Luke 4:31-44
Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit
31Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. 32They were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority.
33In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34"Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"
35"Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
36All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" 37And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.
Jesus Heals Many
38Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
40When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.
42At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43But he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent." 44And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
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Here we see again people who are amazed by Jesus because his teaching had "authority." Jesus even speaks to demons with authority.
There are numerous scripture references to people being "possessed by demons," almost as if it was a fairly common occurrence 2000 years ago. It's difficult for us to understand the phenomenon, and I can't say as that I really have a great grasp of it. I'm sure it's nothing like the horror movies, at least. In this case, the demon knows exactly who Jesus is and how powerful he is -- he calls Jesus the "holy one of God." But Jesus silents him. There could be a couple of reasons for this. Perhaps it just wasn't time for that yet. Perhaps Jesus wanted to demonstrate himself by word and deed the kind of Messiah he was. Perhaps he just didn't want a demon to be the one giving out this information. Regardless, the word was quickly spreading among the people about Jesus.
Jesus even rebukes a sickness from Simon's mother-in-law. People are bringing the sick to Jesus "even as the sun is setting." This is significant because it is the Sabbath. Jews were not allowed to heal on the Sabbath, nor were they allowed to carry a burden for longer than a small fraction of a mile. The rules were quite strict about this. But the Sabbath ended at sundown, so these people were heading out to see Jesus as soon as the law allowed! Jesus continues to heal the sick and drive out demons.
Jesus eventually tries to find some solitude as well as move on to other towns, but the people love him so much that he finds it difficult to go. As it says, he continued to preach in synagogues around Judea.
posted by FTN @ 12:01 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I came across a really interesting article about the history/idea of satan in the Scriptures. Made my eyes gloss over in places :) but was a good read.
Link to Article Mild disclaimer: I've not read much on this site, so this is not an endorsement for this ministry... just a link. Read and sort through on your own... :)
Also, I don't think that you'll find anywhere in the Torah that it is against Torah to heal on the Sabbath*. In fact, if even your neighbor's farm animal is in need of help, you are to not hesitate to offer your assistance. The Torah is for Life, it will always support Life and Wellbeing.
*Again, this is an area where the Pharisees -- those "experts in the Law" (Luke 11:46) had heaped burdens on the people. One would only have to look at the Mishnah concerning Sabbath Laws to see the ridiculous extent they had gone to. Hundreds and hundreds of laws and cross-laws... when the Scriptures only make 10 points concerning Sabbath observance.
1) Remember the Sabbath (Ex. 20:8)
2) Observe the Sabbath (Ex 31:13; Deut 5:12)
3) Remember that you were a slave in Egypt (and thus didn't have rest). (Deut 5:15)
4) Celebrate the Sabbath as a perpetual covenant. (Ex 31:16-17)
5) Call the Sabbath a delight and honorable. (Is. 56:1-7)
6) Do not pursue your own desires on the Sabbath. (Is 58:1-7)
7) Do not work on the Sabbath. (Ex 20:9-10
8) Do not cook on the Sabbath. (Ex 16:23)
9) Do not kindle a fire on the Sabbath. (Ex 35:3)
10) Do not participate in commerce. (Neh. 10:31; Jer 17:21-22)
Really pretty simple.
Also, we have to remember that if Yeshua broke the Sabbath, (or any Torah instruction, for that matter) He could not have been our spotless, perfect sacrifice. So, if any teacher is or has taught you otherwise, I'd reconsider...
Just had to come back. FTN, you are absolutely correct about the people of the area following the laws and about Yeshua doing something that was controversial in His time by healing on the Sabbath.
My comment sounded awful, like I was pointing out an error. When I really wanted to point out the contrast between following God's Law and following Man's Law.
Too often the church sees Yeshua breaking Man's Law and says "See, even Jesus didn't follow the Torah!" when what He is refusing to take upon himself is the manmade yoke which was so prevalent in His day.
There are times when He does follow some of those "fence laws" that the religious institution of the day enforced, but it seems there was a criteria in place. If those fence laws upheld the true intent and message of the command of Torah, He seemed to be OK with complying, but in situations where the laws served no purpose or even went against the greatest mandate of Torah (ie: Life Abundant), He was quick to stand up against the tide.
Anyhow, please forgive me if I offended in any way. Sometimes I need a prybar to remove my foot from my mouth... it's a special talent of mine. :D
Thank you for clarifying that. The religious leaders of the day had skewed the laws and added many of their own. And I should perhaps clarify for anyone else reading: The first part on all of these posts is scripture, the second part is just my quick-and-dirty analysis! Which, as has been pointed out more than once, can be wrong.
This also highlights one other thing. I've become quite interested in Jewish culture and laws in the past year, but I'm still not up to speed on everything (or much of anything, actually). Jewish culture and the Old Testament often gets overlooked in many Christian churches, so I'm still trying to learn on my own. And I have very little time to commit to any serious study, sadly.
So maybe, Flutterby, you'd just let me be one of your talmidim? :-)
FTN -- I'm always happy to blurt out all the knowledge this little cranium can hold... :D
A big part of learning what I have has been the decision to not ever take another man's word as truth until I check it out for myself. Of course, I would never deliberatly mislead someone here, but I also can't guarantee that everything I know to be true is correct. HuH? I hope you know what I mean. I hope it is correct, I've done enough studying to assure myself that it is... but I would hope that you or anyone else would search out any new idea (from myself or others) and see for yourself.
If I can get up on a soapbox, here... this is the single greatest problem I see in the church today. A whole room full of people looking up to One Man to hold the keys to the Scriptures to them. It's so insular and frankly not very safe. I'd rather get my info from a variety... a Counsel, if you will. That is really so much more like how the New Testament Church developed. If everyone takes their responsibility for their own belief system seriously, even listening to a "heretic" can teach me something as I have to go home and then find out Why I should, or don't believe what he said.
But anyway... feel free to learn and challenge all you want from me and others. But I'm afraid I'm woefully inequipped to disciple anyone, certainly not in the Hebrew sense of what's involved.
Keep on your path. You already have a good foundation of understanding and are leaps ahead of the Churched that refuse to even acknowledge the Jewishness of our Messiah and the faith that He promoted.
Flutterby - I just ate lunch with a good friend of mine, and we were discussing a lot of what we discuss here. The Jewishness of Jesus, the kinds of things that are undertaught in many churches, that type of stuff.
He recommended books by N.T. Wright. Have you read anything of his?
One problem I actually see in my own church is a lack of depth in the sermons. I have to go into group settings (small groups, Sunday school, etc) to get deeper study, and those situations are generally fairly interactive. So that's a good thing, I think. The pastors in my church (we have two that preach regularly) are not the ones with doctorates, really getting into deep stuff. So it's rare that I would even hear anything that I'd question (which is too bad, actually). The "more learned" people are the ones teaching Sunday School classes or the ones I like to meet for lunch to have casual conversations with.
Anyway, you are right in that too many people hear stuff on Sunday morning, and never bother to try to learn some on their own.
I can second the NT Wright recommendation. His scholarship on Jesus is second to none. I have 'The Challenge of Jesus' by him; also 'Simply Christian', sort of his version of CS Lewis' 'Mere Christianity'. (He's also published under the name of Tom Wright)
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