Healing and many more

 Luke 4:14-44

UNBELIEF IN NAZARETH:

Jesus anointed with the Holy Spirit, went about teaching in the Jewish synagogues and was praised by all. He then happened to come to Nazareth, his hometown. As his usual custom, he preached in their synagogue and people were amazed at the gracious words that he spoke. But in their hearts they were analyzing , "Is this not the son of Joseph? We know him right? We know his family...how poor they are...Its just an ordinary family nothing special about it huh?". And these people could not believe that Jesus was the Son of God, the Savior of the World, the prophesied Messiah. They could not accept that a Son of Joseph whom they knew can do anything great. And because of their unbelief, Jesus was not able to do miracles there. 

Dear brother/ sister, Jesus knows even what we think in our hearts. In this case he knew that the people were murmuring about Him. They were saying, "We heard him do a lot of miracles in Capernaum. Do the same here in  your hometown". They didn't come to Jesus with a heart that needed to be healed. They did not come to him to find hope. They came to him just to check what he was capable of. And Jesus just couldn't perform any healing there with that kind of attitude.

And Jesus told them in a straight forward way that no prophet is accepted in their hometown. He even quoted the story of Elijah, the prophet whom God sent to Zarephath, a widow in Sidon when there was famine in Israel. Also Naaman, the Syrian was the only leper who was cleansed in the days of Elisha, even though there were many lepers in Israel. When Jesus said this, the people got so angry that the crowd just drove him out of the city towards the cliff so that they can throw him out. But Jesus just went through the crowd and went on his way. No one can harm Jesus because it was not his time. 

Well, the people just gave themselves to rage. They got immediately instigated when Jesus spoke to them from their scriptures against them. It made them so mad. They did not listen. Jesus is the Wisdom from God. But they just were not ready to listen. Maybe if they had listened, and changed their attitude, they could have seen a lot of miracles that day. But they missed it. How often do we let ourselves be filled with rage? Sometimes I think oh I have a reason to be angry. But Bible clearly warns us in Ephesians 4:26, "In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry". Before the sun goes down make your anger go away lest it will give a foothold for the devil in your life. Oh, if only those people listened to Jesus without being offended they would have been blessed that day. The devil, making use of the hurt they felt, tried to use the people, to kill Jesus that day but it was not yet His time so he just passed through them and went to the next city Capernaum.

HEALINGS IN CAPERNAUM:

Jesus came to Capernaum. He preached with authority. There in the synagogue was a man possessed with an unclean spirit who tried to cause a disturbance. And Jesus rebuked the demon, "Be quiet and come out of him" and it left the man. And the people marveled at the power and authority with which Jesus cast out the demons. This man in the synagogue must have looked like an ordinary man. The Bible doesn't say anything weird concerning him. No physical problem. He was normal on the outside but not on the inside. There was an unclean spirit inside of him. That is the reason when Jesus was preaching he created a disturbance. We may come across people like that in our life too. Even in the church too. Because we see this man came to the synagogue, a holy place for the Jews. And all that was needed was a rebuke from Jesus for everything to become alright. 

That evening Jesus went to Simon Peter's house (Simon Peter was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus). His mother in law was sick with fever. Jesus rebuked the fever and the fever left her.

And in the evening, sick people came to Jesus and he healed them. Demons came out of many of them shouting, "You are the Son of God". But Jesus would rebuke them and cast them out. Well, Jesus doesn't need the approval or confirmation from the demons that he was the Son of God. He was the Son of God and all that mattered was to heal the people and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God. No demon had any business of praising or pleading or arguing with Jesus.  Jesus knew his purpose. He knew what he had to do. He didn't have time or mind to listen to the demons and so should we be too. Our focus must be on Christ, how we may reach him one day in His Father's house. All the other distractions this life offers are petty and not worthy of being considered as important other than Christ. Don't loose your focus, your purpose what God has for your life. The enemy can whisper many things - that we are a failure, or that we are guilty or the enemy can make us dwell in our self pity - Poor me no one loves me or no one is there for me. But don't give heed to those voices. But be filled with the Holy Spirit and He will help you.