“Jesus, the Son of God,” Luke 4:31-44

³¹[Jesus] went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, ³²and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.

³³And 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! 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.” ³⁵But 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.

³⁶And 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!” ³⁷And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

      ³⁸And 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. ³⁹And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.

      ⁴⁰Now 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. ⁴¹And 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.

      ⁴²And 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, ⁴³but 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.” ⁴⁴And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea. (ESV)

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

With authority Jesus spoke, Jesus preached, and Jesus taught.  Jesus spoke. It was so. Jesus said. It was done. Today’s Gospel text reveals to us that Jesus’ spoke authoritatively.  Jesus spoke with power, astonishing the people.  His Word did.  With Words, Jesus spoke. What He said came to pass. Jesus cast out demons with a word.  He healed the sick, laying His hands on them.  He rebukes fevers, and the fevers went away.  Jesus spoke with authority.  He speaks with authority—not as the Scribes or Pharisees.

Jesus spoke—He speaks—in such a way that His Words literally are, and do, what they say. This truth demonstrates who Jesus is.  With Jesus comes the Kingdom of God.  With Jesus comes the forgiveness of sins. With Jesus is eternal life. All that Jesus said and did, from the beginning of His ministry to His death and resurrection, and from His ascension into heaven at the right hand of His Father to now, all these manifest the identity of the Lord—our God and our Savior.

Jesus & The Demons

Jesus exorcising (casting out) demons with a Word shows His Godly authority, His divine authority, over all evil spirits. From our Gospel reading, note what the demon, speaking through the possessed man, said concerning Jesus. As Jesus was teaching—with authority—the unclean demon cried out saying, “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” (v34). That demon—that evil spirit—knew who Jesus was.  He knew where Jesus had grown up, Nazareth. He knew Jesus’ identity—that Jesus was the Holy One of God. In the latter half of today’s Gospel, we have other demons, too, who knew who Jesus was. They had called Jesus, “The Son of God.” They knew Him to be the Christ (v41).

What’s telling here is that of these accounts, and of the other accounts in St. Luke’s Gospel where one gets Jesus right, other than the Heavenly Father Himself calling Jesus His Son (at Jesus’ baptism, Lk 3, and at Jesus’ transfiguration, Lk 9) and the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that Jesus would be “The Son of the Highest” (Luke 1:32) and “called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35), other than these places, we only have two other places where Jesus’ identity is clearly confessed in words—that account where St. Peter confesses Jesus to be “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20) and the accounts of Satan and the demons, as in today’s text.

With reference to St. Peter’s confession, we know from St. Matthew’s Gospel that what Peter had rightly confessed about Jesus was not revealed to him by flesh and blood, but by Jesus’ “Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:17). With reference to Satan at Jesus’ temptation, and the demons in our text and elsewhere, the Father didn’t need to reveal to them who Jesus was.  They already knew. They already knew because they know God. They know who God is.  And they know Jesus to be the Son of God. This is also why the demons in today’s text had asked Jesus the question, “Have you come to destroy us?” (v34).  They know that their time is short.  They know that their leash goes only so far, as God will allow.  They know that they don’t have authority over God, but that God has authority over them.

Remember Job?  All in one day his seven sons and three daughters had died, as well as most of his servants.  He also lost his animals and his livestock, all on the same day. Job then suffered “painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7). All these things happened to Job, but these were not from God.  They were of the devil, also called Satan, Lucifer, Adversary, and Tempter.

But the devil could only do as much as God would allow and no more. The devil is under God’s authority, as are all the evil spirits.  They are not equal in power to God, nor are they able to do whatever they please.  They can only do what God allows, and only for a time. God has authority over them. 

This devil and these demons are real spiritual beings, as today’s text reveals.  But they don’t have the upper hand.  Jesus does.  Jesus casts them out.  They are cast out. He silences them.  They are silenced.  He sends them away.  Away they go.

Though evil is in the world, though Satan and his dominion are still at work, though temptations to sin abound, and though many continue to be deceived and even deny the existence of the Devil—though sin is still in the world, and though the wicked have their day, their days are numbered. The wicked have their limits. The Devil can only do so much. 

Judgment awaits the devil and his dominion. Their disobedience and their deceptions will not last. Though the pains and the troubles caused by the enemies of God and even our own sin may seem to prevail and increase as the days continue, Christ rules over sin, and death, and the dominion of the devil. Jesus casting out demons shows His rule over them.  And on the cross where Jesus died, there Jesus judged the ruler of this world (John 16:11). 

The devil and the demons have their day, but Christ reigns supreme.  They can no longer accuse, condemn, or separate from God’s love in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:37-39). Though they have power to do many things, God is mightier. Therefore, as St. Paul writes, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:10-12).

The Word of our God is not ineffective.  It is authoritative. God’s Word is powerful.  It is given you that you be in it, believe it, make use of. Just as the demons were subject to Christ, so must they be subject to His Word, according to Christ and His Name, into which you believe. 

Your sin does not rule over you, for you “Were buried with Christ through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so” you “also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). “You died” with Christ, “and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Your “sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).

Jesus, in casting out those demons, showed Himself to be the Christ.  He showed Himself as not only having God’s authority, but being God in the flesh, and as being the ONE who frees you from Satan’s hold and from every power that is against God. Jesus’ Word is authoritative because His Word is God’s Word. His Word is authoritative, not only over demons and the spiritual realm, but also over things physical.  This we see in Jesus’ word healing the sick and laying His hands on them and healing them.

Jesus & Sickness

Peter’s mother-in-law was sick.  She had a fever. But Jesus’ word heals the sick.  His Word cleanses the leper.  His Word raises the dead to life. At Jesus’ command, illness gives way.  Jesus rebuked the fever of Peter’s mother-in-law.  The fever left her. The authority of Jesus’ word extends to the physical and to the spiritual.  His Word extends over what we see and over what we don’t see.  His authority extends over the heaven and over the earth.  

Jesus, God’s Son, rules over all things, as it is written, The Father “Put all things under His feet and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). The problem is not that these things are false.  They aren’t.  The problem is not that demons and sickness have authority over Jesus. They don’t. The problem is that we don’t believe these things to be so because we don’t see the demon cast out.  We don’t see the sick healed as we want and hope. 

We believe that Jesus really did those things because they’re in the Bible, but do we believe that Jesus still has authority over demons and the devil, and over every evil of body and soul, when we see all kinds of evil in the world, the devastation of an earthquake or flood, the tragedy of death, the bloodshed of war, the growing apathy to God and His Word, the acceptance of things ungodly and perverse, the increasing silence of the truth, the abandonment of the faith due to oppression and persecution from the world, as well as the pressure to compromise?

Do we believe that Jesus has authority over all kinds of sickness, disease, and death when we see it all around us; when loved ones die or as we suffer, when we pray and pray and pray, and things don’t seem to improve or get better?

To those who don’t believe who Jesus is according to Scripture, accounts of Jesus healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead will be nothing else than fantasy. TO those who do believe, there might seem to be a disconnect between what the bible says and life as we experience it. Even we might be led to ask, “If God had the power to do so, why doesn’t He end the suffering, heal the sick, give a cure, stop death? We too ask the questions, “If God is love, why does evil exist?”  “Why do bad things still happen?”  “Why doesn’t God ‘help us out’?” We too are tempted to doubt and question the promises of God because of life in this godless and wicked world, what we see with our eyes, and what we know from first-hand experience. It’s hard to see the work of God in a messed-up world—in a fallen world—in a dying world! 

Jesus & The Kingdom

But it is just into such a messed-up world—a fallen world—a dying world, that Christ came, and that Christ comes. This doesn’t mean that all sickness will be immediately cured, that all evil will abruptly end, that wars will cease, or that bloodshed will stop. There is real and ugly sin and godlessness in this world and in us.

The work of God remains hidden to the world.  Even we don’t always acknowledge it, not because it’s not there, but because we don’t see it, because we don’t believe it. The work of God is according to the Word of God; not according to sight. “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Only according to the Word of God do you know who Jesus is. Only according to His Word will you truly have confidence in Jesus when things don’t change the way you would like them to, or when the suffering continues, when the sickness doesn’t seem to end, when the temptations increase, and when lawlessness and immorality abound. Only according to the Word of God will you know who Jesus is amid all these things. 

It is by that very Word that Jesus makes Himself known to you.  It is by that Word that you know God to be the loving God, who does seek your well-being, not only temporally, but eternally. Therefore did Jesus come, and therefore does Jesus continue to come to you in His Word and promise, even giving you His body and blood in the bread and wine, that you believe and not doubt, but believe that He is your Savior; that He does and that He will deliver you from all that ails you; that He cleanses you of Your sin, even if you still feel it; and that He continues to speak with authority, the authority, not of man, but of God.

Jesus’ Word is that same Word which created light from nothing. Jesus’ Word is that same Word that gives life to all who hear and believe. Jesus’ Word is that same Word cleansing you of your sin and giving you new life, in Him—in this world, and into the next.  Amen.