Strengthened to Serve: Simon Peter’s mother-in-law
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meister_des_Hitda-Evangeliars_002.jpg Here’s a trick quiz question for you. What was the name of Simon Peter’s mother-in law? If you don’t know, it’s because the gospel writers don’t name her. She’s known only by her relationship with someone else, as the mother of Simon Peter’s wife. You’d have thought she deserved to be named. After all, in Mark’s gospel she’s the first woman to be healed by Jesus and the first person to serve him. Her story is told in only 40 words in Mark 1: 30-31: “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 .” The other 2 synoptic gospels tell more or less the same story, in Matthew 8: 14-15 and Luke 4: 38-39 . They don’t name her either. But the gospel writers’ purpose wasn’t to tell about Simon’s wife’s mother. It wa...