Bible Study series: Luke 4:40-41. These are summary verses that teach us about his entire ministry.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
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Scripture: Luke 4:40-41
40 As the sun was going down, everyone who had those weakened with various diseases brought them to him. Placing his hands on each one of them, he was healing them. 41 Also, demons came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are the Son of God!” Rebuking them, he would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Messiah. (Luke 4:40-41)
Comments:
40:
The sun going down indicates that people brought the sick to be healed after the Sabbath day, though usually one waits until after the sun set and then adds one hour, just to be sure. They would not even carry their sick relatives to be healed on the Sabbath, but they pushed the minute by minute timeline a bit sooner! The people were badly taught. They should have brought the sick on the Sabbath day. As noted in v. 31, Jesus was about to heal on the Sabbath (Luke 6:6-11; 13:10-16; 14:1-5).
The picture in v. 40 is that the relatives of those who were weakened with various diseases brought them to him. It is moving to think of them lifting and carrying and shouldering those weakened by diseases. Maybe one of them was so disabled that they had to carry him on a stretcher. Maybe one of them had a high fever, like Simon’s mother-in-law, and he could barely make it. Maybe one of them was injured on the job, like a stonemason who had a stone land on his foot, and now he could no longer work for a long time.
“weakened”: it means, depending on the context, “be weak, be sick.” The NIV translates it in this way, as it appears throughout the NT: sick, weak (most often), lay sick, disabled, feel weak, invalid, sickness, weakened, weakening.
Either he mingled through the crowd or prayed for them one at a time, as they waited in line (queued up). But I love how he laid hands on each of them, and the Greek makes it clear that he did this on each one. As noted, this shows his identifying with the people and his love for them, and also it shows that his healing power went out from him to them and healed them.
Back in the early to mid-1990s, the Spirit surged through me, and everyone I put my hands above (not on) fell down under the Spirit. I was cautious not to touch people, not because I don’t follow Jesus, but because showy evangelists and pastors regularly push people. (I wish they would stop.) In any case, that time passed and the surge also lifted, but looking back I didn’t regret that those giftings lifted because it was time to move on to deeper things. If those times come back, I would be glad to pray for people. I would not appear to push them. Manipulating and coercing the weak and sick so that the praying pastor or evangelist appears powerful is absolutely wrong, before God. Those who do it will have to give an account before him at the judgment, and their manipulative showboating will be burned up (1 Cor. 3:15). They risk losing their rewards (but not their salvation).
“was healing”: the verb means to “make whole, restore, heal, cure, care for.” Its tense is imperfect, which means unfinished or incomplete action. People were continuously being healed; this is not to say their healings were gradual (though healings can often be gradual). Rather, the imperfect tense means that Jesus’s healing ministry took time in his adopted hometown—he kept on healing and delivering people. Exhilarating and exhausting, in one!
41:
This is a summary statement that looks a lot like the more detailed episode in vv. 31-37. The demons knew who he was. He was the Son of God and Messiah, the Anointed One with an eternal relationship of Sonship with the Father. Messiah and the Son of God are synonymous titles here.
3. Titles of Jesus: The Son of David and the Messiah
6. Titles of Jesus: The Son of God
“rebuked”: see v. 35 for more comments. He censured and warned them to shut up.
Why did Jesus command the demons to shut up and not reveal who he was? He did not want their dark endorsement; revealing who he was too soon would raise the wrong expectations of what the Messiah should do and who he should be, as the people defined the terms. And he was not going to be the Conquering Military Messiah, but the Messiah who became the Passover Lamb who sacrificed for us and initiated the New Covenant (Luke 22:19-20).
Whatever the case, the answer was the same: deliverance by the power and authority of Jesus.
Bible Basics about Deliverance
He healed all (everyone) and delivered many. Does this imply that some demonized people were left behind, undelivered? No. The Gospel writers use “any” and “all” interchangeably. Don’t over-analyze it.
GrowApp for Luke 4:40-41
1. Have you done any kind of healing ministry, physical or emotional? What happened? How did the Lord work? What did you learn, good or bad?
2. Has the Lord set you free from oppression, demonic or otherwise? Tell your story. What happened?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
For the bibliographical data, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
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