Don't you wonder how we will manage in heaven with every person there bending over backward to serve?  Who will walk through a door when everyone vies to hold it open for others?  Who will sit at the table when everyone suspends their own interests to wait on others?  What will it be like when every individual loves to serve, when true greatness is everywhere shown according to Jesus' word, "The greatest among you shall be your servant." (Matthew 23:11) 

The illness of Simon's mother-in-law prevented her from serving.  High fever ruled out the possibility of cleaning, cooking, hosting, or giving a hand toward any useful occupation.  Poor dear.  Sickness and service don't go well together.  To serve, you need energy, vigor, and physical conditioning. 

Or do you? 

It has been my observation in the church that the finest servants are those who forge on through exhaustion and disappointment.  They say yes even when worn out.  They undertake responsibility for things even when they feel unqualified.  They don't say I'm too old or too tired or too busy.  They serve even when far past their physical prime.  They give especially in hard times.  They exert themselves even if the energy is low, the spirit is sapped, or no one else is there to help them.  They don't blame others for the little they do or find fault.  They don't look for greener pastures. 

They serve. 

I don't mean to criticize Simon Peter's mother-in-law.  She didn't lack the will to serve.  The privilege to serve was taken from her by this rotten, miserable fever.  Her sickness deprived her of usefulness, and it left her family without the benefit of her service. 

It is noteworthy that those with Jesus implored him "on her behalf" not on their own.  In other words, they didn't ask Jesus to intervene so that mother could return to doing everything and enable them to slough off every disagreeable chore onto her.

Yet we see that sort of thing all the time, don't we?  We go back to asking the same guy to do once more what he has done many times before.  We lean on the same 20% to come through who bailed us out the last time.  We "let George do it."  We allow excuses for ourselves, we employ exemptions, we claim immunity. 

The fact is that we are not immune to the sickness of sin.  You cannot inoculate yourself from the debilitating effects of laziness, selfishness, and thoughtlessness which are a whole lot worse than running a 105 temperature.  Sin is what obstructs service.  The person who won't serve, won't work, won't attend, won't give, and won't help is sinning. 

That's why, in heaven where there will be no sinners or sinning you wonder how people will manage in a new world where everyone assists, everyone pulls together, everyone loves, and everyone devotes himself or herself to service.  The savor of heaven is first known in the church, not in our ability to get things done or in looking great to the world, but in being served! 

Yes, the grace of being served is the healing medicine.  The Servant to us all is Christ.  His significance to us is entirely that of one in submission, in obedience to the law of love, in serving entirely the advantage of others.  When Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law, he wasn't done benefiting her.  Just to get her onto her feet for a few more years of productive domestic utility was not his main goal. 

He came to bear our sin and sickness so that we might experience the joy of eternal service.  Heaven, you see, primarily will be Christ serving us.  He has already proved that He withholds nothing which can be to our benefit.  Jesus told his disciples, "But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."  Matthew 20:26b-28 

Jesus Christ gave His life to serve us.  He gave his health, his energy, his dignity, his security, his youth, and his independence.  In grace He gave his hands to maltreatment, his brow to a beating, and his body to crucifixion.  To serve Peter's mom, and all those who witnessed her recovery to a servant's life, and to serve you and me, Jesus gives all that He has. 

That's why we go back to the little Christ's in the church today to find the workers, the helpers, the servants.  And who are they?  They are the ones first being served by gifts of Christ.  They are the ones who know Christ has opened the door for them to enter His kingdom.  They are the ones He has placed at the Table where He can serve them with His Sacrament.  They are the ones once afflicted with the fatal fever of sin who now have it completely removed by Christ.  So, they immediately get up and serve others in that same grace. 

Here is a foretaste of heaven.  The grace to be served, and the greatness of the Servant Savior who never ceases to wait on us and by His love in action produces the same in us.