B. Jesus healing (4:31–41)
B. Jesus healing (4:31–41)
The account of Jesus’ mission begins with some miracles of healing and a preaching tour. This is one of Luke’s Marcan sections.
1. The man with an unclean spirit (4:31–37)
31–32. This is the first of this Gospel’s five healings on the sabbath (4:38f.; 6:6ff.; 13:10ff.; 14:1ff.). Clearly the right use of the sabbath interested Luke. From Nazareth Jesus went down to Capernaum (down because the lakeside city was on a lower level; the site is not known for certain, though many advocate Tell Hum). Jesus’ teaching caused astonishment, because he taught with authority. Originality was not highly prized among the rabbis and it was usual to accredit one’s words by citing illustrious predecessors. For example, R. Eliezer piously disavowed novelty: ‘nor have I ever in my life said a thing which I did not hear from my teachers’ (Sukkah 28a; a similar statement is made about R. Johanan b. Zakkai, and the attitude was common). Jesus did no such thing and the authority with which he spoke impressed people.
33–34. In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon. This last expression is nowhere explained. Some take it literally and think the man was dirty and dishevelled. Others hold the reference to be moral and think of a wicked spirit. It is possible that both are in mind. In the ancient world it was widely held that many troubles are caused by evil spirits. The Bible says little about demon possession before or after the incarnation, but much during Jesus’ ministry. In Scripture this phenomenon is part of the conflict between Jesus, who came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and evil. (See further the Special Note in Geldenhuys, pp. 174f.) On this occasion the demoniac ‘shrieked at the top of his voice’ (NEB). Have you come to destroy us? is usually taken as a question, but it might be a statement, ‘You have come …’. The demon recognized the opposition between Jesus and all of his kind. The Holy One of God (elsewhere only Mark 1:24; John 6:69) is an unusual title, stressing the thought of consecration to God’s service. In this place we should see it as an example of what James had in mind when he wrote ‘the demons believe – and shudder’ (Jas 2:19). Ryle comments that the demon’s knowledge was ‘unaccompanied by faith, or hope, or charity’.
35. Jesus performed the exorcism simply, without the spells so beloved of his contemporaries. He rebuked the demon, which implies that it ought not to have possessed the man (and ‘reveals the lordship of Jesus’, Fitzmyer). He commanded it Be silent (lit. ‘Be muzzled’; MM note that the word was sometimes used in the sense ‘bind with a spell’, but this is not the meaning here). Jesus added, come out of him! The demon threw him down (Mark says it convulsed him). But that was all. It came out having done him no harm.
36–37. The people were amazed at this word and proceeded to comment on the authority and power with which Jesus commanded the spirits. Their tense implies that he did this habitually; they are not commenting on this one miracle. Not unnaturally reports went out into the surrounding region. Jesus was becoming a public figure.
2. Peter’s mother-in-law (4:38–39)
From the synagogue Jesus went to the home of Simon (Mark adds ‘and Andrew’ and tells us that James and John went along; Luke omits all reference to them, perhaps because he has not yet told of their call). All three Synoptists mention the fever, but only Luke says that it was a high fever (apparently a medical term), that Jesus rebuked it (does this mean that he saw Satan behind the disease?), and that, when the woman was cured, she got up and served them immediately (thus showing the completeness of the cure).
3. Many healings (4:40–41)
The end of the day saw any that were sick with various diseases brought to Jesus. They could not be carried on the sabbath, but with its end at sundown people lost no time. There is a personal touch in that Jesus laid his hands on every one of them as he healed them (an unusual procedure among the Jews, not found in the Old Testament nor in rabbinic literature, though attested in one passage in the Dead Sea scrolls5). Luke is the only one to tell us this and also that the demons who were expelled cried out, You are the Son of God! The Galileans may have thought Jesus no more than a man, but the evil ones did not make that mistake. Mark shares the information that Jesus did not allow them to speak, but not that Jesus rebuked them (cf. 4:35, 39). Jesus did not countenance evil. It is interesting that Luke tells us that thus early the demons recognized that he was the Christ. It took the disciples a long time to learn this lesson. The refusal to allow the demons to disclose that Jesus was the Christ was perhaps to forestall nationalistic Messianic movements. Popular enthusiasm would have made a rebel hero out of any messiah! In any case the Evangelists hold that people should come to see Jesus for what he is on account of his words and his deeds, not on account of the testimony of demons.