The Gospel text for this Sunday was Mark 1:29-39. I decided to share some of my reflections on that text over the next few days.

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I gotta tell you. This particular story about Jesus healing people is one of the hardest stories for a hospital chaplain. It raises questions about “why not me?” that are challenging. And when we answer them, the answers aren’t exactly comforting. Because we have to look at “why not everyone?” And “are you healing anyone?”

It’s a story that we would love to see. Jesus goes home with a couple friends. There’s an older woman with a fever. He takes her hand and she’s suddenly well enough to start serving them.

It’s a miracle.

If Jesus came here to the hospital to visit with a family, and someone got out of bed, healed, and started working, you know what would happen. Word would spread, a couple more people would be healed, and then public safety would show up.

As we look at the story today, I want to walk through some of the questions that come to mind as we think through this story.

Did Jesus actually give Peter’s mother-in-law her health back?

I think he did, because the text says so. And if we try to make it seem like maybe she wasn’t really sick, or maybe there was an adrenaline rush and that helped, I think those explanations aren’t helping. The text says that she was healed immediately. And that other people were healed that evening, too.

So why did Jesus heal her?

Healing is important to Jesus because it’s about knowing people. It grows out of relationship.

He went home with friends. There was an immediate need in that household. For him to offer teaching and healing in other places but to withhold it from a place offering him hospitality would have been arrogant.

Here’s what I mean. It wouldn’t have been a large house. And there were lots of demands. Peter lived there. So did his brother Andrew. It’s likely that Peter’s wife was there, and maybe a child or two. And Peter’s mother-in-law.

One of those people, one who was part of the hospitality of the house, was sick in bed.

And now Jesus arrives for a meal. And perhaps more of the disciples. For him to eat, to receive the hospitality of the house, and to have something he could offer, and to not do it, would have been arrogant. It was different, I think, than all the people being brought to him for healing.

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to be continued.