Matthew 8:14-17
Jesus Heals Many at Peter’s House
14 When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever; 15 he touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she got up and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were possessed with demons; and he cast out the spirits with a word, and cured all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
Today’s devotion is based on a sermon given by Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber.
Jesus and the disciples entered Simon’s house and Simon’s mother-in-law was sick in bed with a fever. Jesus came and took her by the hand, lifted her up. Then the fever left her and she began to serve them.For the record, it is hard not to read this lesson without feeling it seems to be pretty sexist, yes? Rather than scrounging around for their own lunches, they heal the woman of the house so she can serve them. I get it!
So, don’t feel bad if that’s how you heard this story, too.
But, I started to see the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law story differently after sitting with it awhile.
It’s true that Matthew doesn’t tell us her name, so let’s just agree to make one up for her so she has an identity other than mother-in-law. We’re going to call her Matilda.
See, I don’t actually think Jesus healed Matilda so she could make them lunch. Because the thing is, for a male Jew in first century Palestine, it was considered taboo to even touch an unrelated woman. And, it was considered unclean to touch someone who was sick. And, it was considered a religious violation to do any kind of work on the Sabbath. So, I can’t imagine that Jesus would defile himself on so many levels just so he wouldn’t have to make his own sandwich. I think this scene with Matilda is a demonstration of what Jesus was talking throughout the Gospels over and over again – the kingdom of God has come near.
The important thing that Jesus provides is a restoration to community.
Sarah Henrich of Luther Seminary writes these words:
“Illness bore a heavy social cost: not only would a person be unable to earn a living or contribute to the well-being of a household, but their ability to take their proper role in the community, to be honored as a valuable member of a household, town, or village, would be taken from them. Peter’s mother-in-law is an excellent case in point. It was her calling and her honor to show hospitality to guests in her home. Cut off from that role by an illness cut her off from doing that which integrated her into her world. Who was she when no longer able to engage in her calling? Jesus restored her to her social world and brought her back to a life of value by freeing her from that fever. It is very important to see that healing is about restoration to community and restoration of a calling, a role as well as restoration to life. For life without community and calling is bleak indeed.”
And the thing I love about Matilda is that Matilda knew what you do with hands which have received the healing touch of God….Matilda used those very hands to serve. She immediately became an agent of what she had just received: grace and mercy and healing. Not as an act of obligation, or law or social expectation, but as an act of freedom. Because the boundaries that Jesus transgresses allow the most unlikely and broken people to give what they have received. We see again and again Jesus literally touching the untouchable and giving them a whole new identity. It’s like he was deputizing them. Because Jesus was about more than just healing certain sick people…the gospel tell us that Jesus’ greatest desire was to restore all that has been broken. So, every person who Jesus healed was conscripted into the Kingdom of God so that they may go and do likewise.
As God forgives us and restores us, what is God calling us to do? How and whom do we serve?
Let us pray:
Dear God, your healing touch makes us whole. Free us from the bondage of sin to be your hands and feet in the world today. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.