Jesus Heals Simon's Mother in Law

Jesus casts the demon out of the man in the synagogue, and then goes to Simon and Andrew’s house “with James and John.” Simon and Andrew live together with their families but also Simon’s wife’s mother and who knows who else, so these families were all in close quarters, they had their needs met with food, water, and shelter, but they weren’t so affluent that they each had their own homes. When they arrive “Simon’s wife’s mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.” She’s sick and the people tell Him about her, it doesn’t say but I wonder if it was just a passing mention of “oh she’s sick,” or a more fervent, “please help her, she’s ill.” They also don’t give any indication of whether this is just a generalized flu that she’s had briefly or if she’s been chronically ill for a long time and on the verse of death. I guess that’s the point though, whether the illness is brief and uncomfortable or long and fatal, Jesus can cure it. It’s also the point that He heals discomfort as well as debilitating disease.

Regardless of how serious her illness was, usually recovery from even a simple and short lived fever can take several days to recover from, it takes a lot out of your body. Getting back up to full capacity takes a while, but in the case of Simon’s mother in law, Jesus “came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.” It is significant that she was not only healed of her infirmity but healed back to 100% capacity. I guess when we look at our own spiritual healing, through the repentance process we can be made as stronger than we would otherwise. Like the phrase that he will make the weak things strong in us, he takes what was crippling to us initially and transforms us into beings that are stronger than whatever it was that beset us.

The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as teaching that “the account of Peter’s mother-in-law being healed by the Savior to teach that ‘Jesus’ specially selected disciples were married men with wives and children and families of their own, as his specially called servants should be in all ages.”