Luke 4: 1-30, Temptation and First Sermon

Jesus has just been baptized by John and is now ready for his public ministry, a time period which will last about three years.

Luke 4: 1-4, Jesus goes into the desert
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."

Jesus answered, "It is written: `Man does not live on bread alone.'"

Jesus initiates his ministry with a time of prayer and fasting in the desert solitude. Luke reports that the devil suggests to Jesus that he can resolve his hunger by working a miracle.  The temptation offers a shortcut, suggesting that Jesus's physical needs have priority over other things.  Jesus responds with a quotation from the scriptures of that day, from the book of Deuteronomy, in the Torah: Deuteronomy 8:3.

Luke 4: 5-13, The Temptation of Jesus
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

Jesus answered, "It is written: `Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"

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. For it is written: "`He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' "

Jesus answered, "It says: `Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' "

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Eventually there are three temptations offered to Jesus; he responds to each with a quote an Old Testament passage, citing Deuteronomy 6:13, in response to the devil's worldwide control. When the devil offers Psalm 91:11-12, Jesus responds again from the Torah, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16.

The second temptation is to worship Satan and set up an earthly rule. Again, the temptation involves replacing spiritual values by material, earthly ones. (Who gave Satan all this authority? Jesus does not dispute it.) The third temptation is to show off his power and "force" God to act in a certain way.

What does it mean to "put the Lord your God to the test"? Why is this wrong?

Did Jesus really stand on the highest point? How did he get there? Or was this a "thought experiment"?

Why did Jesus have to be tempted? What would've happened if he had failed? These seem to be genuine tests.

Luke records that “the devil left him until an opportune time”, a clear statement that the temptations are not over.  Throughout the gospel of Luke we should look for these temptations to reappear.

Luke 4: 14-19, Synagogue in Nazareth
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." 

Jesus returns to Galilee from Judea.  He will spend most of his ministry time in an around Galilee and so he returns, briefly, to Nazareth where he grew up.  Jesus has already made a name for himself by this time, speaking in nearby villages but Luke leaves out the details.

As is customary, there is a reading from the scriptures and Jesus reads a Messianic passage from Isaiah 61:1-2 announcing freedom and healing.

Luke 4: 20-21, First sermon

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, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

It was apparently customary that the reader also makes some relevant comments on the scripture (just as I am attempting to do in this blog!) But Jesus does not read the Old Testament passage as old Scripture speaking of a future time. Instead, he simply says, "This scripture speaks of Today!"  It is a stunning announcement.

Luke 4: 22-30, First sermon

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. 

Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: `Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 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. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian."

All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 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 down the cliff. But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

After everyone is amazed, Jesus seems to start an argument.  The details are not clear. Jesus has already begun to do and say remarkable things in nearby Capernaum. The crowd's response, “Isn’t this Joseph's son?” suggest a denial of the Messianic announcement in Jesus's message.

Why are the people of Nazareth angry at the end of his sermon? Because Jesus, after miracles in Capernaum, seems ready to go on to Gentiles, not the Jews, just as Elijah did long ago! Luke (not a Jew) will repeatedly record the ministry of Jesus to the Gentiles.

For future thought: The temptations by the devil, in the desert, put in stark and explicit terms a common set of subtle temptations we generally do not see.  Why is the work of God so invisible to us (me)? Materialism and naturalism are so easy for me.  Why does God insist on being subtle, on not interfering with our world. We apparently have to seek Him, look for Him and his work.

I see in the three temptations the invitation to take the easy, obvious, visible way out, instead of seeking for the spiritual (and subtle) solution.

Luke 4 is another long chapter in Luke and so we will break it into two parts. We will continue with Jesus's ministry tomorrow with the second half of Luke 4.