Mark 1:29-39, “Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them!”
Today’s text comes from Mark 1:29-39; let us hear what God wants to say to us through this text.
The gospel of Mark is considered the earliest gospel written among the four synoptic gospels, and the author, John Mark, was the interpreter of Peter for his speech and writing in Greek, so it was believed that John Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark “under the guidance of the apostle Peter.”
The reason for this introduction is that the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, the main story of our text, is recorded in all three Gospels but slightly different from one another in Matthew 8:14-15, Mark 1:29-31, Luke 4:38-40. Since John Mark was Peter’s interpreter and the protégé, we can assume that Mark’s account of this story might be closer to what happened, especially regarding the details, than the other Gospels.
Our text begins with verse 29, “As soon as they left the synagogue…” If we read the previous portion of our text, we can see that it was not too long after Jesus called Simon Peter, his brother Andre, and John and James as his disciples. It was also right after Jesus drove out impure spirit from a man in the synagogue in Capernaum, where Simon and Andre lived. So, it might have been the first time Jesus visited Peter and Andre’s house, and verse 30 says, “Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her.” According to Luke’s gospel, who was a physician, she was having a “high” fever, which could lead anyone to death in the absence of modern medicine such as antibiotics. Upon finding out the trouble Peter’s mother-in-law was in, they immediately told Jesus.
Let’s pause for a minute here. We note here that it was not Peter’s mother-in-law who came out and told her the situation. She was too sick even to come out, we can imagine. They, –Peter, Andre, John, and James– told Jesus about her, who was dying of high fever.
When people are in trouble dying from their physical illnesses or spiritual illnesses, many times, they cannot come to Jesus by themselves simply because they have no strength physically or spiritually to go to Jesus. In such cases, intercessors are needed to bring healing or salvation to dying people. We need to pray for those who have sicknesses but cannot pray for themselves. We all need to pray for those who need our prayers.
Sometimes, people are dying without knowing that they are dying. Sometimes, people live in sin without realizing the consequence of their sin, which is death. Physical sickness is a grave matter because it can lead to physical death, but if they have faith in the resurrection, their sadness can be overcome by knowing that they will all meet again when they go to heaven. The real problem is for those people who live in sins, not realizing they will be lost forever in eternity away from God, being in darkness, being in eternal hell. The wage of sin is eternal death. For those lost, they need intercessors, –their friends and families, — like Peter, Andre, John, and James.
One crucial question we must ask here is, ‘Who can be intercessors?’ We ought to know that not all prayers are heard or effective. Then, who can be intercessors? The verse 30 says, “They immediately told Jesus about her.” Who were they? They were disciples of Jesus; they were close to Jesus. We do not “tell” things to strangers, let alone ask for help for life and death matters. They have left everything to follow Jesus, making Jesus the priority in their lives. Although they had not been following Jesus for long, the critical fact was that they made Jesus the priority in their lives, treating everything else as trivial, and they began to follow Jesus and spend time with Jesus. In other words, they had a relationship with Jesus to tell their immediate concerns, and Jesus listened to their petitions. God listens to intercessory prayers made by those who follow Jesus and who have made Jesus their priority in life. It does not matter how long we have followed Jesus. The question is whether we have made Jesus our priority in life, –whether we follow Jesus wholeheartedly.
Not every prayer is heard and honored by God. Sin can be a barrier for God to hear. Isaiah 59:1-2, “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.” But the prayers of righteous people have great power and effectiveness (James 5:16), people after God’s heart. Elijah, a man of God, prayed, and for three and a half years, the Israelites experienced drought in the land. Only after he prayed did the rain come. People whose priority is God, whose heart is after God, God hears and honors their prayers. If we give our hearts to God and make God our priority in life, even if it was only a week ago that we started to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, God hears and honors our intercessory prayers for our loved ones.
Sometimes, it takes time. For ten years, Monica, Saint Augustine’s mother, prayed for his prodigal son, Augustine, who lived in all sorts of sins. Because of his mother’s never-give-up prayers, he came to God and became influential in Christian history.
Let’s move on to Verse 31 when Jesus heard their petition to heal Peter’s mother-in-law, “He went to her, took her hand and helped her up…” We note here that Jesus went to her. Jesus did not summon her to come to him, but he went to her and met her in her sickly condition, and instead of commanding the fever to leave her, he stooped down to take her hand and helped her up. This is the kind of God we serve. God comes to meet us where we are and heals us.
God came down to earth to bear our sins on the cross to save us. Because we cannot go to him, God came to us. Have you heard of any other god who has done such things for their worshippers? Our God, the almighty God, the creator of this whole universe and humans, took pity on us, who were doomed to hell. Out of compassion and love toward us, God himself volunteered to serve us, “taking the form of a servant” (Philippians 2: 5-8) even unto death, “touching a fevered and sick world.”
In Numbers 6:24 -26, the blessing God Himself taught to say over the Israelites who were going through the wilderness starts,” May Yahweh bless you and be gracious to you…” The blessings the pastor gives every Sunday morning on the congregation. Here, the “bless” means, “May Yahweh, your heavenly father, kneel before you, making himself available to you to minister and bestow good gifts and promises to you.” That is how God blesses us: kneel before us like a servant making himself available. That was how Jesus came to us to save us, taking the form of a servant even onto death. We owe Jesus our lives in eternity!
We become whole and healthy when God touches us with his loving hands. The fever left her, and she became strengthened. From the other half of verse 31, we can see that this old woman, who was just healed, began immediately waiting on “them,” the company of Jesus.
What does this tell us? God heals us and saves us from our sin-sickness, from the place of death to serve God’s kingdom, not just sitting there being happy that we have been delivered from our sicknesses. Healing or delivering others from their dying condition is demanded upon all the healed and the saved. It becomes our responsibility to heal and to save if we have truly been the recipients of God’s healing and saving grace. God demands us to save others and bring others to God. God sends us to the world as God sent His Son to us. Amen!!