Jesus heals at sunset - Mark 1:32-34; Luke 4:40-41

I’ve been gone for a while, lots of stuff going on, big changes and I’m excited and nervous at the same time. I’m anticipating being able to spend more time on scripture study because I sure do miss it when I can’t.

After Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law she ministered to them, served them I believe that means, and I assume that while he was there around sunset, “they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door.” It’s been a pretty busy day for the Savior, beginning with preaching in Nazareth and being rejected, then going down to Simon’s house and healing his wife’s mother, and now being thronged with people eager to have Him heal them. The IM notes the difference in attitude between the people of Nazareth and the people in Capernaum where they were staying. It says, “in contrast to the people of Nazareth who rejected the Savior, many in Capernaum sought Him out and pleaded ‘that he should not depart from them.’ This may have been one of the reasons why Capernaum came to be known as Jesus’s ‘own city’ and as the Church headquarters for His ministry. The differences in the Savior’s ministries in Nazareth and in Capernaum illustrate the truth that the Lord works ‘not among the children of men save it be according to their faith.’ As described in Luke 4:44, Jesus customarily went first to the synagogues to teach, a practice continued by the Apostles after His Resurrection.”

Jesus healed all those who came to Him seeking healing, “all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.” Comparing the reaction of the people in Nazareth to the reaction of the people here, both groups wanted to have some healing done, but the people of Nazareth didn’t bring anyone to Jesus to be healed, they wanted Him to present them a miracle, they wanted him to “whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.” They sat there looking at him waiting for him to impress them, to create a way to convince them, they wanted Him to prove to them that he was the Christ, through a miracle. The people of Capernaum didn’t ask for his miracle healing because they needed him to prove himself to them, they asked for his healing because they already believed, and they believed enough to bring their sick out into the elements to be presented to Jesus. There really isn’t a huge difference between what each group did, but it was their intention and desires that truly separated them from each other and the blessings received, or lack thereof.

Jesus did more than just heal the sick, he also cast “devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou are Christ the Son of God.” They knew who he was, they remembered him from the premortal existence, they’ve probably spent their entire time on the earth focusing on Jesus, who he is and what he’s trying to do. They recognized him and there are a couple of different ways that people could react after hearing that testimony. One reaction could be “evil spirits recognize that this man is their superior and they must obey him, surely he is the Christ.” This logic might have served those who already believed in Him, but surely the more common response to evil spirits announcing that they know who Jesus is would be to associate Jesus with the evil spirits as friends or partners. This is a significant example of Jesus as the master psychologist. People who were unsure of Jesus’s identity or those who were looking to reject Him would probably not have seen the testimony of the evil spirits as their acknowledgment of Jesus’ superiority to them, nor would they probably have believed that their knowledge of Him came from a premortal existence. They would have seen evil spirits confessing the Christ and would have assumed that they were lying and in league with a scam artist who was trying to con them all. Evil spirits are not to have their word trusted and the Savior knew that to the general population this acknowledgement, though true, would have conveyed a different message then the people were ready for. Therefore Jesus, “cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.”