One of the more common signs that Jesus works—as in today’s Gospel (Luke 4:31–37)—is the casting out of demons. These unclean spirits recognize Jesus for who he is—the Holy One of God, the spirit says in today’s episode—and are quickly rebuked and cast out by Jesus. It is noteworthy how the crowd reacts to Jesus’s sign: What is there about his word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.
We would do well to meditate on this word of Jesus. Here in today’s Gospel, we see that the word of Jesus has power to cast out demons, that is, to break the power of evil. But elsewhere in the Gospels, we see the word of Jesus heal the sick, give sight to the blind, make the lame walk, and raise the dead. His words are spirit and life (John 6:63), they are truth (John 17:17), they will not pass away (Mark 13:32). Jesus is, finally, the Word of God who became flesh (John 1:14), God’s ultimate word of love to us.
If we welcome the word of Jesus into our hearts each day, it will transform us: by casting out evil from us, healing what is broken, and raising us up. Let us have confidence in the power of Jesus’s word, and each day let us ask the Spirit to water this word and make it fruitful within us.