Luke 4:40-44 - Healing and Preaching

4:40,41

Healing attracts people. Most people have at least minor ailments of some sort, and a lot have quite significant diseases or disabilities. So the chance of healing is always attractive. The reason they came in the evening is that this was the Sabbath. They weren’t allowed to carry anything on the Sabbath, or walk any distance, and the Sabbath started on the previous evening, and finished at evening. Hence the crowds came in the evening. Note that Jesus had already healed on the Sabbath itself, something that would cause problems later on.

Jesus laid hands on the sick and healed them. Some had demons. There is a connection between sickness and demons. It does not mean all sickness is demon related, but some is. But note that this was neither here nor there to Jesus. He laid hands on the sick and they got well. Simples! So healing involved rebuking and the laying on of hands.

The demons were not allowed to speak. Jesus did not want the people to be told who He was. Why was this? I teach mathematics and engineering at University and students like to have the answer. However, the answer is of far more value to them if they have grappled with the problems first. Jesus being the Messiah is not a simple fact, it is far more than that. Knowing Him as Messiah is not simply knowing a fact, it is about knowing the person of Jesus Christ and that takes time. The people needed to know who Jesus really was, and they needed to unlearn their preconceptions of who the Messiah was. They also needed to realise their true need.

4:42-44

Jesus may well have spent a good portion of the evening and night healing people. So at daybreak He went to a solitary place. Jesus loved being with people, but He also knew that He needed to spend time alone with His Father. So do we. Mark tells us that Jesus went to pray. The people were not for giving Jesus peace and wanted Him to stay with them. However, Jesus knew the mission He had, and He had to proclaim the “good news of the kingdom of God” to other towns. So He went about preaching in the synagogues of Judea.