I
can’t get past Peter’s mother-in-law.  There is so much more in this
passage, and there is so much in the Isaiah passage that I want to
get to, but she won’t let me go.

For
those who don’t know I’m using the name Peter for the man in the
passage called Simon, because he has a name change later, and because
of the name change we’re more familiar with him as Peter, “the rock
on which the church is built.”

Now,
there really isn’t much of a story here.  It is two verses. “Now
Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him
about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her
up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.” (NRSV Mark 1:30-31)

Yet,
somehow, the story just won’t let me go.  

One
part may be obvious.  I try, regularly, to let my feminist guard
down, and say, “well, those were different times” but COME ON.
She’s unnamed, which indicates Mark didn’t think she was that
important – even important WOMEN get named in the Gospels.  And
after she is healed, she gets up and SERVES.  

While
not entirely resolving this issue, Debie Thomas offered some helpful
insight about the word used here for “serve” in Greek.  She says:

The
verb St. Mark uses to describe the mother-in-law’s service is the
same verb the gospels use to describe the angels who attend Jesus
after his forty days in the wilderness. It is the same verb Jesus
uses to describe himself when he washes his disciples’ feet: “I
am among you as one who serves.” And it is the same verb the early
church uses to commission deacons, the “servant” leaders of the
church.

What
if Simon’s mother-in-law is not an undervalued woman in a
patriarchal system, but the church’s first deacon? The first person
Jesus liberates and commissions into service for God?¹

That
helps a bit.  I still don’t love that she gets healed and starts
serving, but if I’m honest, I know those people.  The ones with such
profound servant hearts, that nothing short of profound illness could
keep them from offering exceptional hospitality.  The ones who would
get up from a sickbed and start cooking immediately, if the
opportunity arose.  And, to be honest, they’re not all women.

The
other little bit of new insight into this passage came from my
beloved commentary “The Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic
Gospels” which pointed out the obvious.   Galilee in the time of
Jesus was patriarchal, and in particular that meant that when a
couple got married, the woman left her home and went to live with her
husband’s family.  Which means that it is actually quite weird that
Peter’s mother-in-law lived with them.  It indicates that she’d run
out of who should take care of her:  her husband, her sons, her
father, her brothers. I think even her cousins would have been
responsible for her care before her son-in-law.  But nevertheless,
she was there.²

Somehow,
this little story keeps getting further under my skin.  Peter’s
mother-in-law was a widow without sons.  She was living in the home
of some  fishermen, and while there is some debate on this, I don’t
think fisherman were doing well in the socio-economic systems of the
day.  They’re all in Galilee which was the backwater part of the
backwater Jewish portion of the great Roman Empire.  

Peter’s
mother-in-law is yet another figure in the Gospels who would have
been ignored and counted as unimportant by society.  Peter’s
mother-in-law is yet another piece of proof that the Way of Jesus
isn’t the way of the world.

I’m
still sad she’s unnamed.  I’m still a little sad she jumps up to
serve them.  

But
at the same time “they told Jesus about her at once.”  The family
cared about her, and Jesus cared about her.  Just because she was a
poor widow didn’t mean she was unloved by her own family.  DUH.
Value in society really doesn’t have any relation to the value a
person has to their own people.

Many
of the most moving celebrations of life I have presided over have
been for caring mothers, many of whom never worked outside the home,
others of whom had jobs that were notably secondary to their roles as
caregivers.  As far as today’s society is concerned, stay at home
mothers aren’t particularly notable.  But as far as their families
are concerned, they were the center of the world.

Similarly,
most of the imperative lessons I’ve learned in life have been from
campers with Special Needs and from those living without homes.  Both
are populations the world tends to overlook, yet inter-personally
people are people, with wisdom, and gifts, and love to share.

I
think, deep down, we all know that the things that make a person
MATTER in society aren’t at all related to what matters in day to day
life.  And, of course, in the eyes of God, EVERYONE matters.

When
it came to Peter’s mother-in-law, they didn’t hesitate or confer
about whether or not she mattered, thank God.  Because of course she
matters!  Would any of us decline to ask for help for a beloved
family member?  Since Jesus had JUST healed in the Synagogue, in
front of her family members, there was good data on his abilities.

I
keep thinking about how society teaches each of us our place, and
teaches us how to inhabit that place.  The things that don’t REALLY
matter in life, still get under our skin.  Who walks down the street
head held high?  Who carefully avoids eye-contact?  Whose language is
considered appropriate for a business meeting?  Whose appearance is
considered appropriate?  Or, even, who has a right to be angry about
how life turned out, and to take their anger into explosions of
violence on others?

We’re
well trained by society, enough so that it is notable when people
buck trends.  

I’m
now at an age where most of the time people assume I’m reasonably
capable.  But 10 or 15 years ago, as a young woman in ministry, that
was less true.  I often got invited to sit on committees where I was
the only young woman, and often I could tell people thought I should
be grateful to be allowed to be present, and keep my mouth shut while
people who knew what they were talking about made decisions.  

Thanks
be to God, I was raised in the Jesus movement, and formed in the
radical Ways of Jesus, and I assumed that if I had a place at the
table I had a responsibility to use it.

It
is clear that Jesus doesn’t give two figs about the roles that
society prescribes to us.  A beloved child of God was sick, Jesus had
the capacity to heal, and he healed her.  He reached out to touch
her, even though she was an unknown woman to him, even though she was
ill.  

And
if this perfectly ordinary woman was seen and healed by Jesus, then
we can be assured that our perfectly ordinary lives are also seen by
Jesus, and healing energy is available to us as well.

For
me, Peter’s mother-in-law serves as a reminder of the sacredness of
the ordinary.  God is in each of us, God’s value is on each of us,
and ordinary lives are saturated with the capacity to be lived with
love and to thereby change the world.  

In
a culture, like many others before it, that often pushes us to think
we have to be extraordinary to matter, it is good to be reminded of
the sacredness of the ordinary.  Thanks be to God.  Amen

1https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2897-a-day-in-the-life

2Bruce
J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh Social-Science Commentary on the
Synoptic Gospels (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003) “Textual
Notes: Mark 1:21-34” p. 150

Rev. Sara E. Baron
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305
Pronouns: she/her/hers
http://fumcschenectady.org/
https://www.facebook.com/FUMCSchenectady

February 7, 2021

Photo by Barbara Armstrong