What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out

 Then He went down to  Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths.  And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.  Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon.  And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Let us alone!  What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?  Did You come to destroy us?  I know who You are -- the Holy One of God!"  But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!"  And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.  Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, "What a word this is!  For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out."  And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.

- Luke 4:31-37

 Yesterday we read that after Jesus was tempted in the wilderness,  He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region.  And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.  So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up.  And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.  And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:  "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."  Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him.  And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is filled in your hearing."  So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.  And they said, "Is this not Joseph's son?"  He said to them, "You will surely say this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself!  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country.'"  Then He said, "Assuredly, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.  But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian."  So all those in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.

Then He went down to  Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths.  My study bible tells quotes St. Ambrose of Milan, who comments that Christ begins preaching and healing on the Sabbaths to show that "the new creation began where the old creation ceased."  (See Genesis 2:2-3.)

And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.  The people are astonished because Jesus teaches with authority.    The prophets of the Old Testament and also the teachers of Jesus' time would teach in the third person; i.e. "The Lord says").  But Jesus teaches in the first person ("I say to you").   Those of old were very few who heard God's voice directly, but Jesus speaks directly to all.

Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon.  And he cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Let us alone!  What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth?  Did You come to destroy us?  I know who You are -- the Holy One of God!"  But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be quiet, and come out of him!"  And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.   The demons know who Jesus is.  But Jesus' identity will not be revealed through declarations and proclamations; His ministry must unfold as it unfolds, through the works He is given to do and the word He is given to teach.  He doesn't openly declare Himself Messiah.  There will be all kinds of complications in this ministry:   the hostility of the leadership, the people misunderstand what the Messiah is to be and expect an earthly political leader, Jesus wants genuine faith in His relationship to His followers -- not to convince by signs alone.  He manifests His identity, but not simply through open declarative proclamations.

Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, "What a word this is!  For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out."  And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.  The expression of Jesus' ministry is authority and power through the works He is given to do.   It is in this way He manifests His identity as Incarnate Christ.

We note in this beginning of Jesus' ministry that it is begun in the power of the Holy Spirit:  He was filled with the Holy Spirit when He returned from the Jordan (His Baptism) and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan regarding His ministry.  Then  He returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee (yesterday's reading, above).   Everything works through the holy power of God manifest through the work of Father, Son, and Spirit.  In reading through the Gospels, we should not separate the work of Father, Son, and Spirit together.  Christ says over and over again that those who have seen Him have seen the Father.  In John's Gospel, at the Last Supper, we understand His promise that if we abide in Him and follow His commands, He, the Father, and the Spirit (whom He calls the Helper) will dwell with us and make their home with us.  The Holy Spirit is always at work in the story of Jesus' ministry, preparing the way and helping to lead Him to the events that will make up this ministry.  In today's reading, Jesus' power and authority astonish the people.  The ministry unfolds to tell a story of what this Messiah is all about, to reveal God, and to reveal God in God's fullness as Trinity.  It is this story that we watch, and this unfolding in a particular way, that the Spirit helps to lead and to make manifest for us.  Even as Jesus' ministry is fulfilled through Father, Son, and Spirit, we should never minimize the importance of all three at work in our own lives.  We call on and pray to Christ, but where One is, so is the Trinity, as He has promised and taught to us. But the example of the specific unfolding of Jesus' ministry should let us understand the power that we have to call upon through prayer.  There are specific prayers to the Holy Spirit (for example, this prayer that begins all Eastern services), as we have the prayer given to us by Jesus to pray to Our Father (Matthew 6:9-13), and there are also short, simple prayers to Christ called the Jesus Prayer or Prayer of the Heart, to pray at any time, in concentration or while doing other tasks.  We see the specific way Jesus is called upon to develop His ministry and to reveal Himself as God to the world.  So should we follow His example, and always ask through prayer for how the journey of our own life is to be led and to unfold.