Do you believe in miracles? Do you believe Luke when he records these accounts of Jesus early ministry?
There’s been a lot of debate over the last 100 years or so about whether the miracles ascribed to Jesus in the New Testament were really miracles at all or whether perhaps the way they’re described was simply due to the fact that the observers didn’t understand as much as we do about how illnesses can arise, say, from psychological causes. They point to particular physiological effects that would explain why people appear to be healed. For example, the sceptics look at the accounts of Jesus casting out demons and argue that these people weren’t really demon possessed they were actually suffering from some form of epilepsy and all Jesus does is come along at the right moment and the person appears to be healed. Or Jesus meets a man who appears to be blind, he spits on his eyes and somehow clears away whatever it was that was blocking his sight. Others suggest that the mere fact that he’s built up this reputation for healing means that there’s a strong psychosomatic effect whenever he comes near people who are sick. In other words they virtually heal themselves.
The presupposition of all these commentators, these sceptics, is that miracles don’t happen; that our understanding of the world, our understanding of the processes of science, built up over the last four hundred years of scientific enquiry rules out anything supernatural, anything that can’t be explained by modern science or modern medicine.
Now I have to say that that sort of thinking is all pervasive in our culture. My guess is that most of us suffer from it to some degree. When we hear about the treatments offered by some alternative therapies, wearing magnets for backaches, copper rings for arthritis, even more mainstream treatments like acupuncture and chiropractic, many of us are a little sceptical because they simply don’t fit the rational scientific framework that we’ve grown up with.
So when we come to these accounts of Jesus healing people, casting out demons, changing water to wine and so forth, it’s easy to wonder how much of it is true. Or how much of it is due to their primitive understanding of science. So what do you think about these stories here in Luke 4 of Jesus healing people and casting out demons? Are they just the result of a misunderstanding on the part of Luke and those he heard these reports from, or did Jesus really do this? Was it really a demon who spoke through the man in the synagogue, or was he just someone who suffered from some form of epilepsy combined with schizophrenia or some other psychotic illness?
At Summer under the Son last week we were looking at Acts 28, where a viper bites Paul’s hand and the locals wait to see how long it’ll be before he falls over dead. And the speaker pointed out that there are commentators today who’ll tell you that this must have been a non-venomous snake. Well, he asked us, who are we going to believe? A modern day commentator speaking from surmise and speculation or local villagers who witnessed the event, who knew how dangerous the local snakes were and would have had no difficulty identifying the dangerous ones from the safe ones?
Well, here it’s not quite so easy, because this isn’t a snake, it’s a man who has an evil spirit, but the issue is the same. Who are you going to trust? Who are you going to believe? Modern day sceptics who can only speculate from a distance, or those who saw these events first hand?
Now this isn’t just an idle question. It actually goes to the heart of Luke’s account of Jesus’ first ministry moments.
When we looked at the early verses of ch4 last week we didn’t look at the response of the people of Nazareth. But perhaps it’d be good to go back and have a quick look at what happened there, just before these events we’re looking at today.
(Luke 4:22-30 NRSV) "22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth." That’s not a bad start is it? That’s often the first response to the good news about Jesus. But then notice how quickly the sceptics pop up. "They said, "Is not this Joseph’s son?"" You see, they know where he’s from. They think they know who he is. And everything they’ve learnt in all their years on earth tells them that someone who’s a mere carpenter’s son shouldn’t be doing and saying these sorts of things. And Jesus knows what they’re thinking.
So he says: 23"Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ’Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ’Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’" Their scepticism wasn’t about a scientific understanding of miracles. It was about an ordinary man doing extraordinary things. It may be that even those from Nazareth believed the proverb that nothing good could come out of Nazareth. What’s more, they wanted to see some proof. The scientific method requires that an experiment be repeatable if we’re to believe its results. That’s what they were hoping for: evidence in the form of a miracle or two.
But Jesus isn’t going to play those sorts of games. "24And he said, ’Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown.’" Then he adds salt to their wounds. He goes on: "25But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon." Sidon was on the coast, just south of modern day Beirut, outside the land of Israel. "27There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." 28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way." Their scepticism changed to anger when they realised the criticism he was pointing at them.
Elijah and Elisha were considered the greatest of the prophets, so these were very telling examples. Do you remember why Elijah had to resort to living with this widow in Zarephath over on the coast? It was because Ahab and Jezebel had led the people away from worshipping the Living God to the worship of idols. God had caused the rain to stop falling for 3 and a half years in Israel because his people had abandoned their faith in God. So what Jesus is saying here is that these people in Nazareth are on the same downward path. They don’t want to know who Jesus really is. They’re not willing to recognise him as the Messiah, the Son of God. They won’t give him the allegiance he deserves. So they’re no better than those Israelites back in the days of Elijah or Elisha. And what do they do? Just to prove that he’s right, they turn on him and try to kill him.
But then we move on to the next situation and here we find an ironic contrast. Jesus passes through their midst and goes on his way, down to Capernaum. Again he’s teaching on the Sabbath and again people are astounded at the authority with which he speaks. But this time something different happens. This time it isn’t the locals whose response Luke records. This time it’s the response of an evil spirit.
Present in the synagogue that Sabbath is a man who’s possessed by the spirit of a demon. And Jesus’ presence there provokes the demon to cry out: 34"Let us alone! 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."
Here’s an amazing thing. Jesus has just been to his home town of Nazareth, where you might have hoped he’d be warmly welcomed and highly thought of but they miss the whole point. Now he comes to Capernaum and it’s an evil spirit that recognises him for who he is. The spirits have no problem with scepticism about spiritual forces in the world. They’re part of it. And neither do they have any problem recognising Jesus for who he is: The Holy One of God. Oh, and notice that trying to explain this away by blaming schizophrenia, or some similar mental illness, doesn’t explain why the man would come up with the Holy One of God as his explanation of who Jesus was.
Now remember that Jesus said he came to bring sight to the blind. Well it appears that the people of his home town are among the first to be seen to be blind. And their blindness is shown up startlingly by the fact that someone possessed by an evil spirit is the first to recognise Jesus for who he is.
Just to reinforce the accuracy of the demon’s statement, Jesus tells him to come out of the man and the man is healed, set free, unharmed. Again, Jesus had said he’d come to free the oppressed and set the prisoner free and here he’s doing just that for this man who’s been oppressed, enslaved, by an evil spirit.
This is such a convincing demonstration of his power that the opposition seems to evaporate and people begin to come to him to be healed. First he heals Simon’s mother-in-law then we’re told "all those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on each of them and cured them." Again, many demons are cast out, but not before identifying him as the Son of God.
Now at this point, the people are convinced about his supernatural power. The things he does allow no other explanation than that given by the demons themselves. This is the Son of God. But notice that their response is to the miracles, not to the fact that God has come among them. When he tells them he needs to go on to the other cities as well, they try to stop him. They’re not interested in his mission. They’re not interested in doing what he wants. They just want him to heal all their ills. You see, they’ve missed the point. The Isaiah passage tells of the Messiah who will come to rebuild the nation to its former glory. But all they can see is the possibility of getting their aches and pains fixed up. Forget about the rest of the nation, just stay here and help us.
What they’ve missed is that belief in Jesus the Messiah requires an outward looking heart, a change of attitude. It requires a generosity of spirit that wants to share this great news with everyone you can find to tell it to.
You see there are two types of disbelief that people can suffer from when they encounter the stories of Jesus. One is that of the sceptics whose presuppositions won’t allow them to believe in miracles. The other is that of those who are happy to believe in miracles but want to keep it to themselves, or worse still, believe it happened but don’t want to give Jesus the allegiance, the obedience, he deserves. The demons had no choice but to obey Jesus when he spoke, but that didn’t mean they’d bow down and worship him of their own free will. One assumes they continued in their rebellion even as he was casting them out.
So here’s the first question: do you believe these accounts of Jesus miracles. I hope your answer is yes. But then the second question that that raises is this: how do you respond to Jesus? Have you given him the allegiance he deserves? Does your belief lead you to you seek to follow his example of taking the good news to as many people as you can reach? Or are you like these townsfolk, happy to have him help you, but not wanting to share him around?
Jesus came as the Son of God, to live among us as one of us, to die and rise again so we could be brought back to God. But he also came to call out a people for himself who would believe in him and love him to the extent that they’d do what he tells them to. The test of belief, according to James, isn’t that you can affirm the Apostle’s Creed. Even the demons can do that (James 2:19). No the real test is what are you doing about it? Are you following Jesus example of proclaiming the Good News to those around you? Are you bringing good news to the poor, recovery of sight to the spiritually blind, freedom for those in bondage? This is a question for each of us as individuals and for all of us as a Church. What are we doing to further the cause of the gospel? What are we doing to bring new people into God’s kingdom? If we’re not doing that then our belief becomes a wasted thing, no better than the belief of the evil spirits who recognised Jesus for who he was, but failed to turn back to him or those townspeople who believed he could heal but didn’t want him to continue his mission of bringing salvation to their world. Well, let’s pray that we might be a believing church in both senses of the word.
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