GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 6:18-19
18 They came to listen to him and to be cured of their diseases. Those who were troubled by unclean spirits were also cured, 19 and the whole crowd kept trying to touch him, because power was going out from him and healing them all.
If we examine all of the details so far, we see that Jesus had withdrawn from Capernaum to a nearby mountain to spend a night in prayer (6:12). The next morning found him still on the mountaintop (6:13). There is a tradition that this mountain was a nearby extinct volcano called the Horns of Hattin, but other nearby mountains include Mount Turan to the west, Mount Tabor to the southwest, and Mount Meron to the northwest. We can’t say for certain where this took place. There on the mountaintop, Jesus appointed his twelve Apostles (6:13-16), and then they went down the slope to “a level place.” This may have been a broad area still on the slope of the mountain, or a place closer to the foot. Whichever it was, Jesus was approached by a very large crowd.
Luke makes the point that they came for two reasons: to listen to him and to be cured of their diseases. Jesus was not only regarded as a healer, but foremost as a teacher. The people understood that Jesus pointed them toward heaven; his were the words of eternal life (John 6:68).
The faith of the people was molded in this case by the tendency for all human beings to change while we’re in a crowd. We lose some of our individuality when in a crowd, and we generally move where the crowd moves and in the way the crowd moves without much information as to why the crowd does what it does. Panic can spread quickly into a crowd, as can anger and urgency. Unfortunately, patience and kindness usually do not pass through a crowd in the same way. In this case, the people kept trying to touch Jesus, and we can picture the scene of the sick and injured pressing forward, some of them probably getting knocked over on their way to the Lord. But it wasn’t the touch of Jesus that was the key, it was his divine power which was “going out from him and healing them all.”
We can take this to heart right now. When you pray to God for healing, for help, for safety, for protection, or even for love and affection, trust that he will answer you. Trust that he loves you, and that he certainly will protect you. He will do what is right for your soul, and for your body, too. Put your faith in him, and keep praying—pray for yourself, for the people you love, and even for the people you hate. Pray without ceasing.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota