Driving Out Demons
January 28, 2007
The Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
GOSPEL LESSON: Luke 4:31?44 [Jesus heals many of the sick]
Then He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people. They were amazed at His teaching, because His message had authority.
In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of His voice, gHa! 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!h gBe quiet!h Jesus said sternly. gCome out of him!h Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. All the people were amazed and said to each other, gWhat is this teaching? With authority and power He gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!h And the news about Him spread throughout the surrounding area.
Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simonfs mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. So He bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
When 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. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, gYou are the Son of God!h But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Christ. At 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. But He said, gI must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.h And He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
Last Sunday in adult Bible class, we were studying the activities of St. Paul in the city of Philippi, as recorded in Acts 16. In the town there was a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her master much gain by soothsaying. But such a spirit is from the devil, it is not from the Holy Spirit. And yet this devil in her knew who St. Paul and his companion were. Every day she would follow them and cry out, gThese men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvationh (16:17). But Paul was annoyed and one day turned and said to the spirit, gI charge you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.h And it did come out of her right away. The story continues that the girlfs masters suffered financial loss, so took Paul and Silas to court, and they were sent to jail. Then that night there was an earthquake and the prison doors were opened and finally the prison jailer believed in God and was baptized with his family. But in the Bible class, we spent a lot of time on why Paul cured the girl of the evil spirit. It seemed like the girl was doing a lot of PR work for Paul. She told everyone that they were servants of God proclaiming the way of salvation. After curing her, she would not be giving that free publicity anymore. Wouldnft St. Paul enjoy this PR? She was telling the truth. And yet Paul became annoyed. Why?
In todayfs Gospel reading, Jesus seems the same as St. Paul. Jesus seemed annoyed at a man who was possessed with an evil spirit. gBe quiet!h he said. Listen to Luke 4:33, gIn the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of His voice, gHa! 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!h gBe quiet!h Jesus said sternly. gCome out of him!h Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.h Also, verse 41, gMoreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, gYou are the Son of God!h But He rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Christ.h Why didnft Jesus let them speak? They were telling the truth. Wasnft it what Jesus wanted to proclaim?
I want to suggest two reasons. The first is that the devil is a liar. Speaking about Satan, Jesus says in John 8:44, gHe is a liar and the father of lies.h So, when the devil speaks the truth, it is a method to make people believe the wrong thing. The devil tells the truth only to deceive or to hurt. There is an old saying, gIt is better for a Christian to lie than for the devil to tell the truth.h The devil might tell the truth when he says, gYou are ugly,h but he does it to hurt someone and to make them sad. A Christian in love says, gYou are beautiful in the eyes of God,h and tries to make someone feel good and to feel Godfs love. In the Gospel lesson, the devils did know who Jesus was, but they were loud and obnoxious and hindering the proclamation of the Gospel. And they were not good witnesses that could be trusted, so everyone would think that they were lying.
Kind of on the same subject, it is important that Christians be good witnesses both in their words and in their lives. If someone is a hypocrite, no one wants to believe them, even if they are right. One of the greatest disasters for the proclamation of the Gospel is when a leader of the church is involved in a scandal. If a pastor or priest or church council member is caught up in a scandal, then the whole message of the church is doubted, mocked and rejected. For example, when a church treasurer steals money, who believes the church when we talk about honesty and the trustworthiness of Godfs promises? When a minister or priest commits a crime, who can believe what the church teaches about morality, ethics and love? When any Christian sins, it is a disgrace and embarrassment to the whole Church, not just one congregation or one denomination, but the whole Christian Church suffers. No one will believe the witness of a criminal. No one will believe the Gospel message when spoken by a sinner ? unless spoken by a forgiven and redeemed sinner. That is the only hope that we all have, because we are all sinners. And so we know the forgiveness and love of God that we can proclaim from our hearts.
Perhaps there might be another reason why Jesus didnft want the devils to speak about him. The evil spirits were continuing the temptations of Satan in the wilderness. If the evil spirits proclaimed who Jesus was, then Jesus didnft need to speak the gospel. But if they proclaimed who he was, then people would think that Jesus was in league with the devil. If they helped Jesus proclaim the Gospel, then Jesus would not have to die on the cross. It was a temptation to escape suffering and death. But it was also a temptation to abandon the plan of God for our salvation. It was a temptation for Jesus to worship the devil and gain the world by bowing down to him.
But Jesus had come to proclaim the Gospel and gto set at liberty those who are oppressed.h And so he began to free people from the devils that possessed them, to free people from the diseases that oppressed them, to free people from the worries that depressed them. And on the cross he continued that work by freeing us from sin and the control of the devil. This is the good news of the Kingdom that Jesus proclaimed.
Amen.
Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church