After a long break for Advent and Christmas, we return to our devotions on the miracles of our Lord. This morning from Luke chapter 4.
31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. 33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice,34 “Ha![b] What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm. 36 And they were all amazed and said to one another, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” 37 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region. 38 And he arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them. 40 Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them. 41 And demons also came out of many, crying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ. 42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
In the 1930’s the Presbyterian Church was in the midst of a great battle. Liberalism had come into the church with a great force and cardinal doctrines, essentials to our great faith were being minimized and even rejected. J. Gresham Machen was one of the leaders against the liberalism that was threatening to take over the Presbyterian Church, and he stood firmly against it and for biblical faithfulness.
It was interesting that the liberals of his day did not want to throw Christianity over all together, in fact, they wanted to preserve something useful from the Bible and the Christian religion. However, they wanted to do so without requiring people to believe anything of a miraculous nature. In other words, believe the Bible, but not the supernatural parts.
Machen responded: “The New Testament without the miracles would be far easier to believe. But the trouble is, it would not be worth believing. Without the miracles, the New Testament would contain an account of a holy man…but of what benefit would such a man, and the death which marked his failure, be to us? The loftier be the example which Jesus set, the greater becomes our sorrow at our failure to attain to it, and the greater our hopelessness under the burden of sin. (Christianity and Liberalism, page 103-104)
Our text sets out the third, fourth and fifth miracle or sign that Jesus did, and the first of many that Luke records. These signs are in keeping with what Jesus himself said his Messianic ministry would be about, we see him doing exactly what he said he would do. He is proclaiming the gospel to the poor. He is binding up the broken hearted. He is proclaiming freedom to the captive. He is fulfilling the words of Isaiah the prophet.
Allow me to point out a few specifics about these miracles. First and of primary importance; You remember when the Jews became violently angry at Jesus when he reminded them that Elijah did not go to a Jewish widow but to a Gentile one, and that Elisha did not heal a Jewish leper but a Gentile one, and the commander of the enemy of Israel at that. The response of the people was anger because, from their perspective, Jesus was rescuing and saving all the wrong people!
I can’t get that out of my mind, because I know there is nothing that I could bring to the Lord to better His plans and purposes, and my guess is that you all know that to be true as well…WE are a bunch of the wrong kind of people!
Now look at our text, every one of these examples are outcasts, would have been considered unclean or less than “righteous” because of their illness, their circumstances or even their gender. Jesus is in Capernaum, a fishing village on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. It is in this city that he would find the two pairs of brothers, Peter and Andrew and James and John.
All of this occurs on the Sabbath day. This is the first of five Sabbath confrontations that Jesus will be involved in, in Luke’s gospel. Jesus makes manifest the reality that the Sabbath day is a day for healing, a day for doing good, a day for celebration.
So, there is a demoniac, how he got into the synagogue in the first place is uncertain, but his problem is very clear…he is in bondage, bondage to Satan, bondage to an evil spirit and is hopelessly bound with no man able to save him.
Jesus calls the demon out of the man and then after it speaks told to be silent. Interestingly the Greek word here means to be muzzled, and it is the same expression that Jesus will use when he addresses the stormy sea and calls for it to be still. He says to the demon, as He said to His own creation, be muzzled, be still, you are under authority, my authority and creation and demons alike hear his voice and have no choice but to obey and to follow his commands.
The creation does not talk back or beg for quarter as does this demon. The people are still trying to figure out who this man is, what exactly He is doing and why. But the demons have no problem at all with such questions; they are quite aware of who he is and what he is to do, even to and with them!
“Did you come to destroy us?” Well, yes, that is exactly why I have come and exactly what I will do…when it is time.
We could go on for some time at this point discussing the fact that we see a clear religious knowledge possessed by the devil and his demons. But I will leave it with the words of AW Pink: “We may have our memories well stored with its leading texts, and be able to talk glibly about its leading doctrines. And all this time the Bible may have no influence over our hearts, and will and consciences. We may in reality be nothing better than the devils.”
Jesus then moves to Peter’s house where his mother-in- law is sick with a fever. Jesus bends over the woman, signifying his authority over the fever and rebuked it in the same manner that he rebuked the demon. And just as the demon went out of the man so the fever departs from this woman.
We then read of many who were sick and had various diseases being brought to him and he laid his hands upon them and healed them. This is important and we must not run by it too quickly. Jesus touches them…Jesus lays his hands on the unclean, on those who the respectable people would never have even allowed close to them, let alone touch them. To touch the unclean meant to become unclean the only problem was that after Jesus touched them they were not unclean anymore!
The scenario might be someone saying, “Oh look Jesus, you touched him, therefore you are unclean because you touched an unclean man.”
Jesus would respond in essence, “What unclean man? Do you mean this man? This man who is whole, this man who has no disease, no infirmity, do you mean this man who is leaping up and down rejoicing in the love of God for him, this CLEAN man?”
An unclean demoniac, a woman, and all kinds of sick people! These were the socially unacceptable, they couldn’t do anything for anyone let alone for God! And yet, these are the ones who receive heaven’s mercy and lovingkindness.
I ask you; What has changed? Jesus comes to those who are downtrodden, the outcast, the person who for one reason or another, is rejected by other human beings, isn’t good enough, the one who is broken and knows they are broken, those who have no or little claim on the attention of society.
To be continued…
Prayer: Father, I confess that I am not at the feet of Jesus as I should be, as I so desire to be. When I am there I know peace and rest as in no other place. May it be a familiar home to me and hope for me. I know that I am one of the ‘wrong people’ that Jesus has saved, give me the courage and the love for my Savior that I give myself and my life to serving Him and my brothers and sisters, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Song: The Servant Song
