Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted [The Greek for tempted can also mean tested.] by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them, he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’[Deut. 8:3]”
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’[Deut. 6:13 ]”
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[Psalm 91:11,12]”
12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[Deut. 6:16 ]”
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
CROSS-REFERENCE MARK 1
The Baptism and Testing of Jesus
9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you, I am well pleased.”
12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[Isaiah 61:1,2 (see Septuagint); Isaiah 58:6]
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
22 All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.
23 Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”
24 “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25 I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26 Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27 And there were many in Israel with leprosy [The Greek word traditionally translated leprosy was used for various diseases affecting the skin.] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”
28 All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29 They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. 30 But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Jesus Drives Out an Impure Spirit
31 Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people. 32 They were amazed at his teaching, because his words had authority.
33 In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an impure spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, 34 “Go away! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” [Demons are spirit, and therefore they knew Jesus as the Messiah, the Holy One of God]
35 “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him.
36 All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!” 37 And the news about him spread throughout the surrounding area.
CROSS-REFERENCE MARK 1
Jesus Drives Out an Impure Spirit
21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an impure spirit cried out, 24 “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”
25 “Be quiet!” said Jesus sternly. “Come out of him!” 26 The impure spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.
27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.” 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.
Jesus Heals Many
38 Jesus left the synagogue and went to the home of Simon. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked Jesus to help her. 39 So he bent over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
40 At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Messiah. [Demons knew the Son of God as the Messiah who came down]
42 At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” 44 And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.
CROSS-REFERENCE MARK 1
Jesus Announces the Good News
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
NOTES:
4:1–13 See note on Mt 4:1–11.
4:1 Filled with the holy Spirit: as a result of the descent
of the Spirit upon him at his baptism (Lk 3:21–22), Jesus is now equipped to
overcome the devil. Just as the Spirit is prominent at this early stage of
Jesus’ ministry (Lk 4:1, 14, 18), so too it will be at the beginning of the
period of the church in Acts (Acts 1:4; 2:4, 17).
4:2 For forty days: the mention of forty days recalls the
forty years of the wilderness wanderings of the Israelites during the Exodus
(Dt 8:2).
4:9 To Jerusalem: the Lucan order of the temptations
concludes on the parapet of the temple in Jerusalem, the city of destiny in
Luke-Acts. It is in Jerusalem that Jesus will ultimately face his destiny (Lk
9:51; 13:33).
4:13 For a time: the devil’s opportune time will occur
before the passion and death of Jesus (Lk 22:3, 31–32, 53).
4:14 News of him spread: a Lucan theme; see Lk 4:37; 5:15;
7:17.
4:16–30 Luke has transposed to the beginning of Jesus’
ministry an incident from his Marcan source, which situated it near the end of
the Galilean ministry (Mk 6:1–6a). In doing so, Luke turns the initial
admiration (Lk 4:22) and subsequent rejection of Jesus (Lk 4:28–29) into a
foreshadowing of the whole future ministry of Jesus. Moreover, the rejection of
Jesus in his own hometown hints at the greater rejection of him by Israel (Acts
13:46).
4:16 According to his custom: Jesus’ practice of regularly
attending synagogue is carried on by the early Christians’ practice of meeting
in the temple (Acts 2:46; 3:1; 5:12).
4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed me: see note on Lk 3:21–22. As this incident develops, Jesus is
portrayed as a prophet whose ministry is compared to that of the prophets
Elijah and Elisha. Prophetic anointings are known in first-century Palestinian
Judaism from the Qumran literature that speaks of prophets as God’s anointed
ones. To bring glad tidings to the poor: more than any other gospel writer Luke
is concerned with Jesus’ attitude toward the economically and socially poor
(see Lk 6:20, 24; 12:16–21; 14:12–14; 16:19–26; 19:8). At times, the poor in
Luke’s gospel are associated with the downtrodden, the oppressed and afflicted,
the forgotten and the neglected (Lk 4:18; 6:20–22; 7:22; 14:12–14), and it is
they who accept Jesus’ message of salvation.
4:21 Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your
hearing: this sermon inaugurates the time of fulfillment of Old Testament
prophecy. Luke presents the ministry of Jesus as fulfilling Old Testament hopes
and expectations (Lk 7:22); for Luke, even Jesus’ suffering, death, and
resurrection are done in fulfillment of the scriptures (Lk 24:25–27, 44–46;
Acts 3:18).
4:23 The things that we heard were done in Capernaum: Luke’s
source for this incident reveals an awareness of an earlier ministry of Jesus
in Capernaum that Luke has not yet made use of because of his transposition of
this Nazareth episode to the beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry. It is
possible that by use of the future tense you will quote me…, Jesus is being
portrayed as a prophet.
4:25–26 The references to Elijah and Elisha serve several
purposes in this episode: they emphasize Luke’s portrait of Jesus as a prophet
like Elijah and Elisha; they help to explain why the initial admiration of the
people turn to rejection, and they provide the scriptural justification for
the future Christian mission to the Gentiles.
4:26 A widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon: like Naaman
the Syrian in Lk 4:27, a non-Israelite becomes the object of the prophet’s
ministry.
4:31–44 The next several incidents in Jesus’ ministry take
place in Capernaum and are based on Luke’s source, Mk 1:21–39. To the previous
portrait of Jesus as prophet (Lk 4:16–30) they now add a presentation of him as
teacher (Lk 4:31–32), exorcist (Lk 4:32–37, 41), healer (Lk 4:38–40), and proclaimer
of God’s kingdom (Lk 4:43).
4:34 What have you to do with us?: see note on Jn 2:4. Have
you come to destroy us?: the question reflects the current belief that before
the day of the Lord control over humanity would be wrested from the evil
spirits, evil destroyed, and God’s authority over humanity reestablished. The
synoptic gospel tradition presents Jesus carrying out this task.
4:38 The house of Simon: because of Luke’s arrangement of
material, the reader has not yet been introduced to Simon (cf. Mk 1:16–18,
29–31). Situated as it is before the call of Simon (Lk 5:1–11), it helps the
reader to understand Simon’s eagerness to do what Jesus says (Lk 5:5) and to
follow him (Lk 5:11).
4:41 They knew that he was the Messiah: that is, the Christ
(see note on Lk 2:11).
4:42 They tried to prevent him from leaving them: the
reaction of these strangers in Capernaum is presented in contrast to the
reactions of those in his hometown who rejected him (Lk 4:28–30).
4:44 In the synagogues of Judea: instead of Judea, which is
the best reading of the manuscript tradition, the Byzantine text tradition and
other manuscripts read “Galilee,” a reading that harmonizes Luke with Mt 4:23
and Mk 1:39. Up to this point, Luke has spoken only of a ministry of Jesus in
Galilee. Luke may be using Judea to refer to the land of Israel, the territory
of the Jews, and not to a specific portion of it.
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