When the Sabbath services at the synagogue were finished, and the miraculous and memorable healing of the demon-possessed man was complete, Peter invited his companions to retreat to his home. It was apparently a rather large home, because Peter shared it with Andrew, his brother, and with his own wife and mother-in-law. There may have been others in the extended family as well.
Peter didn’t just invite his buddies home, he invited Jesus too. Here’s a great lesson! Don’t leave Jesus at church... bring Him home with you.
When the crowd arrived, they found that Peter’s mother-in-law was sick, suffering with a “high fever” (Luke 4:38). I wonder if Peter walked in the door saying, “Honey, I’m home!” Maybe his wife was tending to her mother and couldn’t be as hospitable as she wished. Maybe Peter felt obligated to apologize to Jesus for this unintended slight. And maybe Peter’s wife begged Jesus to heal her mother. We don’t know how it transpired, but it appears that Jesus didn’t sit down. Rather, He went directly to the ailing woman’s bedside. “They told him about her at once. So he went to her, took her by the hand, and raised her up”(Mark 1:30-31). Notice that Jesus didn’t speak to the ailing patient. Rather, Jesus touched her. He gently took her hand and raised her up.
Jesus is good at raising us up. When the four men brought their friend to Jesus, He said, “I tell you: get up, take your mat, and go home” (Mark 2:11).
At the home of Jairus, Jesus found the lifeless body of the host’s twelve-year-old daughter. Jesus “took the child by the hand and said to her ... ‘Little girl, I say to you, get up.’ Immediately the girl got up and began to walk” (Mark 5:41–42).
After coming down from the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus was confronted by a needy and frustrated daddy and his son. The boy was tortured by painful convulsions, something akin to epilepsy. The dad had appealed to the disciples for help, but alas, they were unable. “When Jesus saw that a crowd was quickly gathering, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, ‘You mute and deaf spirit, I command you: Come out of him and never enter him again.’ Then it came out, shrieking and throwing him into terrible convulsions. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, ‘He’s dead.’ But Jesus, taking him by the hand, raised him, and he stood up” (Mark 9:25–27).
One more example... As Jesus passed through Jericho on his final journey to Jerusalem, a blind guy named Bartimaeus shouted out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:47). Although Jesus was on an eternally important mission, He stopped the parade long enough to invite Bartimaeus to His side. “Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ So they called the blind man and said to him, ‘Have courage! Get up; he’s calling for you.’ He threw off his coat, jumped up, and came to Jesus” (Mark 10:49–50).
Need a hand? Jesus is near! Get up!
“Jesus went into Peter’s house and saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. So he touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and began to serve him” (Matthew 8:14–15). Reborn, revived, and restored by the touch of Jesus, she got up and immediately began to serve... she became a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1-2).
All Scripture quotations, except as otherwise noted, are from
Holman Bible Publishers’ Christian Standard Bible.
