LUKE 4:31 – 5:16: IN CAPERNAUM AND JUDEA

© Rosemary Bardsley 2025

Jesus spent quite a lot of time preaching the good news of the kingdom of God in various towns and locations in Galilee and Judea; this included teaching in the local synagogues on the Sabbaths. Note that 4:44 reports a continuity of preaching – that ‘he kept on preaching in the synagogues in Judea.’ In some teaching situations Jesus also performed healing miracles of various kinds, including casting out of evil spirits.

Read these verses. Try to learn what Jesus taught and how did people respond?
4:31, 32

4:36, 37

4:43, 44

5:1 – 3

5:15

Luke refers to the content of Jesus’ teaching as ‘the good news of the kingdom of God’ – 4:43, and ‘the word of God’ – 5:1. He reports the response of the people as ‘they were amazed at his teaching, because his message had authority’. He did not, like the teachers of the law, refer to the sayings of some historical respected Rabbi. Rather, he himself had authority – he himself had the knowledge and understanding. It was innate authority. He knew the truth as no one else could.

We will now look at specific encounters reported by Luke.

A. JESUS AND EVIL SPIRITS

In 4:33 – 37 and 41 Luke reports encounters between Jesus and evil spirits. Luke seems hesitant to use the concept of ‘possessed’ (which literally means ‘demonized’) in referring to the people troubled by demons. He does so only once – in Luke 8:36. Here in 4:33 Luke’s Greek simply says ‘had a spirit of an unclean demon’. He also uses this simple ‘had’ in Acts 19:13. Luke sometimes used the word ‘vexed’ (= mobbed, harassed) to refer to the impact of the evil spirit on a person (6:18; Acts 5:16). While ‘possessed by’ sounds a much stronger term than ‘had’, the bottom line is that these evil spirits are described as being in a person, and are commanded by Jesus to ‘come out of’ the person, and then described as having ‘come out’.

Read Luke 4:33 – 37; and 4:41. Answer these questions:
Who initiated the conversation – Jesus or the evil spirit?

What did the evil spirit/s know?

What did the evil spirits fear?

Why did Jesus command the spirits to be quiet?

How did these encounters impact those who witnessed them?

There are a number of significant points evident in Jesus’ encounters with evil spirits:

[1] That the evil spirits knew, without any doubt, who Jesus was – they knew he was ‘the Holy One of God’, ‘the Son of God’. They knew also that he was ‘the Christ’.

[2] Knowing who he was, they also knew the authority that he possessed – the authority not only to command, but also to destroy.

[3] Although they knew all of that, they did not know whether or not it was the time for their final destruction.

[4] Jesus clearly demonstrated his authority over them.

[5] Jesus’ authority over the evil spirits amazed those who witnessed it.

B. JESUS AND SICK PEOPLE

After Jesus healed Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever, people brought all kinds of sick people to him and he healed them. When, the next morning, they didn’t want him to leave, he refused, because preaching the gospel was his mission.

Read Luke 4:38 – 44. Answer these questions:
What two methods did Jesus use in the healings reported?

Read Mark 1:35 to learn why Jesus went to a solitary place.

Suggest why the people wanted Jesus to stay in their town.

Why did Jesus refuse to do that?

Jesus used two phrases to express the necessity for him to move on. What are those words/phrases?

Just as Jesus, aged twelve, had said ‘I must be about my Father’s business’ (Luke 2:49), so here he says ‘I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also’ and so later he will say ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected ... and be killed...’ (Luke 9:22; cf 24:7). There is a divine necessity driving Jesus. He has come to bring into effect God’s plan of salvation decided before time began. Because of this compelling necessity he later moved with steadfast determination towards Jerusalem – ‘I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day – for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!’ (Luke 13:33), knowing that ‘he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation’ (Luke 17:25). In all of these, and more, ‘must’ translates the Greek dei – it is necessary, it is binding.

Jesus was not on a healing mission, although the healings were micro anticipations of the perfection of the new heavens and new earth. Nor was Jesus on an exorcism mission, but his very presence evoked reaction of fear from evil spirits. Even less was he on a popularity quest, as we see in his refusal to stay in this town, and as we will soon see when his presence, his practice and his preaching antagonised the religious leaders.

C. JESUS AND SIMON

Read 5:1 – 11. Answer these questions:
When the people listened to Jesus, what were they listening to?

Why did Simon not want to go out to the deep water and let down his nets?

Suggest what Simon was thinking about Jesus in verse 8.

In what way is Simon in verse 8 similar to Isaiah in Isaiah 6:5?

How did Jesus turn Simon’s fear into following?

This miraculous catch of fish is not Simon’s first encounter with Jesus. Jesus had previously been in his house, and healed his sick mother-in-law (4:38). We can safely conclude that Simon had already heard Jesus’ teaching, and now here in Luke 5 was hearing more of it, as Jesus preached to the crowd first from the shore, then from Simon’s boat.

Having heard his teaching, having seen and heard him authoritatively cast out demons, having watched his healing miracles, and now, having hauled in this huge catch, Simon addresses Jesus as ‘Lord’ – ‘Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man.’ It is beginning to dawn on him that there is more to this carpenter from Nazareth than meets the eye. (Note that this is the first time Luke reports Jesus being addressed as ‘Lord’. Like Isaiah in the temple in the presence of God, Simon, here in the presence of Jesus, is acutely aware of his own unworthiness.

And Jesus recognized Simon’s fear. He didn’t deny the validity of that fear; indeed he affirmed it. It was actually a valid fear – fear in the presence of the one who is God. But there is something that is bigger than that rightful fear, something that over-rides the separation and condemnation out of which the fear arises: the compassion, the calling and the commission of God. ‘Don’t be afraid’, Jesus said, ‘from now on you will catch men.’ Rather than condemn Peter (which Peter feared, and which was in keeping with God’s justice), Jesus commissioned him.

D. JESUS AND THE LEPER

The man was in an advanced stage of disease – he was covered with leprosy. The Greek text is ‘full of leprosy’. But he also had something else. His approach to Jesus reveals that he knew who Jesus was:

He prostrated himself before Jesus.
He addressed Jesus as ‘Lord’.
He acknowledged the ability of Jesus to heal ‘you can make me clean’.
He acknowledged the sovereign authority/decision of Jesus ‘if you are willing’.

Read Luke 5:12 – 16. Answer these questions:
What did Jesus do that expressed his compassion?

Was the healing immediate and complete, or delayed and partial?

Suggest why Jesus told the man not to tell anyone.

What impact did this healing, added to Jesus’ previous teaching and healings, have?

How did Jesus respond to the ever-present and increasing crowds?

What did Jesus do to cope with it all?

As a leper, this man was deemed ‘unclean’, and by that uncleanness ostracised both from human contact and companionship and from participation in the various aspects of the Jewish ritual and worship in the temple. He was banished from the presence of both people and God. If and when healing occurred and was confirmed, specific cleansing rituals were required before the rules of isolation/exclusion were reversed. [You can read God’s laws about this in Leviticus 13 and 14.]

Just as Jesus, the eternal Son, had created the universe by his word, and upholds all things by his word, here, by his word – ‘Be clean!’ – this man is immediately renewed. The putrid, suppurating ulcers that covered his body disappeared. The fingers and toes destroyed because of damaged nerves were restored. The deformed limbs, the encroaching blindness – all were gone. He was as if there had never been any leprosy. All became new. Simply by the word of Jesus.

Luke also reports that Jesus ‘reached out his hand and touched him’, and in this is speaking of the compassion of Jesus that Mark mentions – ‘filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man’ (Mark 1:41). This man, because of his condition, had not felt any human touch for years. He had had to keep his distance from people, even to the point of warning them not to come near – ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ But Jesus, even while the man was still ‘unclean’, deliberately reached out and touched him. Not fearing the disease. Scorning the ritual uncleanness such an action would incur for himself. Again identifying with us in our human lostness, even here in this deep place of exclusion.

At a deep level, the healing/cleansing of the leper is a physical symbol of the spiritual cleansing – the forgiveness of sins – that is granted to all who believe in Jesus Christ. John records Jesus’ words about this cleansing in John 13:10, 11 and 15:3. By this spiritual cleansing our relationship with God is restored – the separation from God, the exclusion from his presence, is ended.

Here, in the compassion of Jesus in touching this leper, in the healing, restorative power of his word that cleansed this leper, we are given a picture of the spiritual salvation that comes as a gift from God to all who receive Jesus Christ and his words. Just as the cleansed leper had to present himself to the priest with an appropriate sacrifice, so God the Father presents us to himself, ‘holy, without blemish and free from accusation’ (Colossians 1:22), cleansed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

D. 1 Time and space
In Luke 5:15 & 16 we are confronted with the mystery of the incarnation: the eternal, infinite God locked in physical time and space. The eternal God does not grow weary (Isaiah 40:28); to him even nations are but a drop in a bucket, a speck of dust on the scales. But here is God in human flesh, flesh that does grow weary, flesh that feels the pressure of the ever-present, demanding crowds. The more he taught, the more he performed miracles, the bigger and more persistent, the more expectant, the crowds became.

Luke gives us a picture of the constancy of this pressure – ‘crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses’ – literally, ‘crowds of people were coming ...’ There seemed no end to it. They just kept coming and coming, more and more.

‘But Jesus ...’

‘was withdrawing himself’ ... ‘was going away’ (that is the meaning of the Greek text) to isolated places, literally ‘into the deserts’. The same kind of physical space in which he spent forty days fasting and being pressured by the evil one is the kind of place where he found relief from the pressure of the crowds, where he found restoration of his physical strength. But more than that ... he

‘was praying’. And this praying was something far deeper than we shall ever know. Yes. He prayed as a man speaking to God ...a man upon whom there was great pressure, not at the moment directly from the evil one, but from the perceptions and expectations of the crowds. Yes. He prayed out of the weakness and limitations of his humanity. But he also here drew aside as the Son, speaking to the Father, in the perfection and unity of the Trinity – connecting with the Father and aligning with the Father’s words and the Father’s works, the Father’s perceptions and expectations, the Father’s will.

The crowds and their hopes and needs are not his source of identity and significance. All that he is derives from the Father. All that he desires is to honour the Father.

And so he keeps leaving the crowds and communing with his Father.