When it rains it pours. That’s how it goes when it comes to healing. Jesus heals Simon-Peter’s mother-in-law, and then everybody wants some: “All those who had any who were sick with various kinds of diseases”, the text says. Did you catch those words? “All those” and “any” and “various kinds”. Jesus is being inundated with people who want healing. And it says that “he laid hands on each of them and cured them.” He’s like that athlete who doesn’t leave until every kid gets an autograph. Except here the autograph is not just ink on a baseball, it’s the very touch of God on souls. The signature of God is restored life. This is big stuff. This is not merely a good teacher and prophet. This is a man with a certain kind of power and energy that comes from somewhere beyond this world. Luke has been making it clear and continues to make it clear that this Jesus is intimately tapped into the power and energy of God. He is the Son of God. He is a powerful teacher and prophet, but he is not merely that.
We cannot read the Gospel of Luke honestly and reduce Jesus down to a mere human. It is mysterious. It is weird. It is in many way hard to believe. While he is human, and in many ways and a very human existence, he is also something entirely other. As GK Chesterton once wrote, “he is every man and no man all at once.” Whether it’s healing, casting out evil, speaking truth to power, or mind-blowing teaching, this Jesus is the fulfillment of the year of the Lord’s favor.
