Luke 4:31-43 - Homiletics

A sabbath day's work.

"The despised and rejected" of Nazareth comes down to Capernaum, henceforth the center of his labor of love. The evangelist sets before us one of the sabbath days of this early Galilaean period, and bids us note the use made of the sabbath by the Son of man, who was also its Lord. He takes us to the synagogue, no doubt crowded by an expectant throng of fishermen, farmers, masters and workmen of busy Gennesareth. Jesus is the Teacher; and, as the discourse proceeds, we hear the sentence passing from one to another, "What a word!" or, "What is this word!"—so different from the speech to which they are accustomed, so strangely fascinating. Has not the exclamation of these simple folk been repeated, in circles ever widening? Is it not, more than ever, the voice of the day in which we live? Let us look to the incidents of the Capernaum sabbath for three illustrations of the abiding power of the Word of the Lord.

I. THERE IS THE POWER TO INSPIRE . We see this generally and specially. Generally, in the effect produced, on the great body of the people. They had not yet been inflamed against Jesus by the emissaries of the Pharisees; and his preaching arrested the attention. It was not wild and startling, like that of John; it was calm, but intense. The pedantries of the scribes had no place in it; it spoke to the heart; it was the word of One in the light and love of God—the Son of God and the Son of man. "For a season" at least they rejoiced in it. There were responses in the conscience, deep answering "amens" in the soul. The word was with authority. Specially in the attitude of those by whom Jesus was accompanied. We are told by Mark that he is accompanied by Simon and Andrew, James and John. They are the elder sons of his special family. They have heard the word, " Follow me ," and, obeying it, have left all to be his disciples. Oh, blessed power—the power of that Spirit who, in the beginning, moved on the face of the waters and said, "Let there be light!" the power to awake the slumbering desire, to interpret the needs and thoughts of the heart, to stir up the longing to be better and nobler, to be the citizens of the kingdom of heaven and the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty! Who of us has felt the life-giving force of this heavenly spring? Such a one will join in the cry, " What a word !"

II. THERE IS THE POWER TO EXORCISE . One of the audience on the first of the Capernaum sabbaths is a miserable demoniac, "a man with the spirit of an unclean demon." Whether, by such an expression, we are to understand only a violent type of mania, there is no need to discuss. The language of the thirty-third and thirty-fourth verses seems to imply more than this. "It is utterly impossible," says Dean Alford, "to understand such a testimony as that of the sick person, still less of the fever or disease." Be this as it may, the multitude, spell-bound, is receiving the word which is with power, when suddenly a great scream is heard. " ἔα ἔα ! Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God." Calmly, firmly, the Preacher rebukes the spirit; there is a paroxysm, a convulsion, and the man rises up, the wildness all gone, a right spirit renewed in him. "What a word! He commandeth the unclean spirits, and they obey him!" Let us believe that this word of command and rebuke is still with us. Unclean spirits, demons in men, alas! are legion, and sore havoc they make in human lives and homes. No demon is ever alone; it is always accompanied by evil powers, by manifold miseries. The only force adequate to the cleansing of the soul thus possessed is that of the Holy One of God. Welcoming all remedial legislation, all forms of philanthropic effort, with a view to raise the fallen, to cast out the devils which afflict society, let us remember that the innermost seat of the evil can be reached only by the gospel of the Holy One. With this gospel, let us never despair. "God is the God of hope; the devil is the spirit of despair."

III. THERE IS THE POWER TO HEAL . The mission of Jesus in Galilee was a great medical mission. The Preacher and the physician represent the two aspects of his ministry. Here is a thought which consecrates the art of the physician; he is a revelation of one side of the abiding power of Christ; it is for him to recognize the Master and acknowledge the supreme authority of the Word of the Lord. And turning to the physician and availing themselves of his skill, the sick and diseased may recall that it is Jesus Christ who maketh whole. This is the true faith-healing. See how the healing power of the words is illustrated. Read Verses 40, 41. What a hospital is before the eye of the Healer when the sun is setting! And not one of the impotent and afflicted is without the touch; not one baffles the skill. For a more particular illustration, read Verses 38, 39. It is "a great fever," and they beseech him for that precious life. He stands over her and "rebukes the fever." Another account is still more touching: "He comes and takes her by the hand, and lifts her up." Is not this a passage which makes all the Christian world kin? How many understand what is meant by the beseeching for one laid low with "the great fever"! Ah! but some will say, "It was not with my beloved as with her in the gospel story. I wept and fasted; I cried, 'Oh, spare my dear one!' but there was no rebuke of the disease. The one for whom I entreated was taken, and I was left, sitting alone and keeping silence." Peace, thou bleeding heart! He allowed his beloved Lazarus to die; but in his own time and way he stood beside the grave and bade Lazarus come forth. He told the sisters that their faith was feeble; that the higher faith would not have been clamorous—it would have felt, "His hand is holding that life; it is lifting it up; whosoever lives and believes in him has been already lifted up, and never dies." So bethink thyself; not according to thy way, but according to his own, he did come; he did take by the hand; he did whisper, "Rise, my love, my fair one, and come; where I am thou shalt be also." In the case of Simon's mother-in-law the answer is visible. Observe, not only is the fever removed, but strength is infused—"immediately she rose up and ministered unto them." A beautiful suggestion, that ministry to Christ always follows the sense of healing by Christ. "What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me?"