Mark 1:29–34 29
And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. 30 Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. 31 And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. 32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
Mark again introduces a transition of scenes with the word "immediately". He's already used this word 6x in his story of Jesus, he uses it 11x in the first chapter and more than 40x in the gospel, so he is certainly using this word intentionally. The brevity of his encounters along with this word transitioning those encounters suggests Mark is emphasizing the urgency of Jesus' mission. There is no time to waste, God's kingdom is here, the authority of Jesus is enacted decisively.
Fascinatingly, the house and synagogue mentioned have been discovered in archeological digs. Saving the less important details, at this site they've discovered "sacred and devotional graffiti in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Aramaic scratched on the plaster walls, indicating that it was venerated as a gathering place for Christians, and perhaps as a church, from the end of the first century or the beginning of the second." (Edwards, J. R. (2002). The Gospel according to Mark, p. 59) Discoveries like this give unprecedented credibility to the authenticity of the historical records we find in the gospels.
This story also gives further evidence to Peter being the source of Mark's gospel account. This story reads like it has personal significance to the writer.
Here the emphasis is again on Jesus' authority over illness. He depends on nothing else other than his own words and power to heal her.
The end of v. 31 can, and has been, taken way too far to suggest that a woman's role be relegated to service only, suggesting inferiority. There is nothing in the text to suggest that. Instead, the word "serve" (diakonein), where we get our word "deacon", is used elsewhere in Mark for the angels "attending" to Jesus in the desert. Jesus also uses it in 10:45 when he says, "the Son of Man didn't come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many." In 1 Peter 4:10 Peter calls all believers to use their gifts to "serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace." To suggest any sort of inferiority of women from the text here would be quite the stretch and certainly unwarranted.