A Miracle And A Meal
Some biblical miracles almost seem like they were created to light up the screens in movie theaters. Cecil B. DeMille’s
The Ten Commandments won an Academy Award for the special effects it employed to show the parting of the Red Sea and the writing of the Ten Commandments.
Other biblical epics portray some of the more dramatic moments from Jesus’ life: the time he came to his disciples walking on the water; the day he fed five thousand people with a few fish and a few loaves of bread; and his forty days of temptation in the desert.
Here, Matthew gives us a passage that is so tiny and quiet that we almost overlook it.
In these two verses, the miraculous and the mundane happen simultaneously. That’s why you won’t see this passage acted out in any major motion pictures. It’s just too ordinary.
In the preceding chapters, Jesus delivered his Sermon on the Mount, one of the most important sermons ever delivered.
Then in chapter eight and the following chapters, Jesus demonstrated what his new kingdom would look like by performing a variety of miracles.
Then, after healing a leper and the servant of a Roman official, Jesus did something we can all relate to. He went to Peter’s house for a time of rest and relaxation.
Perhaps Jesus needed to sit down and rest his tired and weary feet. Maybe it was a cup of water he needed most. Or perhaps he merely wanted a few moments away from the crowds that continued to throng around him and press in on him.
Peter was one of the first men to agree to follow Jesus, but he still had a family.
This brief passage doesn’t give us many details about the family life of the disciples, but I suspect that Peter’s house was a lot like mine and yours: messy, active, and noisy.
But even in the midst of this private domestic scene, Jesus has an opportunity to demonstrate his divine power. Peter’s mother-in-law is laid up with a fever, so Jesus touched her hand and healed her.
If this had been a movie, we would have expected a few angels to hover overhead flapping their wings while the soundtrack’s violins played a crescendo of sound.
Instead, the woman got up and began waiting on Jesus. Perhaps she even cooked him a batch of her favorite cookies.
These two verses are little more than a brief break in the action. Soon, the crowds will be gathering again, and Jesus will be performing more fantastic miracles such as healing the sick and casting out demons.
Movies will always focus on these dramatic scenes, but Jesus’ visit to Peter’s house reveals another side of the Savior.
And this humble domestic episode shows us that God doesn’t love us only in our most “religious” moments, but also when we’re just hanging out in the family room with our family.
Jesus isn’t some otherworldly deity who is insensitive to the daily reality of our lives.
Instead, he comes into our daily lives and trans¬forms the mundane existence into something miraculous.
Jesus, I thank you for coming to earth in human form, and I ask you to transform my daily life into an occasion for the miraculous