Jesus Heals Peter's Mother-in-law

I. Introduction
A. Matthew 8:14–15 And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him.
II. One of the things which characterized Jesus’ ministry was healing.
A. Matthew 4:23-24 “Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.” (Cf. Matthew 9:35)
B. Many kinds of healing
1. Blind to see
2. Deaf to hear
3. Lame to walk
4. Cleansed leprosy
5. Stopped a hemorrhage
6. Restored a withered hand
7. Replaced a cut off ear
8. Normally immediate and direct, but two stages twice
9. He healed from afar. He healed people He never met. He healed unbelievers (e.g. the 9 lepers).
10. Many unspecified healings
III. The stories of Christ's healings are favorites for Christians because they show God's power and His compassion at work together.
A. As you read the gospels, every healing is a demonstration of Christ’s compassion/kindness.
B. But they are also demonstrations of His sovereignty and power over sickness and health.
1. The Scripture tells us that God is the One who cursed this earth in response to man's sin, resulting in many physical effects – including disease:
a. “It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal.” (Deut.32:39)
b. The Lord said to Moses, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?” (Exod.4:11) See also Rom.8:20; 2Kg.15:5.
c. Ultimately He is sovereign over everything, including sickness.
2. Jesus could have prevented people from becoming sick in the first place. Even now He could heal everyone in the world right now if He so willed. But He has a purpose for sickness. It shows people their weakness and it sets them up for redemption.
C. And so, when He came, He came healing.
D. But Jesus didn’t just heal the multitudes, He also healed individual people, people like...
IV. Peter’s mother-in-law
A. When you walk in the woods behind our house, sometimes you find tiny little wildflowers only about the size of a B-B. But if you hold them right up to your face, you see something of immense beauty. But virtually no one who walks through those woods even notices these little flowers. Only someone who is looking for little things of beauty in the woods.
1. Well, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law is one such teeny weeny, yet beautiful, little story. It would be easy not to take the time to examine it and enjoy its freshness and charm. But when you’re dealing with God’s handiwork, you must learn the art of appreciation.
2. I find that the older I get the more I appreciate things I never paid attention to when I was younger. Sunsets, flowers, people, artwork, furniture, animals, faces, trees. And this is also true about passages of Scripture. Sometimes we are so impatient, or so hurried, or so preoccupied that we miss the beautiful little blossoms in Scripture. I hope our examination of this passage this morning will motivate us to take time to appreciate the little things in life – and in the Scriptures.
B. The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and the raising of Lazarus are the only two healing miracles in the gospels which Jesus performed on those among His personal relationships.
C. Peter was married (cf.1Cor.9:5) & his fisherman’s hut was in the little seaside town of Capernaum
D. And his wife’s mother lived with them. Or possibly she was visiting.
E. But on this day, she was sick with a high fever (Luke 4:38).
F. Usually in a situation like this, a person wouldn’t visit. And if they did, the sick person would remain the back room. But that’s not what happened.
G. Jesus went to her. He extended Himself to her. He reached out to her. He touched her.
H. But this was note merely an act of tender compassion; it was an act of restoration and power.
V. This story is the third in a series of healings in Matthew 8, the first specific healings in the gospel.
A. The first two were both healings of excluded people: a leper and a Gentile. And in this healing of a woman, the pattern continues.
B. Sadly, women were an excluded people group in this society.
C. But Jesus certainly bucked that trend. Women played a very central role in His life.
1. His story starts with an angel visiting a women who was to be his mother.
2. He healed women, He talked with women, He publicly praised women.
3. He interrupted journeys and conversations to give attention to women.
4. In some ways, women were his most faithful supporters. They humbled themselves at His feet. They provided for his material needs. They wept for Him at the cross when the disciples had scattered in fear. They prepared His body for burial. They were the first to visit the tomb after the sabbath was over. They were the first ones He revealed Himself to after the resurrection. They were the first to announce the resurrection.
D. But Peter’s wife’s mother was not just a woman. She was probably an older woman and probably a widow. And in Peter’s house, she was a mother-in-law.
1. It’s difficult to be woman. It’s difficult to be old. It’s difficult to be widowed. And it’s difficult to be a mother-in-law living with your daughter & her husband. You don’t want to be a burden.
2. But Jesus loves women, even when they’ve aged. And Jesus loves widows. And Jesus loves mothers-in-law! And He can turn them from burdens into blessings.
E. Jesus always took an interest in invisible people, people who usually get ignored. And He calls us to do the same."Don't be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position." (Rom.12:16) – like janitors and waitresses and maids and busboys and the elderly and little children and bus drivers and trash men and the handicapped.
F. As Alexander MacLaren said, “It is a lesson for all who would help their fellows, that they must not be too dainty to lay hold of the dirtiest hand, both metaphorically and literally, if they want their sympathy to be believed. His hand banishes not only the disease, but its consequences. Immediate convalescence and restoration to strength follow; and the strength is used, as it should be, in ministering to the Healer who, notwithstanding His power, needed the humble ministration and the poor fare of the fisherman’s hut.
VI. But there’s more to this story than a brief demonstration of compassion and power. Every miracle is a little glimpse of Christ’s redemptive purposes.
A. All of the maladies Jesus heals are images of sin and misery.
B. In this story we see:
1. the misery of a person in sin,
2. the helplessness of a person in sin, and
3. the uselessness of a person in sin.
C. Spiritually, a sinner is lying sick on a bed, doing no good at all.
D. But the stage is set for the Redeemer to reveal His mercy, His redemptive purposes, His life-giving power.
E. And the touch of Christ is significant.
1. Why does Jesus touch her? Why not heal her several hours before they arrived so that she could have had the meal ready for them when they arrived? Or why didn't He prevent her from getting sick in the first place?
F. But she would have missed something if she had never gotten sick in the first place. She would have missed a chance to grow in her appreciation of God's power and mercy. She would have missed an opportunity to come to grips with how weak she was and how helpless. And if Jesus had not touched her but healed her earlier, she would have missed the opportunity to see where healing comes from. And WE would have missed the opportunity, too.
G. For the rest of her life, she remembered the tender look of the Savior as He extended His transforming hand to her and lifted her up from weakness to strength.
H. Ordinarily a person is left weak and lethargic after a high fever. But not here. There were no remnants or weakness from the disease. She immediately got up and began to serve Christ.
I. There is an important lesson for us here:
1. We are healed not so much for our own comfort or relief, we are healed for service – Christ ministers to us that we might in turn minister to Him.
2. Peter’s mother-in-law does what every person should do. She uses her healing, she uses her restored strength to serve the One who healed her.
J. Most of the city does not, of course. Many were healed by Jesus there in Capernaum but few surrendered themselves to Him in service. They sought only His blessing, and weren’t interested in entering His service (see Matt.11:20-24).
K. And many are the same in the church. They love the benefits, but that’s where it stops.
L. Our youth pastor used to refer to this as those who eat off the fat of the fellowship.
M. Many church people love the grace, & the blessings, & the fellowship, & the encouragement, & the celebration but aren't especially interested in the service, in the obedience.
N. And so they hang around a church until they stop being satisfied with the blessings – but they never become servants.
O. Now Christ is extremely generous with His grace. He heals, He helps, He restores, He empowers.
1. He takes the initiative, as He did for Peter’s mother-in-law.
2. But He also expects it to produce fruit in us. and woe to that person who takes and takes and takes from Christ and from His church but never gives himself back to the Lord in service. It would have been better if he had never received anything from the Lord in the first place.
P. Remember the parable of the talents in Matt.25:14-30.
1. The Lord gives the talents in the first place.
2. But He expects to get a benefit from them.
Q. Someone might say: "Oh, if only I could prepare food for Jesus then I would do it with a good spirit and a right attitude!" But remember that when you serve tables to the least of Christ's brethren, you serve Christ Himself. (Matt.25:40)
R. Someone else might think: "But I have never been healed by the Lord!"
1. If you’ve been saved by Christ, then you’ve been healed. Salvation is the greatest healing of all.
2. In fact, ten times in the NT the word for save is used for healing, including in Matt.9:21-22 (also Mk.5:23, Lk.7:3; 8:36).
VII. You see, healings teach us about what Christ came to do.
A. Like all of God's miracles, Christ's healings were not only are signs of His power over creation, they also picture something, they send a message.
B. They picture salvation, which is a far greater miracle than mere physical healing.
C. Jesus made the blind man see; He made the deaf hear; He made the lame walk.
D. Just as every kind of sickness is healed, so Jesus heals every type of sickness of soul: the worst of men have had their lives restored by Jesus.
E. In fact, God often heals the sickest of souls so that He is most glorified. Jesus came to heal those who know they are sick.
F. Ultimately Christ came to heal the human soul and the human body.
1. Ever since the garden of Eden mankind has groaned under the grip of sick souls and sick bodies.
2. But Christ came to turn back that curse. He will put an end to death; He will turn death into life.
3. Rev.21:3-4 “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”
G. This process began when Christ came. That’s what “the coming of the kingdom” means. It was the inauguration of the last days, the introduction of the new creation.
1. In the end, will have bodies which don’t grow old or get sick or get tired or hungry.
2. There is complete physical deliverance coming. But not today. Even when He heals us today, it is short term, as it was for this woman. None of us is going to live in this same body forever.
3. Jesus came to heal. He continues that ministry today by healing souls – as well as bodies.
4. But the process will be culminated on the last day, when God’s people will be fully and finally healed, in body and soul, in mind, in emotions, in memories, in relationships, etc.
H. Matthew 15:30-31 “And large crowds came to Him, bringing with them those who were lame, crippled, blind, mute, and many others, and they laid them down at His feet; and He healed them. So the crowd marveled as they saw the mute speaking, the crippled restored, and the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.”
1. This gives us a spectacular view of what Christianity really is. 1000's and millions of people coming from all over the world to Jesus. They are spiritually sick and lame and blind and deformed and ugly. And Jesus is touching them and making them whole and transforming them.
2. And those who have been healed are escorting and carrying their friends to Jesus for this divine healing of the soul. And everyone is being healed, everyone that is who comes to Jesus and realizes his own sickness and deformity, and who calls out to Jesus to heal him. Jesus never refuses those who call out to Him. You don't have to wait in line, you don't have to fill out an application, you don't have to pay money for His services.
I. The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law gives us the gospel in a nutshell: people are sick and incapacitated. Jesus kindly reaches down and takes them by the hand and heals them, then He lifts them up and strengthens them so that they are able to begin serving Him and His people.
J. The question is, Where are you in the story?
1. Are you sick and needy of Christ’s healing power. You only need to ask. He will heal you, He will put your life back together again. He has done it millions of times.
a. (Some people would actually prefer to remain sick, you know. There is an advantage to being sick, after all. It gives people a great excuse to do nothing and to complain all the time and still get attention and pity from others.)
2. Or are you healed by the grace and power of Christ? Then get up and serve. He doesn't heal us to sit — He heals us to serve. And it is not a burden but a blessing to do so!
3. Or are we already serving Christ and His people? Then always remember that sick bed where you once laid, and that your strength is not of yourself but of the Lord.