Having recorded two individual healings, Luke now mentioned a group of people that Jesus healed. Again Luke omitted some details that the other Synoptic writers included but added others to stress other points for his particular readers.
4:40 The crowds waited to come to Jesus until the Sabbath ended at sundown. Luke did not draw attention to the Sabbath but noted the sun setting as the background for what followed. Luke distinguished between the sick and the demon possessed. He did not think demons were responsible for all disease, as some Greeks did. However, he would have acknowledged that sin is responsible for all sickness ultimately. Luke alone also mentioned Jesus laying His hands on those who came to Him for healing. This demonstrates Jesus' compassion for the afflicted and the fact that the healing came from Him. It was common in pagan Hellenistic accounts of supposedly miraculous healings for healers to lay their hands on the sick.171
4:41 Only Luke recorded that the demons called Jesus "the Son of God."This was another testimony to His true identity. Again Jesus told them to keep quiet (cf. v. 35). He wanted people, not just demons, to believe that He was the Son of God. Moreover the testimony of demons might appear suspect to the people present since they serve the father of lies. Note that Luke equated "Son of God"and "Christ (Messiah),"which many of Jesus' followers had difficulty comprehending and acknowledging.
The demons' witness to Jesus' identity seems to be the point of this story.
