 Jesus sends a demon away carved door panel, Pisa, Italy |
So Jesus went to Capernaum, and began to teach. The people there quickly recognized that he was someone with authority. A man there was possessed by demons, and the demons struck up a conversation with Jesus. They also recognized his authority. In fact, they called him the Holy One of God!
He receives a "stamp of authenticity" from a supernatural being. That would be somewhat like being recognized as a VIP by Donald Trump-- someone who was a VIP himself. But Jesus would have none of it! He told the demon to be quiet.
Think about it. A demon would want to do something that would further Satan's cause, not God's. So it must have thought that correctly identifying Jesus would be a bad thing. Did Jesus not want the people here to be brought abruptly face-to-face with his divinity? Weren't they ready for this yet? Just a few days before, Jesus was pointedly critical of the people in his hometown who refused to believe that he was the Messiah.
To complete the story, Jesus cast out the demon. The people were amazed and told other people about him.
What was the difference between these two groups of people that made Jesus desire different reactions to him?
Luke 4
2 comments:
Be assured that the devil and his horde of rogue angels (demons) are under the full control of our Heavenly Father, who uses them to encourage us to want to draw closer to Him--mostly by making our sins all the more egregious. Now, this is not to say that He tells the evil ones to go do this or that to this one or that one, but since much of what they do should cause us to want to get closer to our Heavenly Father, it should be rather obvious that they are not doing what would be in their best interest. After all, would they not want to just leave us alone since we must actually want to be saved from our sins?
The Demon was using "flattery" as a weapon. Jesus simply didn't buy into it and acted accordingly by casting him out.
I feel the group in his hometown just weren't ready to hear his teachings.
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