Do you enjoy Picasso? Does his art uplift you or make sense to you? If a group of rowdy teenagers walked through an art gallery and saw a Picasso painting, they would probably laugh at it. Some might even think it was created by an eight-year-old. To really understand a piece of this art, a person would have to sit down with the painter himself and have him explain it. The “author” is the ultimate “authority” on his work.
Today we are told of Jesus’ authority (Luke 4:31-37).
“Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town of Galilee. He taught them on the sabbath, and they were astonished at his teaching because he spoke with authority.”
Jesus’ is God’s ultimate work of art. In fact, he is the Word through whom everything came to be. When he spoke to people it was God himself doing the talking. Never had anything like this ever happened on the earth, and never had the people heard a teacher who spoke the way Jesus did. Wouldn’t it have been wonderful to be at the synagogue that day and listen to Jesus?
“In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, ‘What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.”
The people were astonished when they heard the voice of Jesus. How did they react, however, to the voice of this demon? It must have frightened them. How did Jesus deal with this disrupting spirit?
“Jesus rebuked him and said, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’ Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm.”
Jesus had the authority, not only to speak the truth of God, but he also had the power to command demons, for they too were authored through the Word.
“They were all amazed and said to one another, ‘What is this about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
No doubt some of the people of Capernaum had prayed for the possessed man before and nothing happened. Human beings on their own do not have authority over evil spirits. Jesus, however, did…he was the author of everything.
What Jesus did in the synagogue that day, he continues to do in our time. More than ever before, we need the Author himself to step in and speak the truth amid the conflicting and confusing voices of our world. We need the Author to step in and release people from the grip of addictions, sinful habits, and demonic possession.
The Good News is that Jesus is still fully alive and available in our day. This is the reason he established his Church. He gave Peter and the apostles the authority to act in his name and to teach in his name. The line of Peter has not been broken even to the present day nor will the gates of hell prevail against the Church.
Do we realize that the Author of everything speaks directly to us daily by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit? Do we realize how using the power of the name of Jesus frees us from our fears, our confusion, our destructive habits, and the influence of evil spirits? Jesus is still here to astonish and amaze us.
