely an apostle hosted Jesus at home, and who else lived under this roof.
Only two of our Lord's apostles seem to have had the great honour of welcoming Him under their own roof — Matthew (also called Levi) and Peter. Matthew's home was a place of feasting on that occasion (Luke 5:29); Peter's home was more a place of mourning. His wife's mother lay sick with a fever — "a great fever," adds Luke the doctor. It seems Peter shared his home not only with his mother-in-law but with his brother Andrew (Mark 1:29-31). We can be sure it was a godly family circle.
He went from public worship straight into a home in trouble. Some would keep Him to the religious side of life.
The Lord will not be kept to one day a week, or to what we might call the religious side of our lives. He loves us too well for that, and He delights to be with us in our homes and to share the joys and sorrows of our everyday life. I proclaim an everyday Saviour, a Saviour for the home, who understands troubles at home and knows how to meet them by His own power and grace.
Luke and Mark each add something of their own. One writer sets the two accounts side by side.
Luke tells us she was struck down with a great fever (fevers differ a great deal), and he adds that they begged Him for her; Mark says they told Him about her at once. Their asking was right and timely; but He was already there, ready to heal.
Mark says nothing about the cause. One writer offers a guess, and admits it is only a guess. Simon had just left a well-paid trade to follow a Master with no home.
His mother-in-law, practical woman that she was, began to wonder and worry about her daughter... So she planned through sleepless nights. The more she planned, the more anxious she became. Anxiety deepened into constant worry, until she lay fevered, sick and helpless. It was her love for the people dearest to her that brought it all about.
The short phrase they told Him marks out a Servant nobody had to queue to reach.
Though this blessed One has all authority and power He is accessible to all. When He enters the humble home of a fisherman, and there is one in need of His healing power, we read, "immediately they told Him about her"... With the great men of this world it is very different. The greater their authority and power the less accessible they are to the poor and needy. Nor is the Lord any different today: though high in heavenly glory we can "tell Him," and bring "to Him," all our sorrows and our needs.
They had already seen what His power could do in public. Would it also reach a private sorrow at home?
They had seen His power in the physical world — over the fish of the sea. They had seen His power in the realm of darkness — over the unclean demon. But could He — would He — consider a private sorrow, a domestic affliction? The compassionate Lord settled that uncertainty once and for all.
Why did it feel natural to tell Him about a sick relative? One writer points to what He had come to do among people.
He had come down from heaven "to bind up the broken-hearted" (Isa. 61:1), and He was in fact moving among people, taking their weaknesses and bearing their sicknesses with real sympathy. Matthew's wording of Isa. 53:4, referred to here, means that He took up people's sorrows as a burden on His own spirit (Matt. 8:17). His sympathy with people during His life is the point. It is a mistake to apply Isa. 53:4 to His atoning death.
Some read the fever as more than a medical fact.
This same Servant of God is then seen to have power over sickness as well, which is a result of sin... The fever pictures the restlessness caused by sin. He only takes her by the hand, and His healing power restores her so completely that she gets up at once and serves them, using her hands for His pleasure.
- House. He went from the synagogue straight into a home. He is an everyday Saviour, not one kept to religious meetings.
- Fever. Luke calls it a great fever, and one writer suggests that worry over the family she loved lay behind it.
- Told. All authority, yet open to anyone. They just told Him, and that is still the way to bring Him our needs.
- Sympathy. They spoke because He was already moving among people taking up their sorrows as a burden on His own spirit.
- Service. Fever pictures the restlessness sin brings. At His touch her hands are free to serve.
And he went up to [her] and raised her up, having taken her by the hand, and straightway the fever left her, and she served them.
Mark tells this healing in a few strokes: they speak to Jesus, He takes her hand, the fever goes, and she is up and serving. Three questions come out of it — why they told Him, why He touched her, and what her serving shows.
The household did not make a speech. They simply told Him about her.
Though this blessed One has all authority and power, He is accessible to all. When He enters the humble home of a fisherman, and someone there needs His healing power, we read, "they told Him about her." ... With the great men of this world it is very different. The greater their authority and power, the less accessible they are to the poor and needy. The Lord is no different today: though He is high in heavenly glory, we can "tell Him," and bring "to Him," all our sorrows and our needs.
The trouble here was private, and behind closed doors.
Coming into the house, a shadow lay on it. Simon's wife's mother was there, ill with a high fever, as Luke the physician states. Simply, directly, and with growing confidence in the love and sympathy and power of their Master, they join in telling Him of their trouble. ... But could He — would He — take notice of a private sorrow, a trouble at home? The compassionate Lord removed once for all any uncertainty about this.
Notice what Jesus does with His hand.
The other word here is also found only in Mark, and it shows the beautiful perfection of the servant — the man, and yet the servant. It says, "He took her by the hand." That is wonderfully tender; and yet there is power in it too, and skill as well. Did He not know how to take hold of that hand? Do you not think that was the tenderest touch that poor, fever-stricken woman could have known?
Another writer lists who else He touched, and who He did not.
The touch of Jesus is significant. It shows His personal contact with sorrowing humanity. He did not touch the demon-possessed, but He touched the leper, the eyes of the blind, the tongue of the mute, and the ear of Malchus. ... The Almighty laid His hand on the weakness of man. He proved Himself a God near at hand, and not far off. This is true now to faith, but it will have a direct application when Messiah visits His weakened people, raising them up by His strong right hand.
Medicine can break a fever, but not in a moment. Note that the older translation quoted here reads "immediately the fever left her," where the ESV has "and the fever left her."
And then we read of her, that "immediately the fever left her." Man is well advanced in the art of healing, but he cannot do what we have here. There is a huge amount of skill in healing today, but there is nothing like this "immediately." That belongs to divine power alone, though here it was divine power working through the servant-man, and seen in Him.
The moment she is well, she waits on the household. One writer is careful about what that service looked like.
One word more before we leave this — "she began to serve them." I do not believe she went about the place as a great preacher. The words do not say that. I believe she got up in the simple, real, quiet way that fitted her place, and served them. The woman who had the fever is well and on her feet, and instead of being served she is serving.
Where her strength came from decides where it should go.
The woman who was made well used her new strength to serve the One who gave it, and those with Him. This is an example for all time. What do we have that we did not receive? So let us give it all back to Him who is the Giver.
One writer draws a further lesson from the fever itself.
She needed no time to recover from the fever; she got up at once and served others. Sin brings on a fevered state of mind and soul, but His touch clears it away.
This healing happened in a house, not in the synagogue.
There are some who would confine the Lord to the Sunday services. When they are over, they lock the door of their place of worship, as they call it, and shut Him inside, and live the rest of the week without any reference to Him. ... He loves us too well for that. He delights to be with us in our homes, and to share the joys and sorrows of our everyday life. I proclaim an everyday Saviour, a Saviour for the home, who understands troubles at home and knows how to meet them by His own power and grace.
- Told — They simply told Him about her. He has all authority, yet He stays within reach, and no trouble at home is beneath His notice.
- Touched — Mark alone records the hand. It is tender and mighty at once: God's hand laid on human weakness, near and not far off.
- Timing — Skill can treat a fever. Only divine power ends it at once, leaving no recovery time.
- Task — New strength goes back to the Giver. Here it looked like quiet service at home, not public work.
- Today — He is an everyday Saviour, not a Sunday one. Sin leaves a fevered soul, and His touch clears it.