You Were There (6/10/05)
Peter’s return home is so briefly covered here, leaving so much unsaid. He had, after all, just up and left his boat behind some several days prior. He had not stopped by the house to tell his wife what he was about. He had simply gone off with Jesus, and taken Andrew along with him as well. Now, I have no doubt that Zebedee had been decent enough to come and inform the missus as to what had transpired, but how much of the mystery did that really resolve? She doubtless had heard about the brothers’ reaction to this Jesus when they met Him before, but she knows nothing of where they might have gone to, nor for how long.
Add to this the presence of her mother. Her presence in the household suggests to me that she had outlived her husband, and now depended largely on her son-in-law for her maintenance. Where was he? How could he desert her daughter like this? His wife, being more privy to his thoughts might understand and accept, but mom’s another thing altogether! Her first concern, however much she may have accepted this impetuous man into her family, remains for her daughter. While that one has been calm and collected, accepting the support that comes from the Zebedee family in her husband’s absence, the elder has been overwrought. How long will such largesse continue? How long will this son-in-law of hers continue to ignore his responsibilities? Indeed, so long and so hard has she fretted about her welfare and her daughter’s as well that she is now sick, so sick that she cannot find strength to rise up out of bed.
Now, I confess that the wording here does not suggest to me that her illness was anything life-threatening. Indeed, it would not surprise me at all if the greater part of her malady were malaise. She has been upset – stressed out if you will. She has been concerned as to the future. How well we all know the strain such concerns can put us under. How well we understand the weakness that comes upon us when we look to the path ahead and see no possible means of support! In our present age, we have the comfort of knowing that there are safety nets in place, that if the worst were to befall us, we could yet avail ourselves of various agencies to continue our support. She had no such assurance. She might well expect that she would have to resort to begging, and her daughter as well. Hardly a guarantee of income there. No, she had worried herself sick, and quite possibly had thereby weakened her resistance such that worse maladies had come in upon her. Is she mortally ill at the point of Peter’s return? That is not known. She is certainly terribly weakened and feverish.
With that setup, we find Peter arriving home with his brother in tow. But, not just his brother. He also brings along James and John, who were doubtless familiar to the household. However, there are these others with him. It’s not just Jesus that has joined the group, but His mother is there as well, and also His brothers. Peter’s come home with a crowd! It puts me in mind of all those comedies of an earlier year that sought out the humor in the situation of that poor wife who got the last minute call from her husband, informing her that he was bringing the boss over for dinner. This is somewhat equivalent. He has brought this whole crowd to the house after synagogue. Custom will require that they be fed, properly seen to.
Now, I think about Peter’s reaction when he had denied his Lord there at the end. Such remorse he knew. So shamed was he by his own actions that he was nigh on inconsolable. Fortunately for him, there were those amongst his compatriots who would not leave him to his sorrows, but would see to it that he was restored to himself. I suspect they had seen him like this before, quite likely many times. It’s the price of the impetuous nature that was his, that there would come these moments of profound regret for the results of his spontaneous actions. This was one of those moments. In the flush of the moment, he had not even given a thought to house and home as he went off with Jesus. Frankly, none of them had. Meeting Messiah can do that to a person. Now, seeing the situation in his home, it suddenly hits him. All the responsibility that he knew was on his shoulders, all that he had simply thrown aside in that moment suddenly rushes in on him. I can sense him feeling the need to immediately take all that back on himself. He wonders in that moment what has become of the boat he left behind. Just how much of a mess had he made?
There was one thing he know could be done, though. He knew this One he had been following was a healer. Yes, and so much more! He had, after all, called Peter from his trade to pursue this ministry, and He had shown already what He was capable of. News of His healings in this very town had already spread to His home in the hills. Then there was that matter of the wine. Why, if He could do that, if He had been willing to do that, then surely He would be willing to see to the care of this woman. I can imagine the sorrow, the regret evident in Peter’s eyes as he brought the matter to Jesus. Master, I’ve made a mess here, and look how this poor woman is suffering from my neglect. What can be done? How shall I make amends? But rather than give him instructions on what to do, rather than preach at him about getting his priorities straight, Jesus takes action, and such an odd set of actions He takes!
He doesn’t prepare poultices and draughts as these foreign healers tended to do. He doesn’t mutter all manner of odd incantations, waving His hands back and forth as the Egyptian healers were wont to do. Neither does He call upon the God of Israel to come rescue this woman, as might be expected from a Jewish healer. Instead of any of these things, He speaks to that sickness. What sort of action is that to take? Who could possibly expect such a thing to work? It makes no sense, but that is what this Jesus is doing. He is simply standing over the woman and speaking a bit angrily to her malady, as though He were scolding it. Now, He takes her hand and helps her up from her bed, and she seems rather surprised at this. She is rather surprised at this. All the weakness has fled, and she feels fine. All the worry and care that had burdened her soul has lifted. She’s at a loss to explain why, but there is a joy in her now, a joy unspeakable, and she is quickly about the task of entertaining these guests in proper fashion. Peter, I imagine, has sat down a tad abruptly, utterly bemused by these events. But Peter is Peter, and he is doubtless quick to regain his equilibrium.
New Thoughts (6/11/05-6/16/05)
I will start my thoughts with consideration of Peter’s mother-in-law. We know that she was sick, but why was she sick? While there is no answer given to this question, I think it reasonable to at least consider the possibility that her illness came as a result of her anxieties. After all, her son-in-law, her support, had by all appearances abandoned her daughter as well as herself. He had left behind his boat to pursue some carpenter’s boy he had met not too long ago. How did he think to support his family? Just what was she supposed to do? What would become of her daughter with this derelict husband of hers?
It seems to me that she may well have hit that wall that we all come up against on occasion, the wall of anxiety. It’s nothing new. Jesus addressed it in the course of His teaching, and even then, I am sure it was nothing new. For men, it seems to come down to this issue of wanting to know the way ahead. We want to see the steps laid out, the plans detailed, so that we can look at the orderly progression and recognize how we are going to achieve whatever the current goal may be. If it’s a business matter, we want to be able to see how the business will be to our profit. Isn’t this exactly why we look for a business plan? We want to be able to discern from the plan what the likelihood is for success. There’s nothing wrong with that. Even in this Christian walk, Jesus calls us to plan our steps. “Count the cost,” He said. “Consider whether you can afford what this decision will require of you.”
We see it when we are considering a major purchase, or some other long-term commitment of our resources. Before we sign on, we want to assure ourselves that we will be able to meet that commitment. I suspect we tend to approach our relationships in similar manner. Before we enter that relationship, whether it be of friendship, or a stronger tie, we have assayed our best estimate of how this association might proceed.
While I cannot speak as immediately of the ways of the woman, I can recognize that they are by no wise immune to the anxiousness that besets a man who cannot see the means to his ends. For her, it seems, the issue is not so much the detail of the plan as it is the confidence of the man. A man with a plan is evident. Confidence exudes from him, and infects all who are associated with him. At least in the case of a traditional marriage pursuing God’s purposes, it is his confidence that rests as the first layer upon the foundation of Christ. It is his confidence that gives the woman confidence. Let his confidence waiver, let it be known that he has no idea how the family is going to make ends meet, how he will feed and clothe his family, and all her confidence is made anxiety.
Yet, there are times when God puts us into exactly that sort of situation. There are times when He must, for our own good growth, squeeze us. We must experience those situations from which we cannot see the escape route. We must experience those moments in which all our experience and all of our knowledge and all of our understanding avail us nothing. Why? Because until we are in those moments, we will never cease from trusting in our own strength. Until we are in those moments, we will never cease from taking the credit for our successes. Until we are in those moments, we will never cease from blaming others for our failures! Until we are left no choice, we will never really trust Him, and until we have really trusted in Him we will never really know how faithful and true He is.
Peter’s mother-in-law stands as an example of what becomes of us in those situations if we will not turn to our God and Father. Anxiety breeds illness. Seems to me we’ve seen this truth borne out by modern medicine, but it’s hardly a new revelation. It’s as old as the Proverbs! “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones” (Pr 17:22). This is exactly what we have happening in this scene. Anxiety has brought on a fever to dry up the bones of this poor woman as she worries and frets over a future she can in no wise control. She has literally worried herself sick because she cannot see the way forward. All is lost in her assessment because she has considered only what her eyes of flesh can see. If she has turned to God at all, it has been only for purpose of complaining of her ill treatment at the hands of this son-in-law of hers. She has not sought answer or comfort of Him, but only an ear to listen to her gripes.
Oh! That hurts! It hurts because I know that I am often guilty of that same thing. I am guilty of coming to my Father not to seek His wisdom, but only in hopes of somebody to commiserate with my misery. My wife is too wise to listen to my complaints for very long, so I go to my Father in hopes of an understanding ear. I don’t want an answer in that moment, I just want a shoulder to cry on. What am I thinking? How long will I prefer my sorrows to His joy? How long will I continue crying out ‘answer me,’ while refusing to listen for the answer?
Father, this just isn’t right, and I know it. In too many ways, right now, I have been playing the part of the mother-in-law, when You’ve called me to play the part of Peter. Forgive me, Lord, the complaints I have poured out in Your ears. I am ashamed to have to admit it, Lord, that I would do such a thing. No! But You have provided wonderfully! I cannot look so much as two feet in any direction and not see how much You have poured out upon my family, upon me. Shall I claim to have deserved it? No. I can make no such claim. Shall I claim to have brought it about by my own great strength and wisdom? I think not. Rather, I must join my forebear David in wondering that You would even concern Yourself with such as me. Who am I, Lord, that You should care so amazingly for my needs? Who am I, that You should patiently listen to all my complaints and excuses? Yet, Your love continues to pour out. You continue to fashion me, to build me into that vessel You can use.
God! To consider that You have laid out missions for me to accomplish – me personally! This is such an astonishing thought. How shall I ever cease to wonder at it? When I see the Peter that You introduce us to in these pages, and then consider the Peter who stood firm at the end of his days; what wonders You perform in man! Oh, but I know there is hope for me! I, too, can be foolishly over-confident. I, too, can fail You in a moment. I, too, must turn to You repeatedly, as my brother Peter did, to ask Your help in fixing the messes I make. All praise to You, Holy Father, for You are faithful to come with Your repairs, to make good what I have made wrongly. You know the many places where I need that even now. You know, and I trust in You to bring the answers, to make good those things I have failed in.
Lord, You know the confusion in my heart. You know the very echoes of my present in this story, that like Peter’s mother-in-law, I cannot see how this is going to work. I come to You, though, not to complain of the situation, not even to complain of my ignorance of the way forward. I come to You instead in faith, knowing that You have seen the way, that You have prepared the way, and You are faithful to guide me along that way. God, give me ears to hear, and eyes to see the path You prepare for me, and that I may be faithful to pursue it with all my heart, all my strength, and all my soul.
Turning to Peter, I must once again recognize that much is left to inference in his story. We don’t know with certainty that this is his first time home since he left off fishing, but it would not be surprising to find it was so. As much as that instant response at the shore of the sea fits the Peter we come to know in these pages, so also does the idea of his suddenly coming to grips with what has befallen as the result of his actions. I find it hard to believe that Peter would have been bringing home all these people had he known his mother-in-law’s condition before he came. Such an act would show Peter to be a heartless, self-centered man, and that is not what we see of him at all. There are many things we could say about the man, but that is not one of them!
Well, if he hadn’t brought home this crowd knowing the situation at home, then he must have been ignorant of that situation. How else was this likely to have been the case except he hadn’t been at home to notice? No, he had been gone for several days on this unannounced leave. It was not the first time he had gone off with the boys for a few days, but it was the first time he had done so in such precipitous fashion. Coming home full of joy and fellowship, it must have hit him full in the face to see his mother-in-law so ill. I can imagine an apologetic look in his eyes as he looks at his wife, but what can they do now? All these people are here, and will need attending to. It cannot be helped. But, Peter knows this One who is with him, who He is. He turns to Jesus with that same apologetic look still in his eyes, and that look alone is a confession.
It is a confession both of the wrong that has transpired because of his actions, and of the power and goodness of this One he has been pursuing. It is a confession that, like Jesus at the wedding, there must be a solution which satisfies both the demands of God and the demands of God’s institutions. There must be a way in which Peter can fulfill the obligations of family and simultaneously fulfill the call that has been put upon his life. That way is not completely to be found in his actions to date, but he knows to Whom he must turn to find the way through.
Does he look to Jesus with the immediate thought of Him healing the woman? Perhaps. It cannot have escaped his attention, nor the attention of his partners, that Jesus has healed many in worse condition than she. I suspect that once the subject was broached, the thoughts of those four quickly ran in that direction, whether their words followed immediately or no. But, I think Peter’s expression suggested other thoughts in that first moment. I think there was contrition at seeing what had transpired. I think there was concern and confusion, as he besought his Teacher to tell him what he ought to do. His whole expression was of a desire to set things right.
Before we go any farther, I want to make note of the balance that is found in this passage. It is the balance between the call of Christ and the abuse of Corban. That our commitment to His calling must be complete and immediate is clear. As an aside, I see in pursuing this thought that there is a reason for Matthew’s location of the story of Peter’s mother-in-law at this point in his narrative. It precedes Jesus’ demand for total commitment almost immediately in that account. So we find Jesus confronting a few who claimed to be committed to His cause, but there was in truth a hesitation in them. The example I have particularly in mind is of that disciple (note that. It was one who had been following Him for some period of time already) sought permission to return home and bury his father before committing in full. To this, Jesus replied in a fashion rather harsh to our hearing. “No. Follow Me now; and leave the burying of the dead to the dead” (Mt 8:21-22).
The problem was not with that one’s desire to honor his parents. How could we imagine that God would find fault with the keeping of His own law? The problem is that this man was not truly committed. He wanted to be seen with Jesus. He wanted to be around if this kingdom business should come about, to be in position to benefit. But, he didn’t want anything to do with the hardships. This is the difference. Many are called, but are only willing to be identified with their Savior when all is safe. When the hardships are over, when the kingdom is established and the rewards are being handed out I’m there. But, until then allow me to take care of these other things.
Hear me! There was absolutely nothing dishonorable about the things that they would seek to do. They were good deeds, deeds in accord with the tenets of God. There was but one problem. They made the deeds an excuse for disobedience. Peter, albeit rather by accident, had pursued to proper path. It is the path Jesus laid out in one of His earliest sermons. “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. The rest will work itself out” (Mt 6:33). Interesting that this message immediately precedes the curative for the condition of Peter’s mother-in-law. “Don’t be anxious” (Mt 6:34)! The two are so integrally connected. Indeed, I rather wonder if Jesus wasn’t thinking back on that scene in Peter’s house as He preached this thought.
Turning back to Peter briefly, I again say that though his actions were so precipitous in our sight, they were exactly correct in the sight of God. He had not abandoned his responsibilities. He had not simply run away from house and home with no further thought. Some have done just this ‘in the name of Jesus’ and have, in doing so, offended Him greatly. Ministry unto the Lord cannot ever be cause or permission for disobedience to His precepts! No. Peter was not about to abandon his family. Rather, in his heart of hearts he understood intuitively that this One he was pursuing would set all things aright. It was faith on his part that understood that Jesus would take care of whatever was needful for His disciples.
Granted, this homecoming threw him. Certainly he was hurt, hurt deeply, to see his family in such disarray because of his activities. But, in spite of it, he knew that Jesus would somehow put things right. He knew it! He didn’t know how, he couldn’t see the way through for himself, but he knew without any shadow of doubt that the One who had called him would cover him. That Jesus simply acted with (so far as we know) no words of reprimand to His disciple tells me that He found Peter’s actions in accord with righteousness. His commitment to the kingdom was complete. His trust in his Lord was complete. His desire to be the man God wanted him to be was complete. These were things that Jesus Messiah could honor, and He did.
Seek first His kingdom. Seek first His righteousness. He has told you that He will take care of these other matters. You look to Him and to His desires. He’s got you covered. We are not to be of those who shrink back, but of those who persevere in faith (Heb 10:39). One need look no further than this simple picture painted in Peter’s house and decide which life they would prefer to emulate. One was so distraught with concern for the future that her present was spent flat on her back, sick in bed, unable to cope. The other was so certain of the future that his present was all but forgotten. Because of his certain future, he was able to bring the kingdom he served to bear on the present, and not only on his own behalf but also on behalf of those around him. Allow me to submit that because Peter had set God’s kingdom first, even this act of concern for his family was made to serve God’s kingdom. He did not force it to serve. In fact, he didn’t even have much of anything to do with it, other than being faithful to his Lord. But you can’t tell me that his mother-in-law was unaffected by this. You can’t tell me that having felt the power of God on her own life she was in nothing changed! Perhaps more clear is that Peter’s wife was changed. Whatever her reaction to her husband’s sudden departure might have been previously, now she understood that his care for his family had never been in question. She would support him fully in whatever this ministry might call him to. From the glimpses we have of Peter’s later life, it seems that she walked by his side as his work took him across an empire. Indeed, I find it quite probable that she was there amongst the disciples right along with her husband.
Before I turn to the way in which Jesus healed, I want to make an observation. Quite simply, Peter’s mother-in-law was not the only one healed in that moment. Peter himself also underwent a healing, albeit of a different sort. No, I take that back, it wasn’t as different as all that. His mother-in-law was healed, in the most immediate sense, of that fever that had laid her low. However, it strikes me that as often as not the healing Jesus brings has less to do with the immediate physical symptoms that are put at an end than with the spiritual, soul issues that underlie the physical. For this woman, the underlying issue was anxiety. What was that anxiety about? It was about her future provision.
Oh! Thank You, Lord, that even as I write this You are explaining something to me that I had missed here.
She was suffering a lack of faith! That is the root problem in her situation. The God of her fathers has declared that He will provide. He has shouted from the rooftops of Israel that His children will never be found begging. We are called to live by faith, and the anxieties we experience are nothing more and nothing less than a lack of that faith by which we are to live. It is death creeping in. It’s that serious! Death comes knocking at the door of our heart, whispering of doom to us, and we foolishly sit behind our door listening. Oh, we may not let him in, but we believe every word he is saying. Indeed, we are so fully concentrated on those words of dire prophecy concerning our imminent demise that we don’t turn to look upon the bounty our Lord and Savior is pouring in through the windows! He has opened the storehouses of heaven to pour out blessing and provision upon His own, but rather than abide in quiet confidence in anticipation of celebrating His goodness, there we are listening to His worst enemy whispering slanderous lies in our ears.
If God provides, and that right perfectly, what is our anxiousness about? Do we believe Him or don’t we? It’s a question I know I have to ask myself repeatedly. It’s a question to which I know the answer. I know the answer, and yet I must shout it to my own spirit every so often to remind my head of the facts my heart already knows full well. This brain of mine – and thanks be to my God for the provision of that! This brain of mine is designed to grasp ideas, gather the physical evidences brought in by all my various sensations, and build from them a plan and a forecast. Indeed, I am fearfully and wonderfully made! However, this brain of mine is not designed to plan and forecast without the input of my spirit. This is where I go astray. This is where the world at large goes astray. The enemy of our soul has convinced our minds that the soul has no business in the decision process. That’s the lie of rationalism. It irrationally separates the whole man into his component parts and insists that those parts must have no communication with each other. The mind must operate in freedom from the soul, and the soul must satisfy itself with contemplating its philosophies. It must not interfere in the decision making process, it must simply think its higher, pleasant thoughts and do its best to ignore what’s going on.
The result of this sorry dichotomy is anxiety. It is an inevitable result because the soul can no more ignore the activity of its own mind and body than the mind can ignore the input of the senses. We are being asked to live in a state of permanent schizophrenia, with our mind dictating a course of action our soul knows full well is not only wrong but downright suicidal! Is it any wonder we are anxious in light of that? Is it any wonder that as mind and soul thus debate and argue the course of our body our body is weakened? Behold Peter’s mother-in-law! There on that bed lay the results of trying to work things out for ourselves without thought for God’s promises.
Now, I said a few paragraphs back that there was another healing that came in that same moment, and that it was quite similar in nature. That healing had to do with Peter himself. See, he was coming face to face with some decisions of his that suddenly seemed all wrong to him. It seems almost beyond doubt that as he was faced with the situation at home his thoughts fell to thinking, ‘what have I done?’ Seeing that woman laid out on the bed, he knew the whole thing to be his fault for having acted so rashly, and the remorse he felt in that moment threatened to overwhelm him. This was a crisis point for Peter. It really was a point where he had to determine in his soul whether he really believed or not. The enemy, having weakened this one who was under Peter’s care, now sought to use her capitulation to strike at Peter himself. Do you understand that this is the way of that snake? Do you understand that his every effort is put forth in trying to undercut your faith in God? Do you understand that he will do anything, attack anybody, for the purpose of seeing you stumble into disbelief?
He wants nothing more than to see God abandoned by His children. He wants nothing more than for you to start calling God a liar. Unbelief. That word doesn’t sound so bad to us. It’s just a weakness in us. We can’t help ourselves. But the truth of the matter is that unbelief calls God a liar. Whatever form that unbelief may take, whichever of His promises you have refused to trust in completely, the underlying, fundamental reality is that you have accused God of lying.
Peter was on the verge in that moment. Just for that one brief instant faith was overrun by doubt. But, what Peter did made all the difference! He didn’t collapse to the floor in despair. He didn’t turn and run away from what confronted him. He did the only thing that wisdom will allow. He turned and looked to Jesus! Here we see the foreshadowing of Peter’s activities on the waters of the Sea of Galilee at a later date. Jesus would call him out upon the waters without benefit of a boat, and Peter would heed that call, just as he had earlier heeded the call to leave those waters behind. He would stumble, seeing the circumstances surrounding him, even as he did in this moment of homecoming. But, just as he did here, indeed I think we could say because of what he did here, He turned to Jesus rather than sink in despair.
There is the lesson of this passage, just as it behooves us to see that same lesson in Peter’s water walk. It’s a simple lesson, yet one we have to learn repeatedly. There can be no sufficient cause to lose our trust in our Lord and Savior. There can be no circumstance that we can ever look to and day, “See, You didn’t care for me here!” There will never be a time in your life when you can honestly accuse God of being unfaithful to you. Never! Those doubts that come crowding in, those anxious thoughts for tomorrow when we insist that we are going to provide for ourselves, that we alone can do anything about anything; these are but the darts of the enemy come to weaken our faith.
The record of the saints is unanimous on this matter. David cries out that in all his years he has never seen the righteous forsaken (Ps 37:25). Job declared that he would hope in God, even were God to kill him (Job 13:15). This same trust in God was the core of Paul’s contended life. He was content in weakness and distress because he knew God’s promises were true (2Co 12:9). This was the secret he had learned, that allowed him to be as content with hunger as he was with being full, to be as content with suffering as with abundance (Php 4:12). See, God who provides perfectly for us provides both the abundance and the suffering. He provides them according to His own perfect knowledge of what will best suit our need. We, in looking at our need will never even once find a need for suffering. Our senses won’t allow for that idea. But, God knows that suffering can be to our advantage at times. Like the aches that come of physical exercise, sometimes our spirits need that experience of suffering to be made stronger.
The fundamental truth remains that our trust in Him will be tested, sorely tried by the enemy. But God, who works all things for our good as we work for His good purpose, allows those trials not for our harm but for our strength. Faith must exercise. The exercise best suited to our faith is the attack of doubt, for as we conquer those doubts, faith is built. Because Peter turned to Jesus in faith here in this early skirmish, he had the strength of experience for the later challenges. When doubts attacked, he chose the weapon of trust in God. He turned to his Strong Tower, and the Tower was his Shield against the enemy. Faith was proved justified as his mother-in-law was restored to her own faith in God by the power of the Christ, Jesus the Son of God and Son of man. His later experience on the waters, though we see failure in his sinking, was actually another victory. It was victory because he did not succumb to his fears. He built upon the strength he had gained in this encounter to turn once again to his Lord and Savior. He chose belief. As unbelievable as the situation was, as unlikely as his reason told him was the likelihood of a man being able to pull him up onto the waves, he chose to believe the report of his spirit. Faith upon faith! In the end of his days, when death stood before him, and that of a sort most painful, he did not shy away from faith. Rather, he stood in the strength of a faith exercised, and joined his voice to Job’s, choosing gladly to die for his Savior rather than deny Him in any way. Indeed, to the end he was so humbled in his person that he would not allow them to crucify him in the same manner as his Messiah, but rather had himself suspended upside down, unworthy in his own sight to lay claim to such equality with his Lord.
If we would do exploits for our Lord, if we would seek to walk as humbly before our Lord as did Peter, Paul, and so many others, we must begin with the small things. We must begin by believing that God means for us to do as He asks. We must begin by believing God when He does things that make no sense to us. This was a part of that test Peter was taking as he returned home. As well as dealing with that whole inrush of care and concern as he saw his mother-in-law lying ill, he also had to accept that the things Jesus would do in that moment would take care of those concerns. Frankly, if we look at Jesus’ response, it doesn’t make much sense. For us, it makes little sense because we have grown too rational. We may not be doctors, but we know enough of medicine to recognize that no fever was ever cured by a scolding. It wasn’t all that different then. Their doctors may not have been what we would consider doctors to be, but they were predictable at the very least. They were familiar enough that one knew what to expect from them, and even they, though more often charlatans and tricksters than not, did not operate in this fashion. This wasn’t how healing was done!
Now, it requires looking at all three accounts of this event to really get the full picture of Jesus’ actions. For Matthew, the whole thing was a matter of one touch. Just one touch from Jesus and she was fully restored. Oh! And there’s a great deal of truth to that. Just one touch from my Lord Jesus most assuredly will restore in full. Thanks be to God that it is so! Yes, and He is still touching those who know their need for Him today. He is still restoring life to the lifeless today.
Mark, as we assume passing on Peter’s recollections, notes that Jesus not only touched her, He took her hand and lifted her out of that sick bed. Here, we have another great truth about our God. He doesn’t merely stop by for a quick theophany and then leave us to our own devices. He doesn’t simply reveal Himself for one brief moment and then leave us to find our own way home. No! He takes us by the hand. Look at that word, for a moment. He takes hold of us. He holds fast to us, and will not let us go! Indeed, He has told us as much. “I give eternal life to them. They shall never perish. Furthermore, no one will ever take them from My hand because no one ever could! For My hand is My Father’s hand, and He is greater than all” (Jn 10:28). My Dad’s bigger than your Dad!
Notice, furthermore, that He didn’t wait for this woman to take His hand. He didn’t tell her she must do it. Nope. He did it all. He initiated the contact, and He carried it through. Just like our salvation, the work is His doing at His instigation. If it is not His doing, it is not our salvation. It’s just an emotional deception. Healing is the same. It’s either all about Jesus, or it’s just a noisome deception. The healer that thinks he is something is nothing. Worse than nothing, he’s a danger to those he claims to help.
We know from the record that those with Jesus appealed to Him on behalf of this woman, but I don’t think He really needed the appeal. Her healing was already prepared, and would be hers. Their appeal was made to increase their own faith. Their appeal was needful for themselves, because they needed to acknowledge this One who had called them to Himself. They needed to know their own compassion, their heart after God, because knowing their own heart in this small degree, they would see how perfectly He satisfied their heart’s desire. I suppose it is in our nature to be distracted by the evidence of our senses, and thereby miss the big picture. We get so excited by the fact of healing that we miss the point.
When I see that piece that Luke adds to the description, the point becomes more clear to me. From his account, we learn that Jesus, before any touch, before taking hold of this woman’s hand to lift her up, had done the strangest thing. In fact, this thing was so odd that the others really took no note of it, thinking it had nothing in particular to do with the healing. Sickness is a physical thing, right? So, the healing of that sickness must also be a physical thing. But the real story is that Jesus first spoke to that fever that was upon her. He spoke in rebuke. In effect, He declared legal charges against that fever as the official representative of the court of heaven!
Now, this act is the same as that which He had just done at the synagogue in casting the demon out of that man. Why is this? Should we take away from this that every manner of illness is a matter of possession, rather than a matter of physical malady? No, I don’t think we can draw that conclusion. I think it goes back to what had made this woman sick to begin with. She had allowed anxiety and doubt to weaken her spirit, and this left an opening for spiritual attack. Yes, there was a demon to be dealt with in this case. Luke connects it clearly with the fever. Once that was dealt with, He could proceed to clean away the cause of the illness as well as its symptoms.
Let me put together the picture in what I think to be the order here, and perhaps it will be clearer. Jesus comes, and before anything else, He rebukes the demonic influence that was harassing this woman with fever. At His rebuke that demon had no alternative but to flee, and to flee immediately! Think about it! How often do we hear of a criminal running from the scene when the police come on the scene? See, they represent the courts of the land, and the last thing that criminal wants is justice. Jesus comes onto the scene representing the courts of heaven, before which every demon stands eternally condemned. It’s either flee, or start the eternal sentence early! Of course they flee, given the chance! It is only after that symptom of demonic influence has been swept away that Jesus begins the healing. This healing, while it is evidenced by an improvement of physical symptoms, is in reality a spiritual matter, a faith matter.
He comes with a touch. I would have to say, though, that ‘touch’ does not do justice to the underlying Greek. It’s a touch, but it’s a forceful matter. It’s an exertion of pressure. More than just such a touch as we might use tapping a friend on the shoulder to gain their attention, this is an attaching of Himself to this woman. Already, in this first touch, there is the sense that He won’t be letting go any time soon. Now, having securely taken hold of her, He will hold fast to this one He has saved, and He will not let go. He will keep this rescued soul carefully and faithfully, even as He has promised. Finally, with a firm grip, He raises her up from that bed. He recalls her out of her disease, and He makes her aware of the danger.
Are we aware of the danger that He warned her of here? It’s the danger of unbelief. Anxiety is unbelief, and that unbelief was an opening for attack. It is, after all the shield of faith which extinguishes the flaming missiles of the enemy (Eph 6:16). Whoa! There it is right in Paul’s letter. There’s the connection. She had stopped trusting God, had essentially told Him he was a liar when He said His people would not be found out begging. The shield was down, and the enemy pressed his advantage. The wounds he inflicted quickly did their work, and would have festered until she was destroyed by their poisons had Jesus not come to set things aright. He took care of the immediate problems, and then put her shield back in her hand. Faith was restored, and the desperate need for faith was made clear, not only to her but also to those who witnessed what He had done. I can well imagine that this event was discussed between the Master and His disciples, that He drew on this experience to show them the great need to trust in God and His provision. That great need continues to echo in my own ears today.
Yes, Lord, I must confess that my trust has been lacking. I have fallen into the trap, and called You false to Your word. No, that lie did not pass from my lips in so many words, yet I see that this foolishness has been implied by my opinions and actions on so many things. Oh, but You are true! Yes, and I know that You are faithful, as well. Lord, forgive my doubting, and bring to me that confident hope that is the living proof of belief. God, I thank You so very much that these times of study have been coming out of what seems a long dry spell. The things You have shown me, the conversations we have had in the course of looking at these verses are awesome! I feel as though I could go into teaching at tonight’s home group without so much as a note, though I rather doubt I’ll try it. There has just been so much that You have been pouring out into my spirit. What more do I need, that I might walk out those things You have taught me? What more could I possibly need, when You have been continuing the teaching even as I have gone off to the showers? Let not all of this remain solely in my head. God! I need that knowledge of You that You have been blessing me with to seep into the whole of my being, else all remains lost to me. Don’t let this soul be disconnected from thought, nor let my thoughts exclude my soul. Knit me together as a whole man in Your sight, that I may rise up and serve You with all that is in me.
That is the only fitting response to God’s grace: to rise up and serve. In the course of Jesus’ ministry, we will come across multitudes who received from His grace and simply walked away from Him without so much as a word of thanks. We will see another class of people, who were at least good enough to offer their thanks, some even seeking to repay for His great boon. Yet, even these, having offered their acknowledgments, were satisfied and departed from Him. There were only a few who fully took to heart what He had done. The disciples, for whom so little appears to have been done directly as we would measure it in physical matters, were among the number who responded in full. Peter’s mother-in-law is also in the lists of those who knew what to do with God’s blessings. At a later date, we will see the same from Mary and Martha, perhaps learned from this woman’s example.
Rise up and serve! You have been saved from your misery. You have been lifted up from out of the miry clay. You had dug a pit for yourself, and thrown yourself in with no means of escape, but He in His mercy, He lifted you out. He took hold of your hand, never to let go again, and hauled you up. He patiently took the time not to chide you for your foolishness, but to make plain your great danger in what you were doing. As hard as you were laboring towards your own demise, He turned you around, and caused life to rise up within you, real life, whole life, life in the fullest aspect of all that it was meant to be. What words of thanks could ever suffice for such blessing? Words are not enough. Words are never enough. The only thing that will manifest a true attitude of gratitude is to rise up and serve, is to take on the tasks that He has assigned for your efforts. He has prepared you for this. It is for this that He has rescued you. It is for this that He has called you. Are you truly thankful for what He has done in your life? Are you truly thankful that you have been put in possession of life? Do you truly rejoice that your name is listed amongst the population of heaven’s kingdom? Then don’t just give thanks and wander off, rise up and serve Him who has given His all on your behalf. Live out that gratitude that your lips speak of.
If love is real, if my love for my Jesus is real, I will need to heed Paul’s words. “Let love be without hypocrisy. Be diligent. Be fervent in spirit, and serve the Lord” (Ro 12:9, Ro 12:11). Add John’s voice to the chorus. “We know that we know Him if we keep His commands. If we keep His word, if we do His word, we know we love Him correctly, and that we are in Him” (1Jn 2:3-4). Look. We have all, I suppose, worked for a boss at some point in time whose attitude when it came to rewards was, “what have you done for me lately.” I suggest that we ask that question of our Lord and Savior, but surely we must answer for ourselves. “What has my God done for me lately?” How many hours have I got to answer in, for the list is long indeed! On the other hand, how shall I answer when the question is turned about? “What have I done for my God lately?” Have I been about His business? Have I been even a little concerned with His business?
For myself, I can list at least a few things that I have been doing by His call, in obedience to Him. I can just as surely list a number of things that I have been doing for no particular reason other than my own, giving no thought to the kingdom of which I am citizen. I know that there is more. I’m less concerned right at this moment with the certain knowledge that there is more that He wishes to pour out upon me by way of blessing. I am far more concerned with the nagging recognition that there is more that I can do for Him. There is more I should do for Him. There is more that I will do for Him, if the gratitude in me is real. Charlie Peacock once sang that he wanted to “live like heaven is a real place”. I want to join to that the thought that is in my heart right now. I want to live like Jesus is my real Lord. Believing is easy. Acting on belief is surprisingly challenging. I want to find, at the end of my days, that I have shown myself to be up to the challenge.
