Luke 4

The temptation of Christ (vs. 1-13)—I explain this in some detail in Matthew 4, so I won’t be elaborate here. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness (v. 1) for forty days; for what specific reason, we do not know, unless it was for the purpose of being tempted, because Luke says that He was “tempted for forty days by the devil” (v. 2). So it wasn’t necessarily after the forty days that all the temptations occurred. The devil put three explicit temptations before the Lord. Jesus responds to each with “It is written.” We should hide the word of God in our hearts that we might not sin against Him (Ps. 119:11). For more on this event, see my summary in Matthew 4.

Teaching in Nazareth (vs. 14-30)—Jesus then returns home to Nazareth, where He’s not received very well. He obviously was already teaching and doing miracles because “news of Him went out through all the surrounding region” (v. 14). In Nazareth, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath (v. 16), and read a passage from Isaiah (v. 17), the most significant part which read “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor” (v. 18). That was part of His intended work and He told them that He was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s words (v. 21). Initially, they were impressed, but apparently became skeptical when they realized He was a local (v. 22). Why that made any difference is unknown, but Jesus mentions the proverbial “no prophet is accepted in his own country” (v. 24). Just because they knew Him was no excuse to reject Him, for He had certainly done nothing blameworthy during His early life. Perhaps His lowly station offended them. “Physician, heal yourself” might indicate that they were dubious because of His condition of poverty; “if you’re so great, why can’t you lift yourself out of your financial predicament?” Being poor was a sign to the Jews of God’s disfavor; the rich must be the righteous because they have been financially blessed by God. But Jesus indicates their problem was deeper than that. He also begins to explain that God’s blessings are equally for Gentiles (vs. 25-27), something that indeed upset His listeners to no end, indeed, upset them so much that they were going to kill Him (vs. 28-29). But He escaped in a manner which Luke doesn’t specifically describe, but appears to have been beyond the normal (v. 30). How could He have just passed “through the midst of them” when they had hold of Him and were about to toss Him over a cliff? Something extraordinary happened, though again, the specifics are omitted.

Jesus performs a number of miracles (vs. 31-44)—In this section, Luke bundles together a few miracles Jesus performed about that time. He casts out a loud-mouthed demon (vs. 34-35), which astonished the people and added to His fame (vs. 36-37). Interestingly, the word “fame” (“report”, NKJV) is the Greek word echos, from which our word “echo” comes from. The reports of Him “echoed” throughout the region. In verses 38-39, He heals Peter’s mother-in-law (no pope in that house), and the cure was immediate, not conditional or extended. Apparently, that same day, “when the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them” (v. 40). No failures, regardless of the infirmity; He healed “every one of them.” More verbose demons spoke of their knowledge of Him (v. 41); Jesus silenced them, and exorcised them. The people of that area wanted Him to remain longer (v. 42), but He left, telling them “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent" (v. 43). He did remain in Galilee, however (v. 44). This is actually the second year of Jesus’ ministry. The first three gospel writers totally omit His first year, much of which He spent down south in Jerusalem. John fills in some of that gap in his gospel.