Luke 4 explained: Tested, Then Sent Out

Tested in the wilderness (vv. 1-13)

After forty days without food, the devil tempts Jesus three ways: feed himself by his own power, gain the world by worshiping the devil, and make God prove his protection with a leap from the temple. Each time he answers with a line from Deuteronomy, a book about Israel's forty years of testing in the wilderness, and Christians often read this as Jesus staying faithful where Israel had struggled.

Reading Isaiah in Nazareth (vv. 14-21)

He reads Isaiah's words about someone anointed (marked out by God) to bring good news to the poor and freedom to captives. 'The year of the Lord's favor' recalls the jubilee, a year in the law of Moses when family land was returned and enslaved Israelites went free, and Jesus startles everyone by saying this promise is coming true today, in him.

His hometown turns on him (vv. 22-30)

His neighbors admire his words but cannot get past seeing him as 'Joseph's son', and they want the miracles they have heard about from elsewhere. When he points out that the prophets Elijah and Elisha helped outsiders, a foreign widow and a Syrian commander, they try to throw him off a cliff, and Luke simply says he walked away through the crowd.

Authority in Capernaum (vv. 31-37)

People notice he teaches with authority of his own, and his words alone drive an evil spirit out of a man in the synagogue. The spirit names him 'the Holy One of God', but Jesus silences it, and his reputation spreads.

Healing many at once (vv. 38-41)

He cures the fever of Simon's mother-in-law, and at sunset, when the Sabbath rest day ended and people could carry the sick, crowds bring everyone who is ill. He silences the spirits who call him the Messiah, and many think he refused to have his identity announced by such voices.

Moving on (vv. 42-44)

The grateful crowd tries to keep him, but he says he was sent to bring the good news of God's kingdom, meaning God's rule setting things right, to other towns too. Old manuscripts differ on whether the last verse says Galilee or Judea, and Luke may be using Judea loosely for the whole Jewish homeland.

Key verse: Luke 4:18

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether Jesus' promise of good news to the poor and freedom for the oppressed is mainly spiritual, about forgiveness and inner freedom, or also a call to real economic and social change.

Something to think about

Why might it be harder to accept something surprising from someone we've known all our lives than from a stranger?