He
rose up from the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him for her. He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her. Immediately she rose up and served them. When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. Demons also came out of many, crying out, and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Rebuking them, he didn’t allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
Luke 4:38-41
Luke 4 [36.] Amazement came on all, and they spoke together, one with another, saying, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” News about him went out into every place of the surrounding region.
Luke 4 [38.] He rose up from the synagogue, and entered into Simon’s house. Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him for her. He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her. Immediately she rose up and served them. When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. Demons also came out of many, crying out, and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” Rebuking them, he didn’t allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.
Luke 4 [42.] When it was day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place, and the multitudes looked for him, and came to him, and held on to him, so that he wouldn’t go away from them. But he said to them, “I must preach the good news of God’s Kingdom to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent.” He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
Meaning:
The same Sabbath on which Jesus drove an unclean spirit out of a man in the synagogue at Capernaum (Luke 4:33-35; Luke 4:36), he went home with Simon. Luke now describes a private healing in the house and a public healing at the door as the day ended. Mark and Matthew tell the same events (Mark 1:29-34; Matthew 8:14-18).
- “Simon’s mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever”
Simon, later called Peter, was married; Paul mentions years afterwards that Cephas took his wife with him on his travels. Luke has not yet told of Simon’s call (Luke 5:1-5), so this healing comes before Simon leaves his nets, and it helps explain his readiness to follow Jesus. Luke the physician notes that the fever was “great,” the term doctors of his day used for a severe fever as opposed to a slight one. In a time without modern medicine such a fever could easily kill. “They begged him for her.” The household brought the need to Jesus in prayer, a simple model of intercession for those we love.
- “He stood over her, and rebuked the fever; and it left her”
Jesus deals with the fever as he had dealt with the demon: he rebukes it, and it obeys. Later he would rebuke the wind and the waves in the same way. Sickness, evil spirits and the forces of nature all yield to his word. The healing was immediate and complete. There was no slow recovery, no weakness left behind. “Immediately she rose up and served them.” Her first act was to serve. She shows the right response to Jesus’ grace: a restored life given back in service. Jesus himself “came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45), and those he heals become servants too (1 Peter 4:10).
- “When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick ... brought them to him”
The Jewish day ended at sunset. Once the Sabbath was over, people could carry burdens and travel without breaking the Sabbath rules, so the whole town came to the door. “He laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.” Jesus did not heal the crowd with a single sweeping command. He touched each person. Each sufferer mattered to him. Matthew sees in these healings the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy: “Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering” (Isaiah 53:4). The servant who would bear our sins on the cross already showed his care for our bodies and our pain.
- “You are the Christ, the Son of God!”
Demons came out of many, shouting who Jesus was. Again he “didn’t allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the Christ.” Jesus would not let evil spirits announce him. Their testimony was not worship but fear, and it could also stir up false hopes of a political Messiah before the people understood what kind of Christ he was. Jesus wanted people to come to know him through his words and deeds and, finally, through the cross and the resurrection. He would reveal himself in his own time and way, and his disciples, not demons, would be his witnesses.
The Significance of Luke 4:38-41
- Bring every need to Jesus
The household at Capernaum asked Jesus for help, and the whole town brought their sick to him. No need is too private or too great to bring to him in prayer. The psalmist praises the God “who forgives all your sins; who heals all your diseases” (Psalm 103:3).
- Healed to serve
Simon’s mother-in-law rose and served. Every blessing we receive from Christ is an invitation to serve others with the strength he gives.
- A personal Saviour
Jesus laid his hands on every one. He does not deal with people in crowds but one by one, and he knows each person who comes to him.
Cross-References:
Isaiah 53:4: “Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering;” The prophecy fulfilled in Jesus’ healings.
Mark 10:45: “For the Son of Man also came not to be served, but to serve,” The pattern of service.
Mark 1:29-34: Mark’s account of the healing of Simon’s mother-in-law and the evening crowd.
Psalm 103:3: “who forgives all your sins; who heals all your diseases;” The God who heals.
Conclusion: In Luke 4:38-41 Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law of a great fever by rebuking it, and she rises at once to serve. At sunset the people of Capernaum bring all their sick, and Jesus lays his hands on each one and heals them, while silencing the demons who cry out that he is the Son of God. The passage shows the compassion and authority of Jesus and calls those he restores to a life of service.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible