“All the people were amazed”

Read Luke 4:31-37 

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The lakeside town of Capernaum was now the base for Jesus’s ministry in Galilee (31; Mt.4:13). Again we see that his regular practice on the Sabbath was to go to the synagogue, the gathering place in Jewish society for worship. He was already known in the region as a respected and popular teacher (4:14-15) and so he was invited to teach (32). 

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The people were “amazed at his teaching because his words had authority” (32; cf. Mt.7:28-29). By this they meant that his teaching was original, in contrast to the regular teachers who only taught what they’d received from other teachers. That authority was seen too in his miracles, as in this account of healing a demonised man (the first miracle recorded in Luke).

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Demon-possession is a common feature in Jesus’s ministry. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn.3:8) and his casting out of spirits is a sign of the coming of God’s kingdom (Mt.12:28). In the presence of “the Holy One of God”, the unclean demon recoiled in horror (cf. Jas.2:19). The recognition was valid (cf. Jn.6:69) but Jesus didn’t want the testimony of a demon, so he silenced it and cast it out. Amazement sums up well the people’s reaction to him (36).