Fr Paul Gooley reads from the Gospel of Luke (4: 38-44) in which Jesus heals many people, with all kinds of illnesses, by laying his hands on each one.

Fr Paul says, in the stories of today’s reading there is a greater sense of authority and a wider range than in the versions of the healings given by the other gospel writers.

Here Jesus does not raise Simon’s mother-in-law by the hand; he simply rebukes the fever and ‘immediately’ which is not the case in the other gospels, immediately she stands up and gets to work.

Then in the next scene he heals ‘every single one of them’, and the demons are so disturbed by Jesus’ presence that a sort of pandemonium breaks out among them as they rush around shouting that Jesus is son of God. But again, Jesus settles everything down with a simple rebuke.

Next morning it is not simply Simon and his group who come out to the lonely place but again all the crowds. Luke is more forceful than the other gospel writers as he tells us that the crowd tried to restrain him, yet despite these attempts by the crowd Jesus moves on to continue his mission around Judaea.

So again, Fr Paul notes, there is an air of command or authority around Jesus.