Luke 4:38-44 Grace on Display
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter four, we are going to examine verses 38-44. That’s on page 860 in the pew Bibles if that’s helpful to you.
Let’s pray.
When last we saw Jesus he was preaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. He was teaching with great authority, not like the dry and lifeless legalistic teaching of the Scribes that the people were used to. By His word demons were cast out, His teaching was unlike anything anybody there had ever seen. And after this amazing service, they did what everybody does after such a stirring, life-changing, church service… They went home for lunch.
Let’s read our text.
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.
In my weak, flannelgraph thinking, always when I read this account what I saw on display is the power and authority of Jesus.
Jesus has power over a high fever, Jesus has power over various other diseases, Jesus has power over demons.
Maybe I’m getting old and soft but as I read this account now I see something much more powerful on display than just power, I see grace.
I have been guilty of restricting the grace of God solely to Christ’s work on the cross. After all the Word says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, it is the gift of God, not by works, lest anyone should boast.” And this is 100% true that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for God’s glory alone, but that is not the limit of God’s grace.
Grace is defined as kindness, unmerited or undeserved favor, a gift. We often give gifts based on a date on the calendar, a birthday, or Christmas, but some of the best gifts are given simply because, “I saw this and thought of you.”
Here in our texts we have at least three different displays of the grace of the Lord Jesus, one to the Disciples, one to us, and one to the people of Judea.
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.
So after church that day they headed over to Simon’s house for lunch. Incidentally, I’ve been to this house, or the remains of it, in Capernaum. It’s not a big place and now it has a church building built over it to protect it but you can look down through the glass floor to see it.
So this is the Simon who would later be renamed by Jesus, “Peter.” He was the brother of Andrew, who most likely also lived in this house, and, much to the chagrin of our Catholic friends who think that Peter is the great champion of celibacy among ministers, Simon Peter was also married as evidenced by having a mother in law.
Luke, the doctor, describes the fever as a high fever, a great, or terrible fever. This was not a take two Tylenol and get over it kind of thing, this was a life-threatening illness. And knowing that Jesus had power and authority like they had never seen they asked Jesus to help her.
39 And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.
I’m sure that there is a, “Jesus did for you, know go do for Him,” sermon in there somewhere but that’s not for today. Instead of focusing on the woman’s response to being healed, which was to immediately get up and make lunch, I think that it’s better to focus on the grace of Jesus on display.
The disciples had already witnessed Jesus heal the man with the unclean demon, but this kindness was much closer to home. The healing of Peter’s mother in law gave them a much more private and familial illustration of the grace of the Lord Jesus.
In truth every hardship that people face is an opportunity for the grace of the Lord Jesus to be displayed even difficulties that we bring upon ourselves as a result of our own choices.
In John 9 Jesus addressed this issue.
As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
The works of God displayed. That’s His power to heal, yes, but it is also His grace, in his decision to heal.
The second display of the grace of the Lord Jesus happened later that same day.
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.
The fact that Luke points out that this next scene happens at sundown was not just because he wanted to paint a pretty picture for our flannelgraph. This was the Sabbath day and the Sabbath ended at sundown so people were free to walk around and carry the sick and infirm to Jesus.
It does conjure a great picture though, Jesus sitting on Peter’s front porch and the people gathered around Him listening to His words and being healed by His touch. His grace was certainly on display to those people. The pictures in my mind is usually that of huge crowds but in truth this is a village of only a couple hundred people and this group would have been even smaller than that.
But where Jesus’ grace was on display for us is in what Jesus did to the demons.
The demon in the synagogue declared that Jesus was the Holy One of God, the Messiah, and the demons that were cast out that evening cried out, “You are the Son of God!” But Jesus rebuked them and would not allow them to speak.
He did this for a few reasons, first, the time of His full revelation had not yet come, it wasn’t time for everyone to know He was Messiah. Secondly, Satan and his demons are in, what the scholars call, an irreconcilable state of enmity with Jesus. Their praise could only injure and soil His character and reputation so He refused to allow them to act as His heralds and witnesses of His divinity.
Where His grace to us is on display is that Jesus forbids these powerful, supernatural creatures to speak on His behalf, and instead he asks this of us, frail, fallen, and fallible though we are.
1 Corinthians 1:27-29 says, 27 …God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
We have been chosen as His witnesses in all the world, to preach the gospel to every creature, and to teach them to obey everything that Jesus commanded, this is His grace on display to us.
The last display of the grace of the Lord Jesus is to the people of Judea.
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.
The next morning Jesus got up early and went to a solitary place on the edge of town presumably to pray and the people of the town found Him there. These people who had been shown great kindness, great grace, wanted to keep Jesus with them. They heard and appreciated His word, they wanted more of His teaching, more of His presence among them, and who could blame them.
After being rejected in Nazareth and nearly thrown off a cliff for His teaching why wouldn’t He want to stay in Capernaum? The people loved Him there, it could become the new religious capitol of the world!
But by leaving Capernaum Jesus displayed His grace to the other towns of Galilee and Judea as well.
“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.
Jesus was sent, not just to die, but to preach the Good News of the kingdom of God, a kingdom of faith in Him, a kingdom of grace.
Like Jesus, we too must preach the Good News as an act of grace to our hearers. Like the people of Capernaum we tend to want to keep Jesus to ourselves, to keep Him here in our midst where life is comfortable and happy. But that’s not what Jesus was sent to do and that is not what He has sent us to do.
He was sent, and we are sent, to display His amazing grace through the Good News of the kingdom of God.
Amen.
