When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him. When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” -Matthew 8:14-17 NIV (This occurrence also appears in Mark 1:29-31 and Luke 4:38-39) By this point, Peter has already witnessed Jesus do some amazing things and he can clearly see that he is not dealing with any average human being. He invited Jesus in to his home knowing Jesus had the potential to heal his ill mother-in-law. Peter then asks Jesus to do just that, and he did so without hesitation. She was sick as a dog but jumped up and starting helping them out. Jesus didn’t even blink an eye before helping Peter out here. How quick Jesus was to love Peter! Today we hear of bull shit stories similar to this where someone gets healed and is up and ready to go, but it’s nothing like what he have here. We know for sure that Jesus just met Peter and definitely did not know his mother-in-law. Yet, he walks in, and as Luke puts it “rebukes the fever”. The fever leaves her, and she was authentically healed. Nowadays we just get people posing as healers for the money and setting up stunts to make it seem like they are really working like that. It’s ludicrous. The way Jesus healed was real, it had no benefit but to serve Peter and his mother-in-law. There wasn’t any monetary exchange involved, and not many people witnessed this event. Soon there after we see that this must have sent Jesus into a real healing mood. The story we read in Matthew has Jesus in turn being served by Peter’s mother-in-law, waiting for evening, and then healing everyone who was around as well as casting out demons. Clearly he has more power then they all anticipated. More than just healing a sick mom, he can clearly heal the sick but also those who are spiritually messed up. If I was Peter I would have asked for Jesus’ help in healing my mother-in-law too (although I don’t have such a relationship yet, I’m sure she meant a lot to him). In a way we all know someone who is sick. Most likely in a spiritual manner, but we can know people with physical ailments as well. Asking God for help is a fine practice and we ought to trust God with more of the simple stuff. Sadly, we tend to only turn to God when situations are too heavy for us, too intense, and finally when we recognize we are over-burdened, then we turn to him. Ask God for help in all circumstances, you never know how he may come through for you. Peter probably told his mother-in-law of the fishing incident with Jesus earlier at some point in between the stories we have in the gospels. There are plenty of times in between what we have in the gospels for Peter to have been telling tales of Jesus to whomever was in his house. His mother-in-law was very sick but upon hearing such stories probably already thought he sounded pretty messiah-like. But her healing would have nailed it down for her. She jumped up and wanted to help as much as she could. She poured the boys some lemonade and made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and sent them off so that Jesus could testify further and go heal others. By this point, Peter already has so much confirmation that Jesus was the dude. First Peter had to be broken of his fishing-career pride as Jesus was able to make him catch way more fish than he could handle in a time when he wasn’t catching anything. Then here he witnessed his very sick mother-in-law get healed, and then Jesus leaving the house to heal many others. What could possibly come next? He has seen Jesus firsthand do amazing things and everything is going so well. The relationship between the two, you can see, is being strengthened regularly. Jesus’ gifts outweigh anything we have been given, but we ought to learn how to drop what we are doing when someone needs our help, especially when we have been gifted in many ways.