Encounters with Jesus - Pt 5

And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority. And 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.” 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. 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!” (Luke 4:31-36 ESV).

When Jesus taught the people in Capernaum the initial reaction was one of amazement. They were astonished by the authority with which he taught. When he spoke he had no need to refer to famous teachers from the past to authenticate his teaching: he possessed in himself both the knowledge of God's truth and the authority to speak it. While the people were still reeling under the impact of his authoritative presentation of truth a demon-possessed man cried out. The evil spirit in the man was aware of the true identity of Jesus: he called him both 'Jesus of Nazareth' - a real man, and 'the Holy One of God' - God's Son. But Jesus did not want the testimony of the evil spirit. He commanded it to be quiet and come out of the man. Immediately the spirit obeyed. Then our reading records that the people were all “amazed”. In our English translations the words are often the same. In the original Greek they are different. The word used here holds an element of fear or terror, even to the extent of being rendered immovable. They were completely awestruck by this authority of Jesus over the evil spirit. Luke reports that this reaction was so strong that they asked (the word means kept on asking) each other “What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders to evil spirits and they come out?” We cannot miss the truth that Jesus is THE One who overcomes fear. He is the One to whom the allegiance, obedience and reverence of every created being is due. It is not allegiance born out of fear of punishment, but gratitude of grace. Even death has no sway over the child of God because Jesus has conquered even death. The Apostle Paul said: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-39 ESV). That’s the result of a real encounter with Jesus!