A few weeks ago I wrote about the amazing fact that the demons recognized and professed publicly the true identity of Jesus. I made the point then, that we must have much more than the faith of demons if we are to have saving faith. Well, one more word about the demon’s sermon in Luke 4. As shocking as it must have been to have a demon publicly announce the identity of Christ, perhaps even more shocking is the fact that Jesus commanded the spirits to be quiet and “would not allow them to speak because they knew that He was the Christ.” This is striking given what Paul says in Philippians 1, that he rejoiced that Christ was preached whether from envy or malicious intentions. Why would Jesus not allow the demons to continue declaring the reality of his identity? Didn't Jesus want all people to know who he was and what he was up to? The answer is surprisingly and yet obviously no... not yet. Clearly Jesus wanted the world to know the truth about him, but he also understood the times and the cultural context that he was in. He knew that in order to reveal that he was, in fact, the long awaited Messiah there needed to be ground work laid. He knew that had his listeners been convinced that he was the Christ, their delivering king, they almost certainly would have begun to mobilize an army around him. That is, their idea of kingship and deliverance was just like that of every other nation; geo-political.
But Jesus was not a king like the other nations and came not to deliver from the Romans, but from sin, Satan, and death. He aspired not to sit on a throne of gold nor to wear a crown of jewels, but rather to ascend to a wooden cross with a crown of thorns upon his head. Yes, all was to be revealed, but not until He was able to teach and demonstrate the kind of kingdom he had come to establish. His is a kingdom in which the king washes the feet of his servants and pleads with God for the forgiveness of his executioners. Jesus knew that the intentions of the demons was to stir up a mob as an act of desperation in order to derail his teaching ministry. He however, would reveal his own identity in his time and on his terms. Ironically, his self revelation also stirred up a mob. This mob however was not gathered to support his ascendancy, but rather to shout in unison for him to be crucified. But in the perfect timing of Jesus they brought him to the only throne from which true deliverance could ever come.