Luke 4:38-39

And He arose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon’s house

Simon’s wife’s mother

Suffering is to be found everywhere, in the public synagogue and in the private house.

Even Peter’s house was not exempt. The chosen ones are tried as by fire, and the rod proves their election. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Simon’s house

How came Peter to have a house at Capernaum? Poor fishermen do not often have two houses, May it not be that, finding the Lord Jesus was frequently at Capernaum, Peter thought it best to have a dwelling there, that he might be always present when the Master was preaching, and that he might do his best to entertain Him between whiles? I like to think that the servant changed his place of abode for the Master’s sake. Would it not be well if many Christian people had some little consideration when they are choosing a house, as to whether it will be convenient for the hearing of the Word? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Sickness produces seriousness

Professor Henry Drummond, the author of “Natural Law in the Spiritual World,” has been very earnestly at work in the revival in the Edinburgh University. His addresses have been intensely evangelical, and have been wondrously powerful in their effects on the students. One anecdote seemed to have touched them deeply. Substantially it was to this effect:--Some years ago, in the University, there was a fine, manly fellow, a medical student, a very Hercules in strength, but as gentle and lovable as he was strong. He was immensely popular, the captain of the football club, and not a cricket match was considered complete without him. He was a man of good intellectual gifts as well. He caught typhoid fever while attending the Royal Infirmary, and soon he lay dying in a private ward. One of the house physicians, an earnest Christian and successful soul-winner, spoke to him about God and eternity. The dear fellow listened, became anxious, and eagerly heard the story of redeeming love. “Will you give yourself to Jesus?” asked the doctor. He did not answer for a space, and then, earnestly regarding the man of God, he said, “But don’t you think it would be awful mean just to make it up now, at my last gasp, with One I have rejected all my life?” “Yes, it would be mean; but, dear fellow, it would be far meaner not to do it. He wants you to do it now, for He has made you willing, and it would be doubly mean to reject a love that is pursuing you even to death.” The dying man saw the point, and apprehending the greatness of that exceeding love, he cast himself upon the Eternal Heart of Mercy and passed away in sweet peace and blessedness.

Blessed results of sickness

When God would rescue a man from that unreal world of names and mere knowledge, He does what He did with Job--He strips him of his flocks, and his herds, and his wealth; or else, whatis the equivalent, of the power of enjoying them--the desire of his eyes falls from him at a stroke. Things become real then. Trial brings man face to face with God--God and he touch; and the flimsy veil of bright cloud that hung between him and the sky is blown away; he feels that he is standing outside the earth with nothing between him and the Eternal Infinite. Oh I there is something in the sick-bed, and the aching heart, and the restlessness and the languor of shattered health, and the sorrow of affections withered, and the stream of life poisoned at its fountain, and the cold, lonely feeling of utter rawness of heart which is felt when God strikes home in earnest that forces a man to feel what is real and what is not. This is the blessing of affliction to those who will lie still and not struggle in a cowardly or a resentful way. It is God speaking to Job out of the whirlwind, and saying: “ In the sunshine and the warmth you cannot meet Me; but in the hurricane and the darkness, when wave after wave has swept down and across the soul, you shall see My Form, and hear My Voice, and know that your Redeemer liveth.” (F. W. Robertson.)

The ministry of gratitude

I. The fact that this restored woman began at once to minister to Christ and to His disciples proves THE CERTAINTY OF HER CURE; and there are no better ways of proving the thoroughness of our conversion than by conduct similar to hers. Suppose the patient had lain there and had begun to talk about how she felt, how much better she was, what a strange sensation passed through her when the Saviour rebuked the disease, and how strangely well she felt; yet if she had not risen up, but had lain there still, there would have been no evidence of her restoration, at any rate none that you or I could judge of. So when persons tell us that they have felt great changes of heart, we must see their outward ministerings for Christ. If their actions be holy, if their lives be purified, then shall we know, but not till then, that their nature is renewed. Suppose this good woman, still lying upon her bed, had begun to say, “Well, I hope I am healed,” and had begun to express some feeble expectation that one day she would be able to exercise the functions of health, we could not have known that she was restored. Something more was wanted than mere hopes and expectations. Note the nature of the acts which this restored woman performed, because they are symbolical of the best form of actions by which to judge of a person being renewed.

1. Her duties were humble ones. She was probably the head of the household, and she began at once to discharge the duties of a housewife: duties unostentatious and commonplace. Attention to humble duties is a better sign of grace than an ambition for lofty and elevated works.

2. Remember, too, that this good woman attended to home duties. She did not go down the street a hundred yards off to glorify Christ; she, I daresay, did that afterwards; but she began at home: charity begins there, and so should piety. That is the best religion which is most at home at home. Grace which smiles around the family hearth is grace indeed.

3. She attended to suitable duties, duties consistent with her sex and condition. She did not try to be what God had not made her, but did what she could.

4. One other point before leaving this; these things become a conclusive proof of grace in the heart, when they are voluntarily rendered as this good woman’s ministry was. I do not read that she was asked to do anything for Christ, but it suggested itself to her at once, without command or request. Her work was done promptly, for “immediately she arose” and did it. Promptness is the soul of obedience.

II. This woman’s ministry showed THE PERFECTION OF HER CURE. And, beloved, it is one mark of a work of grace in the soul when the converted man becomes at once a servant of Christ. The human theory of moral reformations makes time a great element in its operations. If you are to reclaim a great offender you must win him from one vice first, and then from another; you must put him through a process of education by which he gradually perceives that what he has been accustomed to do is bad for himself, and wakes up to the conviction that honesty and sobriety will be the best for his own profit. Time is required by the moral reformer, or he cannot develop his plans. He ridicules the idea of effecting anything in an hour or two.

III. Peter’s wife’s mother, in ministering to Christ proved HER OWN GRATITUDE. Her acts of hospitality were an exhibition of her thankfulness. Brethren, if we want to evidence our gratitude to Christ we had better do it in the same way as she did.

IV. This woman’s ministering to Christ proved THE CONDESCENSION OF THE PHYSICIAN. He who healed her of the fever did not need her to minister to Him; He who had power to heal diseases had certainly power to subsist without human ministry. If Christ could raise her up, He must be omnipotent and Divine; what need, then, had He of a woman’s service? Yet He condescended to accept it. What condescension that He should accept ministry from His own creatures; what gentleness that He so often chose woman’s ministry. He came to earth, and the first garments of His infancy were wrapped about Him by a woman’s hands, and here He dwelt till at last He died, and holy women bound Him up in the cerements of the tomb and laid Him in the sepulchre. It seems easy enough to believe that the Blessed Virgin and Mary Magdalene and other holy women were honoured of God; but that you, dear sister, should be allowed to take a part in His service--is not this marvellous? Will you not bless Him, and minister with the utmost cheerfulness because you feel it to be so great a grace? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

All may minister for God

On our birthdays our little children love to give their father something, if it is only a bunch of flowers out of the garden, or a fourpenny piece with a hole in it; they like to do it to show their love; and wise parents will be sure to let their children do such things for them. So is it with our great Father in heaven. What are our Sunday-school teachings and our preachings, and all that, but these cracked fourpenny pieces? Just nothing at all; but the Lord allows us to do His work for His own love’s sake. His love to us finds a sweetness in our love to Him. I am most thankful that in the Church there is room for such a variety of ministries. Some brethren are so queerly constituted that I cannot tell what they were made for; but I believe if they are God’s people there is a place for them in His spiritual temple. A man who was accustomed to buy timber and work it up, on one occasion found a very crooked stick of wood in his bargain, and said to his son as he put it aside. “I cannot tell, John, whatever I shall do with it; it is the ugliest shaped piece I ever bought in my life”; but it so happened while building a barn that he wanted a timber exactly of that shape, and it fitted in so thoroughly well that he said, “It really seems as if that tree grew on purpose for that corner.” So our gracious Lord has arranged His Church, so that every crooked stick will fit in somewhere or other, if it be only a tree of His own right hand planting: He has made it with a purpose, and knows when it will answer that purpose. How this ought to rebuke any who say, “I do not see what I can do.” Dear friend, there is a peculiar work for you; find it out--and methinks it will not be far off: the exercise of a little reflection will soon enable you to discover it. Be grateful that this is a certain fact, without exception, that every child of God who has been healed has some ministry which he can render to Christ, and which he ought to render at once. Bless God, dear brother, that He counts you worthy to suffer for His name’s sake. You know the old story of Sir Walter Raleigh. When Queen Elizabeth, one day, came to a miry place in the road, he took off his cloak for her to walk upon. Did he regret it? No, he was delighted at it, and half the court wished for another muddy place that they might be able to do the same. Oh, you that love your Lord, be willing to lie down for Christ’s sake, and pave the miry parts of the way by being despised for His name’s sake. This honour you should covet, and should not shun. Arise and minister, ye healed ones; and as for you who are not healed, may you believe in Him who is able to restore you with His touch. He is mighty to save. Believe in Him and you shall live. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

A sympathetic physician

The pious, good-natured Dr. Helm had no time, as he was wont to say, “to get ill.” Always busy, ever pleased to visit the cottage of the poorest as the mansions of the rich, all classes of Berlin joined to do honour to the good old man on the jubilee of his fiftieth year of service. The festivities lasted three days. The constant noise and excitement had made the doctor more than usually tired. Late at night a poor woman came to beg him to visit her child, who was taken suddenly ill. The servants had orders to send all applications away, as the doctor felt he needed rest; but the woman, knowing the house, managed to get to the doctor’s private room to plead her cause. Still Dr. Heim said he could not go. After all had retired to rest Madame Heim said to her husband, “What is the matter with you, doctor? Why don’t you sleep?” “Because I can’t,” he said; “it’s a curious thing with my conscience; I must go and see that child.” He rang the bell, and forgetting his fatigue, ran to the sick child, whom he was the means of restoring to health. After the visit he returned and slept soundly. (Baxendale’s Anecdotes.)