Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law
The healing of Peter’s mother-in-law
Jesus goes to the house of Peter and sees that his mother-in-law is in bed with a great fever, he comes closer and helps her get up. He holds her by taking her by the hand.
This story highlights the delicacy that Gsù has for people who are in a state of suffering.
In times of trial, when illness assails us, we ask for help from Jesus so that he can take us by the hand, assist us, and keep us healthy to continue our earthly mission.
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Gospel - Matthew [8:14-18]
When Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever.
He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and waited on him.
That evening they brought to him many who were possessed by demons, and he drove out the spirits by a word and cured all the sick.
This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side.
Exegesis - Matthew [8:14-18]
After the healing of the leper and the centurion's servant, Matthew continues to report other examples of the healings done by Jesus, he begins with the signs of liberation. In fact, “When evening came they brought him many possessed, and he chased away the spirits with his word” and “He healed all the sick”: Matthew places these events in succession to indicate that Jesus' mission has begun; the signs of his messiah ship reported in the Gospel text of Matthew are the teaching (the crowd follows him to listen to him), the Liberation (cast out the demons), the healing (he heals all the sick who come to him). Matthew specifies that Jesus embodies the fulfillment of the message foretold by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our infirmities and took on our illnesses”.
To interpret this passage correctly, it is necessary to follow what Sacred Scripture says. The book of Job opens with the Devil who challenges a man who is faithful and just before God, because he must prove it. Here then comes the infirmity and the disease, with which the Devil wants to destabilize the relationship that man has with God. It is as if the Devil were telling us: “Now I want to see what God does in your life and how much you truly trust. Still in him”.
This is the situation in which discouragement occurs which makes us say: “God has abandoned me, God no longer looks at me, God leaves me alone”. It is the great temptation, because the means by which the Devil challenges God by striking man. Job, once the test is over, does not return the man he was before, but a man stronger than before, because God intervenes to defeat this diabolical action.
For Isaiah, the Messiah would have freed man from infirmity and sickness by taking upon himself our diseases and infirmities. For Matthew, the Messiah came to reveal to us that the root of all infirmities and all diseases is Satan. Therefore, Jesus came to defeat the work of the devil, to give man the certainty that God is stronger and to restore man's ability to defeat diseases and infirmities.
From the Gospel we can see this scheme: Jesus heals the sick and all the sick are affected by illnesses and attacks induced by spirits, because for Jesus sickness is a diabolical action. To defeat the disease, the Messiah must defeat the power of Satan: the Gospels report the healing of the leper, the servant of the Centurion and the mother-in-law of Peter; but not all the sick are cured: only those who go to Jesus and place full trust in him, because “only in you can we have healing”. Jesus always heals from this point of view, which is why he uses expressions such as “your faith has saved you” or “your faith has healed you”.
He even wishes the Centurion: “It is done according to your faith”, and his faith - recognizing without hesitation that Jesus has within himself the strength to defeat the disease - allows him to understand that his servant's illness is not just a physiological question. , but something deeper, tied to the spirit: “do not come and touch my servant, do not come to do any physical act, your word is enough for me. Just say a word and my servant will be healed”. And Jesus says that very word: “According to your faith be it”.
Neither cures nor medicines were needed, but the action of force that defeats the devil. That Devil who held the Centurion's servant prisoner and did not allow him to express the health of his spirit through the health of the body.
Let us turn to Jesus with faith, let us allow ourselves to be healed by him who frees bodies and spirits by saving them from the chains and diabolical infirmities, and by faith, in faith we will be healed.
