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A MIRACLE IN A COTTAGE

Luke 4:38–9

Jesus left the synagogue and came into Simon’s house; and Simon’s mother-in-law was in the grip of a major fever. They asked him to do something for her. He stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.

HERE Luke the doctor writes. In the grip of a major fever – every word is a medical term. In the grip of is the medical Greek for someone definitely laid up with an illness. The Greek medical writers divided fevers into two classes – major and minor. Luke knew just how to describe this illness.

There are three great truths in this short incident.

(1) Jesus was always ready to serve. He had just left the synagogue. Preachers know what it is like after a service. They have given of themselves and need rest. The last thing they want is a crowd of people and a fresh call upon their energy. But no sooner had Jesus left the synagogue and entered Peter’s house than the insistent cry of human need was at him. He did not claim that he was tired and must rest. He answered it without complaint.

Members of the Salvation Army tell of a Mrs Berwick in the days of the London blitzes of the Second World War. She had been in charge of the Army’s social work in Liverpool and had retired to London. People had strange ideas during the blitzes and they had the idea that somehow Mrs Berwick’s house was safe; and so they gathered there. Though she had retired, the instinct to help was still with her. She got together a simple first-aid box and then put a notice in her window, ‘If you need help, knock here.’ Always Jesus was ready to help; his followers must be the same.

(2) Jesus did not need a crowd to work a miracle. So often we will make an effort in company that we will not make among our own private circle. So often we are at our best in society and at our worst at home. All too commonly we are gracious, courteous, obliging to strangers and the very opposite when there is no one but our own family or friends to see. But Jesus was prepared to put out all his power in a village cottage in Capernaum when the crowds were gone.

(3) When Peter’s mother-in-law was cured, immediately she began to serve them. She realized that she had been given back her health to spend it in the service of others. She wanted no fussing and no petting; she wanted to get on with cooking and serving her family and Jesus. Mothers are like that. We would do well to remember that if God gave us the priceless gift of health and strength, he gave it that we might use it always in the service of others.