Mk 1:29-39
29On leaving the synagogue [Jesus] entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. 30Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her. 31He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
32When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons. 33The whole town was gathered at the door. 34He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
35Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed. 36Simon and those who were with him pursued him 37and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” 38He told them, “Let us go onto the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” 39So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
SIMON’S MOTHER-IN-LAW: The Jews and other Mediterranean people in Jesus’ time were patrilocal. The big family lived in the “father’s house”—a house complex where married sons cohabited with their parents and unmarried siblings. The daughter would live in the house of her husband’s father when she married.
In Capernaum, Simon and his family—and Andrew—stayed in the house of their father Jonah. We are told that Simon’s mother-in-law was there. She should have been living in her husband’s house. If he had died, she should have been living with one of the sons, or if they had died she should have returned to her family, her father’s household. That she was in Peter’s house suggests that she had no living family member to take care of her. Her state was worse than the fever she was suffering. But she was welcome in Simon’s house. The family “told about her” to Jesus who healed her and restored her to them. That she immediately waited on Jesus and his first disciples demonstrates that her healing was instantaneous and complete.
Jesus asked his disciples to leave behind family and property to follow him. This separation did not have to be permanent. After Jesus’ resurrection, when the apostles traveled to preach the Good News, they were probably accompanied by family members. Paul mentions that Kephas (Simon Peter) would take his wife along, and they were supported by the Christian communities—something that Paul says is the right of the preachers of the Gospel, which right, however, he has chosen not to use (1 Cor 9:5-12).