This brief episode is composed of two scenes. In the first, Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever and she serves Jesus and his disciples dinner (1:29–31). In the second, as a result of that healing, people bring to Jesus “all” in the neighborhood who are afflicted with illness or demonic possession, so that “the whole city” comes to watch what Jesus will do (vv. 32–33). Although the story is spare, it adds to the drama Mark has been portraying from the beginning of his