Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
Luke 4:31–34
“In the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ‘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’ ” (vv. 33–34).
Prophets do not typically receive a warm welcome in their hometowns, as Jesus said, so when He revealed His prophetic, messianic vocation, His neighbors in Nazareth attempted to kill Him. Our Lord escaped, and in today’s passage we read that He went to Capernaum (Luke 4:16–31). Matthew’s gospel adds that Jesus actually took up residence in Capernaum, which served as His home base for much of His earthly ministry (Matt. 4:13).
Capernaum was a bustling town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. Many gentiles lived in Galilee, but Capernaum was a Jewish population center with an economy heavily reliant on fishing and agriculture. Jesus ministered there and throughout Galilee in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy that after the Assyrian invasion of Judah in the eighth century BC, the Messiah would come to Galilee to begin establishing His kingdom. Our Savior worked in Galilee because the prophets predicted that He would (Isa. 9:1–7; Matt. 4:12–17).
As had been true in Nazareth, Jesus continued to gather with the people on the Sabbath in the synagogue to teach them (Luke 4:31; see Luke 4:16). Luke 4:32 comments that the Jews were astonished at the authority of His teaching. Most likely, this reflects a comparison between the way that Jesus instructed and the way that other Jewish rabbis taught their students. Normally, rabbis would lean heavily on the traditions of earlier rabbis, and when expositing teaching they might give the opinions of a famous, respected rabbi, such as Hillel or Shammai. Jesus, on the other hand, did not rely on the opinions of uninspired teachers no matter how insightful their guidance might have been. He appealed to His own interpretation as the source of authority (e.g., see Matt. 5:17–48). Our Lord’s teaching was so powerful that even those who would come to reject it could see that it was different. John Calvin comments, “The power of the Spirit shone in the preaching of Christ with such brightness, as to extort admiration even from irreligious and cold hearers.”
Luke 4:33–34 informs us that one Sabbath, a man with a demon was present in the synagogue and cried out for Jesus to leave him alone, identifying Him as “the Holy One of God.” The problem with evil spirits, Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his commentary, is not that they do not know who Jesus is. Instead, the trouble is that they know who He is and hate Him for it.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
The demons know who Jesus is, and they are not afraid to twist His words or to lead people to a false understanding of His identity (see Luke 4:1–13). Their influence in directing people into falsehood can be substantial, so let us pray that we will not be deceived and that the unbelievers with whom we share the gospel will recognize and believe in the true Jesus of the Bible.
FOR FURTHER STUDY
- Proverbs 24:28
- Mark 1:21–24
- John 5:27
- 2 Corinthians 10:8
THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
- Numbers 11–13
- Mark 6:1–29