Married To A Stone

Married To A Stone“Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.” Luke 4:38-39 NIV What is the significance of including this relatively minor incident in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ? These two short verses, repeated in each of the three synoptic gospels, give us one additional bit of information beyond the reality of a miraculous healing – that Peter, whose name means “a stone,” was married. Why are we told this when nothing else is mentioned about Peter’s marriage or family life? Curiosity begs certain questions: What was Peter’s marriage like? What impact did his relationship with Christ have on his relationship with his wife and family? Was Peter’s marriage a casualty of his commitment? Was his calling as a disciple and an apostle carried out at the expense of his intimate partner? Did Christ’s redefinition of the family as “whoever does God’s will” (Mk. 3:35) absolve Peter from the responsibilities and encumbrances that marriage and family can interject into one’s career and calling? Let’s explore some of the questions raised by this brief reference to Peter’s marriage. We know very little else about his family life, but Scripture does say a lot about Christ and marriage, and the relationship between the two. It also provides extensive detail about Peter’s struggles as a person. Hopefully, from that we can learn something about Peter's life as a husband in the context of his being a witness for Christ and an “eyewitness of His majesty” (2 Pet. 1:16). We know so much about Peter and nothing about his wife – but my sympathies are with her. She was the one who had to live with him! He was evidently head-strong and sometimes unthinking. Without Christ in Peter’s life to transform him into a new person, she might well have had a long and miserable marriage. Then there was the issue of security. Peter was a fisherman. That was the means by which he provided for his family. Can you imagine their arguments if she began questioning him: “What do you mean you aren’t going out to catch fish today? How are we supposed to eat if you don’t work? I thought you were out fishing, and you are out travelling around the country with that young Rabbi. You’re supposed to be using your boat for fishing, not lending it out as a platform for His preaching.” Imagine her chagrin when she found out that he pulled his boat up on the shore and “left everything and followed Him” (Lk. 5:11). Would she become confused when Peter miraculously found the money to pay their taxes in the mouth of a fish caught at the command of Christ? (Mt. 17:24-27). Peter himself must have contributed to her confusion when he briefly returned to fishing after Christ’s death, and then was called afresh to be Christ’s representative (Jn. 21:3-18). It would certainly be understandable if she suffered from anxiety or was even tempted to forget about Peter. So the question is, “Was Peter’s marriage based on the Rock or was it on the rocks?” While no definitive answer is presented in Scripture, several indicators point to the likelihood that Peter’s relationship to Christ made for a stronger marriage. The first has already been alluded to: Peter changed as a result of his experience with Christ. In his final test of discipleship, three times he had to answer the question, “Do you love Me?” On the basis of his profession of love, Christ then directed him to “follow Me” (Jn. 21:15-19). That love is the same love that Paul speaks about when he instructs husbands to “love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her” (Eph. 5:25). Peter in his own writings directs husbands to emulate Christ in their relationship to their wives, urging them to treat them “with respect” and to see them as equals, “heirs with you of the gracious gift of life” (1 Pet. 3:7). Perhaps Christ’s healing of Peter’s mother-in-law contributed to Peter’s marriage. Note that the first thing she did after being healed was to get up and help. Maybe this was Christ’s way of providing Peter’s wife with the resources she needed to cope with Peter’s absence from home. So often, well-meaning in-laws contribute to marital stress because they don’t understand why their child’s spouse is doing what he/she is doing. In the case of Peter’s mother-in-law, her personal encounter with Christ would likely give her a deeper understanding both of Peter and of her daughter’s marriage. Finally, Peter provides the analogy that sums it all up: “As you come to Him, the living Stone ... you also, like living stones, are being built up to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Now to you who believe, this Stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone’ and a ‘stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall’” (1 Pet. 2:4-8). The implication is that Christ was not a stumbling-block in Peter’s marriage, but the security and resource for the marriage. His marriage was not on the rocks but built on the Rock. What better foundation can a marriage have than one that has the seal of God that says, “Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands firm, sealed with this inscription, ‘The Lord knows them that are His’” (1 Tim. 2:19). By James Trotzer