HEALINGS ON THE SABBATH, INCLUDING SIMON’S MOTHER-IN-LAW

“Christ Healing Peter’s Mother-in-Law”, Church of St. Savior, Choram Istanbul, C.1310

Matthew 8:14-17, Mark 1:21-34, Luke 4:31-41

Capernaum

Then he, they, went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and when the Sabbath came on, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. He taught the people. They, the people, were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority. He taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

This is immediately after Jesus called these fishermen to follow. They went the short distance to Capernaum, where Jesus had made his home. The “they” at this time was a small group, Jesus, Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. We aren’t given what day of the week it was that Jesus called these men. It was probably not Saturday, because that would have been a Sabbath and they would not have been working. The previous passages said they had been fishing all night, so it is possible this happened on a Sunday morning. These men may have set sail after sundown on Saturday, which by the Jewish calendar would have been the first day of the week.

At any rate, the next statement does bring us to the next Sabbath, so it is possible much of a week had passed. We are not told what they did during this time. Perhaps Jesus was preparing these men for what lay ahead for them.  We are also not told if all four of the fisherman went with him to the service. It simply says, “When the Sabbath came on, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach.” 

Just then in their synagogue there was a man who was possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

“Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” The impure spirit shook the man violently. Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him and came out of him with a shriek.

All The people were all so amazed that they asked and said to each other, “What is this?  “What words these are! A new teaching—and with authority and power! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him and come out!”.  And the News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee throughout the surrounding area.

This man was not suffering from a mental disease; he did not have a multiple-personality disorder. He was possessed by a Demon. In fact, possibly by more than one, for the Demon asks, “What do you want with us.” We will see similar questions and statements later when Jesus sends the Demons out of another possessed man into a herd of pigs. The exact number of indwelling Demons is not clear in this instance, though. The Demon could be referring to himself and his victim rather than other Demons.

We should note two things about this. First of all, the Demon obeys Jesus. We must never lose sight of the fact that what we call Demons are actually Angels. They are fallen Angels, but still very powerful creatures. Still, rebels against God and powerful or not, they still obey the commands of Jesus.

Second, Demons know exactly who Jesus is. There is no doubt or rationalizing or denying on the Demon’s part. He knows this is the Messiah, “the Holy One of God”. That should give us pause, for obviously simply believing in Jesus as the Christ is not enough to save a creature. Nor is obedience to a command. Knowing who Christ is is essential, but obedience must come from devotion to who he is, not simply out of fear. This Demon did as he was told, but none too gently. He violently shook the man and threw him down before leaving, and when he left it was with a shriek.

I do not think the Demon repented his ways at that point. I think the Demon went looking for a new place to dwell and possess.

The effect of this stunned the people. They recognized this was different from what their Priests and Rabbis had said or done. This was not only new teaching they were hearing from Jesus, but his words were backed up with authority and power.

Note that in his early ministry he does things that spread his name, but he constantly says to be quiet about who he is. There will come a time when he will say openly who he is, but it isn’t time for that yet.

 As soon as they left the synagogue, they went with James and John to the home of Simon and Andrew. Jesus went. When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering with a high fever, and they immediately told Jesus about her and they asked Jesus to help her. So he went to her, took her hand and helped her up.  He bent over her, touched her hand and rebuked the fever, and it left her and she got up at once and began to wait on them.

The Sabbath began at sundown on Friday evening and lasted until sundown on Saturday. This was a day of rest and in Exodus 31 and 35 we can find definitions of what one was permitted and forbidden to do on the Sabbath. In Jesus day the Jewish people would basically do two things during the Sabbath, go to services at the synagogue or rest at home. We can see this is exactly the practice of Jesus and his disciples. They went to the synagogue and Jesus took part. Services were different from what most of we Christians think of as church. The men and boys of age would gather for a study of the Jewish sacred scrolls. Several of those gathered together would take a turn moving to the front and reading passages.

When not at a synagogue, people basically stayed at home and rested.  So after attending the service, we find Jesus going to the home of Simon Peter and Andrew. Here is what we can gather from this passage about who was with him at the Synagogue and why. Jesus goes to Peter’s home accompanied by the brothers, James and John, so they must have been to service with him. Simon Peter and Andrew apparently were not. Why?

Peter’s mother-in-law is very sick. She is lying in bed suffering from a serious fever. Notice that when Jesus enters he sees the woman in bed. They, most likely Peter and Andrew, immediately tell him about her and ask his help. If they had been with him at synagogue they probably would have told him of the woman’s illness then. Jesus now helps the woman up, indicating she may have been very weak and ill. He cures her of the fever and she gets right up and begins to wait on them. Not only was the fever gone, she was back in full vim and vigor.

One of the interesting aspects of this Sabbath day is how Jesus was not hassled by anyone for what he did. He was gaining some fame, especially locally, but people were still questioning who he was and why he had the powers he had. Although he had upset things in Jerusalem, literally, the Jewish authorities were not yet hounding him everywhere he went. Notice he drove a demon out of a man and then cured Simon Peter’s mother-in-law on the Sabbath and no one accused him of breaking the Law by working. We will see how this changes later in his ministry and he is confronted on this issue several times.

When that evening came after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick, who had various kinds of sickness, and many who were demon-possessed were brought to him and he drove out the spirits with a word. The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus laying his hands on each one healed many who had various diseases. He healed them, all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

“He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” [Isaiah 53: 4]

Moreover He also drove out many demons. Demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” but he rebuked them, would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was, they knew he was the Messiah.

Saturday evening has come and the Sabbath is over. Now the people were free to move about and they flocked to Peter’s house to be cured. Here we have people not seeking Jesus out of any spiritual desire, no thoughts of being forgiven of sins, of gaining salvation, but to be cured of whatever physical ailments pestered them. He healed them all without demanding anything from them.

He continued to tell any Demons he dispossessed to be quiet about whom he was. This passage ends with the statement by Matthew that it was to fulfill a prophesy by Isaiah,  “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”

This is found in Isaiah 53:1-6 in the famous description of the Suffering Messiah.

Who has believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

 Note the double meaning of that line, “Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.”  In the passage just finished, he took up the pain and suffering of those who came for healing and cured them. He also took on our pain and suffering, upon his own body upon the Cross to pay the penalty for our failings.

HEALING AT THE POOL OF BETHESDA

John 5: 1-47

Probably at the Passover in Spring 28 AD

After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. (Bethesda has two meanings: “House of Mercy” and “Shame” or “Disgrace”.)

There were questions about this pool raised because of the description of it having five porches, which would be unusual; however, archaeologists identified the remains of this pool and it did have five porches. It was a rectangular with two pools separated by a wall and had five porticos. In 2005, archaeologists discovered the Siloam Pool, the site of another of Jesus’ miracles. The Siloam Pool was quickly identified as a mikveh and archaeologists believe the pool at Bethesda was probably a mikveh as well. That it was is supported by its structure, which had broad steps and landing on the south pool. The north pool acted as a reservoir that continually supplied fresh water to the south pool. The pools were fed by a natural spring.

Mikvehs were ritual baths and almost all Jewish towns had one. Cities often had more than one. As we mentioned in our exploration of John the Baptist in Matthew 3:7-14, Mark 1:7-8 and Luke 3:7-18, the practice of Baptism grew out of the mikveh and was part of the purification rituals given in the Law of Moses. They were used in the immersion of new converts to Judaism, symbolizing he was “like a new born child”. People would flock to these pools for the purpose of purification and sometimes healing.

There was associated with this particular pool a tradition that an angel would stir the water and the first in would be cured.

 These are the remains of the

Bethesda Pool today. The pool was located not too far from the north wall of the Temple, where was located the Sheep Gate. Some early Christian writings refer to a spring here that ran a ruddy color, which they associated with the sheep brought through here for sacrifice, thus this section became associated with the blood of sacrifice.

The Sheep Gate is mentioned in two passages of Scripture, here in John 5 about the healing at the Siloam Pool and earlier in the Old Testament book of Nehemiah, where the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall is described after the exiles return from Babylon.

Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel. 2 And next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them[a] Zaccur the son of Imri built. Nehemiah 3:1.

Chapter 3 goes through the construction of each gate into Jerusalem and it begins at the Sheep Gate. This description continues through Nehemiah 3:32, ending the tour around around this wall this way: “And between the upper chamber of the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants repaired.

So our tour begins and ends at the Sheep gate, the place associated with the sacrifice of the animals, specifically the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. We can look at this as symbolically portraying Christ as the Beginning and the End.

In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he said to him, “Would thou be made whole?”

The impotent man answered him, “Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”

And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked:

Jesus may have been on his way to the Temple. The Scripture doesn’t indicate he came to the pool on purpose, so it is possible he was passing by when he saw the “certain man”, although it is hard to say if Jesus ever went anywhere without purpose. Jesus would have known in his divinity the man’s plight, but it is probable that he questioned the man and was told this story by the man. Jesus made it a habit to inquire of people he met before taking any action; for instance, the Samaritan Woman at the well. As with others Jesus came in contact with, he asked one of those strange questions, this one being odd because the answer seems so obvious, “Would thou be made whole?”

Now, since I have a sarcastic mind, my answer would have been, “What’d’ya think I’m doing here, watching the ducks swim?” This man is not snippy nor does he directly answer the question. He simply explains his plight, perhaps hoping this stranger will help him get in the pool. Instead, Jesus says,” Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.”

Part of the miracle here is that the man immediately does this. He doesn’t argue, doesn’t hesitate, doesn’t consider Jesus crazy, and we learn a bit further in these verses that he had no idea who Jesus was. We should remember Jesus has been doing his ministry in Galilee and hasn’t gained much notoriety in Judea yet.

There is an outline to Jesus approach we should take note of and put into practice. We should be ever aware of our surroundings and the needs of those around us. When we come across someone who appears to be in need we should engage them seeking to learn about them. We should do this by listening to what they say with out judging or criticizing. We should take whatever action is in our power and we should follow up with them.

It can also be noted that we also have a picture of salvation here as well. Who were we or are those of the world but “a multitude of impotent folk” waiting for an Angel to save us from our blindness and withered spirits. Jesus comes along and asks, “Would thou be made whole” and what do we answer? Do we take up our bed and walk with Jesus or lie there and suffer forever?

And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, “It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”

He answered them, “He that made me whole, the same said to me, ‘Take up your bed, and walk.’”

Then asked they him, “What man is that which said to you, ‘Take up your bed, and walk?’”

And he that was healed did not know who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place.

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “Behold, you are made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto you.”

The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.

And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the Sabbath day.

This has become a recurrent theme for Jesus. A number of noteworthy healings are given in Scripture occurring on a Sabbath and in each case, Jesus is confronted by the Jewish Religious Leaders and accused of breaking the Sabbath. Jesus reminds them over and over that it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath, but they refuse to hear him.  Refer to Matthew 12, Mark 1, Mark 2, Mark 3, Luke 6, Luke 13, Luke 14, John 7 and  John 9 for examples.

But Jesus answered them, “My Father works hitherto, and I work.”

Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Then answered Jesus and said to them, “Verily, verily, I say to you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for what things soever he does, these also does the Son likewise. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him all things that himself does: and he will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. For as the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them; even so the Son quickens whom he will. For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honours not the Son honours not the Father which has sent him.

“Verily, verily, I say to you, He that hears my word, and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

“Verily, verily, I say to you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father has life in himself; so has he given to the Son to have life in himself; And has given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

“I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which has sent me.

“If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. There is another that bears witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesses of me is true. Ye sent to John, and he bare witness to the truth. But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that you might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light: and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father has given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me. And the Father himself, which has sent me, has borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And you have not his word abiding in you: for whom he has sent, him you believe not.

“Search the scriptures; for in them you think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And you will not come to me, that you might have life.

“I receive not honour from men. But I know you, that you have not the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name, and you receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that comes from God only?

“Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?

We have here, in Jesus’ dressing down of the Pharisees and other religious leaders, his declaration that the Old Testament is also about Him.