December 6| Luke 4:31-37

by Katie Borden

We heard the words on Sunday from Isaiah 40 in a beautifully-crafted worship service to turn our hearts toward the coming King: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”

And today, we read about the One in whom those prophecies from Isaiah were–and are–fulfilled. Jesus, in the beginning of his ministry in the Gospel of Luke, is already enacting the mission he promised to the people just mere verses before, in 4:18-19 (which, incidentally, is scripture from Isaiah). Jesus heals, he sets people free from oppression, he restores, and he proclaims good news.

The good news–the Gospel–is that Jesus is King.

Jesus–not some other, less powerful or less “good” force–is the One who reigns over all heaven and earth. One day, the entire cosmos will “bend the knee” to Jesus.

We see the beginnings of even the spiritual realms “bending the knee” in a stunning display of Jesus’ power and authority. A man who has been oppressed and possessed by demonic forces is set free by Jesus’ power. After a bit of verbal sparring, Jesus is the clear victor and sends the demons fleeing.

I’ll admit that sometimes I’m not quite sure what to do with these exorcism passages. Truthfully, they sometimes leave me a bit uncomfortable. But I’m learning to sit with that discomfort, because this passage demonstrates a power and authority in Jesus that I cannot even begin to understand. And a God who is Lord over all creation is not going to make sense to my created mind. The beauty of the goodness of his power is enough.

During Advent, we celebrate the goodness of the King who made himself nothing, came to us, and defeated evil by dying and then putting death to death. In his Kingdom of life, there is no room for forces that threaten to undo us and cause a million little deaths to us–deaths of anxiety, of depression and despair, of hate and of fear and all other manner of things that keep us from living “life to the full” (John 10:10). We celebrate the coming of the King who, two thousand years ago, inaugurated his reign. And we look forward to the next time he comes, when he will bring his reign of goodness, of power, and of life to its fulfillment.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen.

Thank you, Good King, that you are both good and powerful, and that you have already begun to make all things right. We long for your reappearing, when all in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bend the knee to you. Come quickly! Amen.