Mark is a subversive writer. What other authors would tell you plainly he relays by action and sequence. He simply tells the story. The meaning slips into the fringe of one's consciousness and there ignites. Jesus’ first miracle takes place at a worship service, and is a frontal attack on spiritual ills. To the listener with ears to hear, Jesus demonstrates that healing takes place in the context of true worship, and evil is powerless against his word of authority.
Jesus’ second miracle occurs without a reference to him by name. Peter’s mother-in-law has a burning fever. In the days before ibuprofen and antibiotics, a similar fear attended the fever of a light case of the flu and Typhoid. Fresh from his triumph over an embodiment of evil at the synagogue, Jesus is directed to the sickbed of a woman in physical need. True to Mark, Jesus makes no speeches about the ultimate victory of the Messiah over disease. He simply stands beside the ailing woman, takes her hand, and helps her to her feet. If evil is exorcised with a word, healing begins with a touch.
