Biblion Bible Commentary
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I Must Preach to the Other Cities
Luke 4:38-44
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 to help her. · WEB
A fever, a whole town at the door after sunset, and a man who leaves in the morning because he was sent elsewhere too.
He rose up from the synagogue and entered into Simon's house Luke 4:38.
Simon appears here as a name the reader is expected to place, though the call has not been narrated yet — this Gospel tells the calling in the next chapter, after Simon has seen his mother-in-law healed. That ordering is a small piece of realism: the man had reasons before he had a summons.
The day is told in the earliest account Mark 1:14–34. Simon's mother-in-law was afflicted with a great fever, and they begged him to help her Luke 4:38. The adjective is this writer's; he tends to grade the severity of what he describes.
He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her Luke 4:39. The verb is the one used of the demon four verses earlier. Nothing is said about what a fever is; what is described is the manner — a word, and it goes.
Immediately she rose up and served them. Two things at once. The recovery is complete rather than convalescent, and the first thing she does with it is get up and work. It is the small domestic version of what everyone healed in this book does next.
When the sun was setting, all those who had any sick with various diseases brought them to him Luke 4:40. Sunset is when the Sabbath ended, so a town that had been waiting all day for the restriction to lift now moves at once. The whole population arrives after dark carrying people.
He laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them. Every one is the detail. A crowd could have been dealt with by a word over the lot, and instead there is a hand on each person, one at a time, for as long as it took.
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 Luke 4:41. The silencing again, and the reason is given: because they knew that he was the Christ. The title is not denied. It is refused this endorsement.
When it was day, he departed and went into an uninhabited place Luke 4:42. After a night like that he leaves before dawn to be alone, which in this Gospel means to pray.
The multitudes looked for him... and held on to him, so that he wouldn't go away from them. They find him and physically hold on. It is the most human moment in the chapter and the most understandable: a town that has just had every sick person healed does not want him leaving.
"I must preach the good news of God's Kingdom to the other cities also. For this reason I have been sent" Luke 4:43.
The refusal turns on that must — the word the boy used in the temple Luke 2:49 and the risen Christ uses on the road Luke 24:26. And the reason given is not that he is tired of them but that others have a claim. He was sent, and being wanted very badly by one town is not a reason to stay in it.
settled What this mark means