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The 4. Sunday after Epiphany, 02/03/2013
Sermon on Luke 4:31-44, by Andrew Smith
31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. 33 And 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." 35 But 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. 36 And 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!" 37 And reports about him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
38 And 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. 39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.
40 Now 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. 41 And 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.
42 And 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, 43 but 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." 44 And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text for the sermon this morning is the Gospel reading appointed for today from Luke chapter 4.
Jesus has authority to set people free from their captivity to evil in this world. As modern people we may be inclined to disregard the story of Jesus rebuking the demon in Luke’s Gospel today as a bit of something on the same level as a fairy tale. “Demons?” We might ask. “Surely you don’t expect me to starting believing in things that go bump in the night, pastor.” And my first response to all those kinds of modern, scientific notions is that don’t be so sure. To quote the very pre-modern Hamlet of Shakespeare’s pen, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”1 And perhaps without the bard’s flourish, it’s a big world out there and lots of unexplained things happen all the time. On top of that, this encounter as we have it recorded in Luke’s Gospel has an eyewitness quality to it. This is not a “Once upon a time,” kind of story. We know where and when it happened. We know who said what. And we know that many people in Jesus’ day had conditions that were described as demon possession. In fact, just as we have Biblical manuscripts of the New Testament we have manuscripts of other extra-biblical materials. Some of the most fascinating to me are called the Greek Magical Papyri. They’re basically collections of magic formulas, incantations and such for curing a whole host of problems. Some of these folks actually pop up in the Book of Acts in chapter 19. They’re called “itinerant Jewish exorcists” there. And these formulas are usually rather involved, lots of mumbo jumbo. In Acts, Luke notes that these wandering exorcists had stumbled on a new name by which they had control over demons and it worked quickly. It’s another great story in the Bible. Anyway, the really interesting thing about Jesus casting out demons in Capernaum here is that he did it differently than other exorcists people had seen before. Jesus did it with a simple command. As I said, there is an eyewitness quality to these accounts in the Gospels.
So Jesus is in Capernaum and he is teaching and the people who hear him teach are astonished because he is teaching with authority. He is casting out demons and he does it with a simple word. Remember who Isaiah said Jesus is last week, the one anointed by the Spirit of the Lord to set the captives free. He sets free those who are captive to the power of evil in this word and regardless if you want to call it demon possession or not, no one can deny the presence and power of evil in this present world.
A colleague of mine pointed out just the other day about what demon actually says. “Who does he ally himself with? This is not ‘Legion’ the multiple demon possession. So who does the demon mean then by ‘us’?” I had never thought about it like that. But clearly, the demon means to ask if Jesus has come to destroy not only him but those he holds in captivity to sin, to pride, to fear, there in the synagogue. I was blown away by that insight. And truly I should not have been. Because is this not really at the heart of what sin is? Sin, the active rebellion against the clear Word of God, saying, “Did God really say?” when we all know clearly what he said, is allying with what is evil in this world. Thanks be to God we know from last week, Jesus was sent not to destroy us but to set us free from captivity to sin, to rescue us from sin’s clutches. That was his mission, a mission foretold by Isaiah the prophet and begun in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee. There, in that place, in the synagogue, on a Sabbath day, Jesus taught with authority and rebuked a demon.
Jesus rebuked the demon. That’s an interesting word, isn’t it? Did you notice that just a bit later Jesus rebukes the fever in Peter’s mother-in-law? Now isn’t that interesting? And if you keep going in Luke’s Gospel, you’ll find that Jesus rebukes some more demons but he also rebukes the wind and the waves on the Sea of Galilee. I’ll put it this way so as to make the point clearly. When Jesus rebukes the fever and rebukes the wind and the waves later, it’s the same kind of thing as rebuking the demon here. It is a setting to right of all that is wrong with our broken and corrupt world, with our broken and fallible flesh, with even our natural surroundings that would do us harm. This was not the world we were created for. Eden did not have windstorms and tsunamis and earthquakes. Eden did not even have “wintery-mix.” We were not created for it. Jesus rebukes it. He not only says we were not created for it but he puts it to right. The demonic, the corruption in our flesh, and the sinful world must submit to the authority of him who speaks a word of release. They no longer rule. Of course, would that we all experienced every bit of that now already instead of having to wait for the Lord to return to bring it to completion on the Last Day, but still, Jesus has already spoken the word of release, even for you who suffer still. That suffering is not the last word. Jesus’ word of rebuke is.
Now we might be tempted to think that all Jesus need do was some rebuking and the world would be entirely set to rights. But Jesus’ rebuke is a word that takes us straight to his cross. It is in the cross that Jesus finally rebukes all evil, all death, all sin. We might not readily think of the cross as a rebuke but it is. Jesus’ cross is the single event in all of human history. His innocent death, his life not worthy of death, his punishment for sin not worthy of the perfect life he lived is the ultimate rebuke for everything that is wrong with our world. When Jesus rebukes this demon and this fever he does it in light of the rebuke of the cross that is coming. When we hear that word of rebuke it can sting, especially if we have convinced ourselves is really better than what God had intended for us. If the word of rebuke is a word of the cross, it is a word of judgment and a word of freedom, a word of judgment to sin and a word of freedom to us who were held in captivity to sin. Never fear the rebuke of Jesus. He does it to set you free. And when we do it. Oh, that’s right, dear Christians, we can rebuke too! It’s no mumbo jumbo. When we rebuke evil and sin and what is wrong in this world, we do it with the power of Jesus’s cross, not just a word of judgment but a word of release to the freedom from sin’s captivity. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Bemerkung:
Luke 4:31-44 [English Standard Version, © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers