Jesus Drives Out An Evil Spirit
JESUS DRIVES OUT AN EVIL SPIRIT
LUKE 4:31-44
The main reaction to Jesus’ message was amazement—but this is a far cry from real faith.
Verses 31-37. The ruins of Capernaum lie at the head of the lake whose level waters gleam through the screen of trees. There is a large remnant of an ancient synagogue. Hadrian tore down all the synagogues of Galilee when he finally crushed the second Jewish rebellion in AD 132 and 133, but foundations are not easily destroyed. There is little else—a few broken columns and shattered walls, some worn fragments of olive presses. The lizards run over the warm stone (Matthew 11:23).
The “devil-possession” mentioned in the story must not be too lightly dismissed. There are phenomena of evil not adequately explained by psychology. The horrors of voodooism, with the sudden seizure of bystanders by some alien influence, which obliterates personality, changes the voice, and imposes modes of behavior quite remote from normal, is one manifestation of something unseen not easily explained in familiar scientific terms. Other exotic cults, ancient and modern, display similar inexplicable phenomena. But suppose the “devil-possessed” of the New Testament narratives were actually suffering from forms of recognizable mental illness—how else could the Lord have cured them save on the level of their knowledge and their faith? He healed one blind man on the basis of his belief that the spittle of a saint was curative (John 9:6). It is part of his grace that he meets us where our faith can operate. Otherwise, indeed, “how helpless and hopeless we sinners had been.”
4:38-44. This passage has inspired many hymns. The hot sun had dropped behind the hills of Galilee. The lake was silver in the twilight, and the snow of Hermon to the north-east pink in the last light. He came from Peter’s house where his cool touch had healed a good woman of her sickness, and though it was late found time to put his hands “on each one of them” (4:40); he did not heal in groups, but met each one in the place of need. Where love and grace meet faith and hope, at that point is salvation. We gather together for worship, but we meet Christ alone for the soul’s healing.
Notes 4:34: “us”—note the plural personality implied. Compare other similar occasions. 4:38-39: as an efficient doctor, Luke distinguishes, as the textbooks did, a great from a small fever. 4:40-41: the Sabbath ended with sunset. 4:43: the “kingdom”—the “kingly rule.”