Following Jesus’ Baptism we know of Jesus’ parentage in two ways. First, we know he was the son of Joseph & Mary, and in the line of David, which is the line of the Messiah. Second, we know that this is God’s son, conceived through the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary, named at birth by the name given by the Angel Gabriel, at his Baptism the Holy Spirit descends upon him (God’s Spirit) and the voice of God is heard proclaiming that Jesus is HIS son!! This is the final step towards our understanding of Jesus as God’s son. In the world then the main way people knew you were the father of a child is by your naming the child, and by your public confirmation that this is your son/daughter. Otherwise, it was impossible to really confirm parentage of the father. No DNA tests back then.
Luke 4:1-13 – Temptation in the Wilderness
Now Jesus is sent off for training. He is old enough to go into his mission. He has been commissioned by God. He now needs to be toughened up, or we need to see that Jesus can handle everything that Luke has built up for him to this point. Jesus, as a figure in a story, has been lauded beyond our imagination. He has big shoes to fill. How is he going to be able to do everything everyone has said he is going to do?? He needs to learn to rely on the Holy Spirit, to trust in this Spirit that is with him. We will see Jesus relying on the Spirit in sparing with the enemies of God, and even while these enemies are cunning in themselves Jesus with the Spirit will easily overcome their temptations. This part of the story is crucial for us as readers to get the sense that Jesus can do what has been said about him, and that his life is one that his followers can follow, but in following we must learn to rely on that same Spirit rather than being overcome with our own emotion, fear, and anxiety in the face of sin and evil!! We will see starting with this story that Jesus never shirks away from sin/evil, but rather always engages it, and almost befriends it (while never condoning), and transforms it in people’s lives so that the sin/evil is separated from the humanity. Luke begins with this story to show the role of the Messiah to usurp the kingdom of the Devil/sin/evil in the world. Jesus is here to usher in a New Age, where God’s reign is active and alive (through the agency of the Holy Spirit, which will continue and explode in the sequeal, Acts).
“40” days is obviously paralleled in many places biblically: The story of Noah and the rain that fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights, with a sense of purification of the earth for the evil deeds of the inhabitants. Moses spent 40 days up on Mount Sinai as he was receiving instructions from God, seeing God face to face, returning to the people with the commandments of God. Israel spent 40 years wandering in the desert, a way of testings, purification of a people (having a generation die off) before entering the promised land. It is during the 40 days that Jesus fasts, eating nothing. In Luke, the temptations don’t start until these 40 days are over, which means that Jesus is quite weak (physically) at this point, thus the devil strikes when Jesus is at his most vulnerable point. In fact, since the 40 days are over, Jesus probably could eat now. If this was his time of purification, this would be the opportune time for him to eat, to “break the fast.” As the temptations are presented there really isn’t a dialog between the devil and Jesus. It seems rather one sided. The only thing Jesus speaks is scripture, the word of God.
The first temptation then is for food to satisfy hunger. A most basic, human need that we all have each and every day!! Most of us fail at such discipline when if comes to something this basic (gluttony is probably one of the most widespread sins of our age, and one most often accepted and condoned). The bread image also evokes for us the images of Israel wandering in the desert and God providing Manna from above to eat. Jesus response (Deut 8:3) comes from this time in Israel’s history when the purpose was teaching Israel that our sustenance comes by God’s hand, not by our own!! As the temptations begin the devil wants Jesus to “prove” who he is; Though in Luke the ones who really do know who Jesus is are the devil, and the other demons. The temptation is for Jesus to use his powers and his position for personal gain. This is a typical temptation for those in power, and we see this one succumbed to all too often. This is a prime human failing for which there is only one way out! Jesus’ lack of succumbing to this temptation gives all the more power to the “miracle” of his feeding the 5,000 in chapter 9. Do you love satisfying your hunger more than you love God?
For the second temptation the devil takes Jesus “up.” In Matthew its up on a mountain (Matthew likes mountains). This is the temptation of MORE POWER than you currently have. Here the concept of “authority” starts, and it will be a major them, and the exercise of that authority, and from where we get authority. The Son of God has authority, for sure, but it is an authority that comes from God. The devil is offering something that looks appealing on the outside. Jesus’ authority and from where it comes will be witnessed throughout the gospel. The devil is claiming to have vast authority. But who has the greater authority? Jesus response is Deut 6:13. Do you love power, authority, how people view you more than you love God?
For the third temptation the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple. To this point Jesus has given up satisfying a personal human need, has given up personal gain in terms of power and authority, and so now the devil attempts to play with Jesus’ concept of who he is. Does Jesus really think he is the Son of God? Is there a shred of doubt the devil can play against? Wouldn’t Jesus want to be sure if he is going to go spend his life following God’s ways? Why not test it out? This is a good scientific experiment. Since Jesus has been using scripture to combat the devil, the devil now uses scripture and suggests this experiment (Psalm 91:11-12). Again the devil tries to combat Jesus’ self-image as the Son of God, and to put God’s promises to the test. The temptation here was to see if God would really keep Jesus from dying. Jesus will die in Jerusalem later, and this prefigures what will happen, and the reason Jesus allows it to happen. Jesus response (Deut 6:16) gives the reason for Jesus’ submitting to God’s will, and not testing God’s promises. Do you love your life more than you love God? Jesus answers this question more intensely at the end of the Gospel!!
The scripture Jesus uses are for all of us as well. Submission to the will of God is important in our lives, even when we don’t understand what is going on, or why things are happening the way they are. God is in charge, the goal of life is not our physical needs (or wants), the goal of life is not power and prestige, the goal of life is worship of God. Two of Jesus’ responses come directly after the Jewish “shema” (Deut 6:4-9) in Deuteronomy, which was to be recited by Jewish people in the morning and the evening, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.* 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Through his responses Jesus shows himself to be a faithful follower, a faithful Jewish person, the ultimate in submission to God’s will. Jesus does love God with all his heart, sould and might!! The temptations begin in the wilderness and end in Jerusalem. This is the same progression of Jesus’ ministry in Luke.
Chapter 4:14 -9:50 – Jesus’ Ministry in Galilee
Now Jesus’ ministry can begin. He has been fortified with the Holy Spirit, and shown that he can withstand the evil forces that he will face, and remain faithful relying on the Spirit and God’s Word.
Luke 4:14-30 – Jesus in Nazareth (Hometown)
As chapter 4 began we heard that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit,” we again hear this similar refrain. Here Jesus is “filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.” He begins to teach, and “everyone” praises his teaching, so much so reports are spread and people gather to hear Jesus. In Nazareth Jesus does what he usually does. He has been teaching and continues to do the same here. The scroll was given to Jesus, but it seems like he chose where he was going to read. The verses chosen are from Isaiah 61:1-2. Luke adjusts this a bit, omitting “bind up the brokenhearted,” adding “let the oppressed go free (Isa 58:6),” and stops the quote short leaving out, “and the day of vengeance of our God,” thus staying very positive.
Jesus has been anointed by God, we have witnessed that in the story already, so it is easy for the reader to connect these verses with Jesus now. The “year of the Lord’s favor,” is a connection to the Jubilee (Lev 25:10), the fiftieth year, following seven sevens, when everything was restored to the way God had originally set it up for Israel. This would be seen by everyone who is oppressed (oppressed here can include those who have not fared well economically so that they have had to become servants of others, at the Jubilee all of this is reversed) as really good news.
For Luke this is the key event of Jesus proclaiming himself to be the Messiah, and this will be evidenced by everything he does falling in line with the prophet Isaiah. At the beginning those who have listened to him don’t really understand that he is doing this, and are thinking well of him, however, this will change quickly!! The people are amazed at first, and wonder about him being Joseph’s son. This is his hometown. Their question can be taken several ways. One, fascination that a hometown boy has grown up and become such a great teacher!! Two, unbelieving that this hometown boy has made good. Jesus seems to push them to their worst possible and quickly. They were speaking well of him, but then he starts to push their buttons with proverbs. They may have wanted to see Jesus do the things he was doing elsewhere. They wanted some benefit from the hometown boy made good, or made famous. The proverb, v24, appears in various forms in all the Gospels. Jesus lets them know that he is not going to do any of these things and he expects them to reject him, and they oblige!! In doing this Jesus aligns himself with Elijah & Elisha, two of the greatest prophets. However, to do this he is showing his hometown that he hasn’t really come just for them, but for others who aren’t even Israelite. Elijah is the example of Jesus helping those who respond in faithfulness, not too different from John’s rebuke to the crowds at the beginning of his ministry. Rage seems to be an emotion that gets the best of us sometimes. At Jesus words the people are filled with rage, and want to throw him off a cliff. However, even they cannot stop what God is doing in Jesus, and he continues on his way.
The group that reacts this way is reading scripture differently than Jesus. They understand that the covenant is exclusively theirs, and no one else’s. Here Jesus is extending the covenant towards those who are in the Isaiah prophesy: the poor, the oppressed, etc. Like John the Baptist, it doesn’t matter who your father was, or that you lived in the same town as the Messiah!! Because they were not open to the possibilities that God was doing through Jesus, they became unable to receive anything Jesus had to give.
Luke 4:31-44 – Jesus in Capernaum
Jesus moves on to Capernaum, and continues teaching in the Synagogue like he had been doing, and the reaction is the same, people are amazed at his teaching. This time we hear a reason, he teaches as one with authority. We already know what authority Jesus has, his authority is from God, so the people are definitely correct! As readers we may wonder if the same thing is going to happen here as happened in Nazareth?
Exorcism
Here Jesus meets a demon possessed man, and we will experience the power and authority of Jesus’ words! The demon recognizes Jesus as a threat, calls him by name, mentioning the town that just tried to kill Jesus (possibly a slur, knowing Jesus was not treated well in his hometown). The demon knows exactly who Jesus is, “the holy one of God,” knows that Jesus has power over the demon. Demon possession was known to throw people to the ground injuring them, so it is notable that as Jesus exorcises the demon the man is thrown to the ground, but is not injured. The people wonder about the power and authority in the words of Jesus, and they began spreading the news. It is important here to note that the response to Jesus here is amazement and questions, not praise and submission. Therefore, the crowds treat Jesus as a rock star, rather than the Son of God. They are seeing him have power and authority, they aren’t connecting that to God.
Healing
Jesus leaves the synagogue and goes to a friends (Simon) house, whose mother is ill. The understanding of illness then was more along the lines of being possessed (similar to a demon) of this illness that needs to be eradicated (viruses, bacteria, etc. today also could be considered similar). Note what happens to the sin/evil each time Jesus speaks. They go away; Jesus doesn’t go away from them. Being cured Simon’s mother begins to serve them, which is the correct response to healing, and to the Son of God. This is a submission to the Son of God!
As word got out many others came with illnesses and demons, they come after sundown because that was the end of the Sabbath day, and they could carry someone around then, and Jesus laid hands on them and healed them. Again, the demons know who Jesus is! In this Jesus heals with laying on of hands, and casts out demons (including illness of fever) with words.
Jesus then tries to get away, but the crowds find him, and want him to stay with them. They want him to themselves, which was also part of the problem in his hometown. They want to keep Jesus’ powerful words to themselves. The word of God cannot be contained, and is not limited to only a select few. Jesus stresses his purpose is to proclaim the good news in other places also!! In Luke Jesus’ ministry is spreading out. And the good news obviously includes freeing people from debilitating, and dehumanizing ways of life that God did not intend for us!
Luke 4:1-13 – Temptation in the Wilderness
Now Jesus is sent off for training. He is old enough to go into his mission. He has been commissioned by God. He now needs to be toughened up, or we need to see that Jesus can handle everything that Luke has built up for him to this point. Jesus, as a figure in a story, has been lauded beyond our imagination. He has big shoes to fill. How is he going to be able to do everything everyone has said he is going to do?? He needs to learn to rely on the Holy Spirit, to trust in this Spirit that is with him. We will see Jesus relying on the Spirit in sparing with the enemies of God, and even while these enemies are cunning in themselves Jesus with the Spirit will easily overcome their temptations. This part of the story is crucial for us as readers to get the sense that Jesus can do what has been said about him, and that his life is one that his followers can follow, but in following we must learn to rely on that same Spirit rather than being overcome with our own emotion, fear, and anxiety in the face of sin and evil!! We will see starting with this story that Jesus never shirks away from sin/evil, but rather always engages it, and almost befriends it (while never condoning), and transforms it in people’s lives so that the sin/evil is separated from the humanity. Luke begins with this story to show the role of the Messiah to usurp the kingdom of the Devil/sin/evil in the world. Jesus is here to usher in a New Age, where God’s reign is active and alive (through the agency of the Holy Spirit, which will continue and explode in the sequeal, Acts).
“40” days is obviously paralleled in many places biblically: The story of Noah and the rain that fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights, with a sense of purification of the earth for the evil deeds of the inhabitants. Moses spent 40 days up on Mount Sinai as he was receiving instructions from God, seeing God face to face, returning to the people with the commandments of God. Israel spent 40 years wandering in the desert, a way of testings, purification of a people (having a generation die off) before entering the promised land. It is during the 40 days that Jesus fasts, eating nothing. In Luke, the temptations don’t start until these 40 days are over, which means that Jesus is quite weak (physically) at this point, thus the devil strikes when Jesus is at his most vulnerable point. In fact, since the 40 days are over, Jesus probably could eat now. If this was his time of purification, this would be the opportune time for him to eat, to “break the fast.” As the temptations are presented there really isn’t a dialog between the devil and Jesus. It seems rather one sided. The only thing Jesus speaks is scripture, the word of God.
The first temptation then is for food to satisfy hunger. A most basic, human need that we all have each and every day!! Most of us fail at such discipline when if comes to something this basic (gluttony is probably one of the most widespread sins of our age, and one most often accepted and condoned). The bread image also evokes for us the images of Israel wandering in the desert and God providing Manna from above to eat. Jesus response (Deut 8:3) comes from this time in Israel’s history when the purpose was teaching Israel that our sustenance comes by God’s hand, not by our own!! As the temptations begin the devil wants Jesus to “prove” who he is; Though in Luke the ones who really do know who Jesus is are the devil, and the other demons. The temptation is for Jesus to use his powers and his position for personal gain. This is a typical temptation for those in power, and we see this one succumbed to all too often. This is a prime human failing for which there is only one way out! Jesus’ lack of succumbing to this temptation gives all the more power to the “miracle” of his feeding the 5,000 in chapter 9. Do you love satisfying your hunger more than you love God?
For the second temptation the devil takes Jesus “up.” In Matthew its up on a mountain (Matthew likes mountains). This is the temptation of MORE POWER than you currently have. Here the concept of “authority” starts, and it will be a major them, and the exercise of that authority, and from where we get authority. The Son of God has authority, for sure, but it is an authority that comes from God. The devil is offering something that looks appealing on the outside. Jesus’ authority and from where it comes will be witnessed throughout the gospel. The devil is claiming to have vast authority. But who has the greater authority? Jesus response is Deut 6:13. Do you love power, authority, how people view you more than you love God?
For the third temptation the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the Temple. To this point Jesus has given up satisfying a personal human need, has given up personal gain in terms of power and authority, and so now the devil attempts to play with Jesus’ concept of who he is. Does Jesus really think he is the Son of God? Is there a shred of doubt the devil can play against? Wouldn’t Jesus want to be sure if he is going to go spend his life following God’s ways? Why not test it out? This is a good scientific experiment. Since Jesus has been using scripture to combat the devil, the devil now uses scripture and suggests this experiment (Psalm 91:11-12). Again the devil tries to combat Jesus’ self-image as the Son of God, and to put God’s promises to the test. The temptation here was to see if God would really keep Jesus from dying. Jesus will die in Jerusalem later, and this prefigures what will happen, and the reason Jesus allows it to happen. Jesus response (Deut 6:16) gives the reason for Jesus’ submitting to God’s will, and not testing God’s promises. Do you love your life more than you love God? Jesus answers this question more intensely at the end of the Gospel!!
The scripture Jesus uses are for all of us as well. Submission to the will of God is important in our lives, even when we don’t understand what is going on, or why things are happening the way they are. God is in charge, the goal of life is not our physical needs (or wants), the goal of life is not power and prestige, the goal of life is worship of God. Two of Jesus’ responses come directly after the Jewish “shema” (Deut 6:4-9) in Deuteronomy, which was to be recited by Jewish people in the morning and the evening, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.* 5You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Through his responses Jesus shows himself to be a faithful follower, a faithful Jewish person, the ultimate in submission to God’s will. Jesus does love God with all his heart, sould and might!! The temptations begin in the wilderness and end in Jerusalem. This is the same progression of Jesus’ ministry in Luke.
Chapter 4:14 -9:50 – Jesus’ Ministry in Galilee
Now Jesus’ ministry can begin. He has been fortified with the Holy Spirit, and shown that he can withstand the evil forces that he will face, and remain faithful relying on the Spirit and God’s Word.
Luke 4:14-30 – Jesus in Nazareth (Hometown)
As chapter 4 began we heard that Jesus was “full of the Holy Spirit,” we again hear this similar refrain. Here Jesus is “filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.” He begins to teach, and “everyone” praises his teaching, so much so reports are spread and people gather to hear Jesus. In Nazareth Jesus does what he usually does. He has been teaching and continues to do the same here. The scroll was given to Jesus, but it seems like he chose where he was going to read. The verses chosen are from Isaiah 61:1-2. Luke adjusts this a bit, omitting “bind up the brokenhearted,” adding “let the oppressed go free (Isa 58:6),” and stops the quote short leaving out, “and the day of vengeance of our God,” thus staying very positive.
Jesus has been anointed by God, we have witnessed that in the story already, so it is easy for the reader to connect these verses with Jesus now. The “year of the Lord’s favor,” is a connection to the Jubilee (Lev 25:10), the fiftieth year, following seven sevens, when everything was restored to the way God had originally set it up for Israel. This would be seen by everyone who is oppressed (oppressed here can include those who have not fared well economically so that they have had to become servants of others, at the Jubilee all of this is reversed) as really good news.
For Luke this is the key event of Jesus proclaiming himself to be the Messiah, and this will be evidenced by everything he does falling in line with the prophet Isaiah. At the beginning those who have listened to him don’t really understand that he is doing this, and are thinking well of him, however, this will change quickly!! The people are amazed at first, and wonder about him being Joseph’s son. This is his hometown. Their question can be taken several ways. One, fascination that a hometown boy has grown up and become such a great teacher!! Two, unbelieving that this hometown boy has made good. Jesus seems to push them to their worst possible and quickly. They were speaking well of him, but then he starts to push their buttons with proverbs. They may have wanted to see Jesus do the things he was doing elsewhere. They wanted some benefit from the hometown boy made good, or made famous. The proverb, v24, appears in various forms in all the Gospels. Jesus lets them know that he is not going to do any of these things and he expects them to reject him, and they oblige!! In doing this Jesus aligns himself with Elijah & Elisha, two of the greatest prophets. However, to do this he is showing his hometown that he hasn’t really come just for them, but for others who aren’t even Israelite. Elijah is the example of Jesus helping those who respond in faithfulness, not too different from John’s rebuke to the crowds at the beginning of his ministry. Rage seems to be an emotion that gets the best of us sometimes. At Jesus words the people are filled with rage, and want to throw him off a cliff. However, even they cannot stop what God is doing in Jesus, and he continues on his way.
The group that reacts this way is reading scripture differently than Jesus. They understand that the covenant is exclusively theirs, and no one else’s. Here Jesus is extending the covenant towards those who are in the Isaiah prophesy: the poor, the oppressed, etc. Like John the Baptist, it doesn’t matter who your father was, or that you lived in the same town as the Messiah!! Because they were not open to the possibilities that God was doing through Jesus, they became unable to receive anything Jesus had to give.
Luke 4:31-44 – Jesus in Capernaum
Jesus moves on to Capernaum, and continues teaching in the Synagogue like he had been doing, and the reaction is the same, people are amazed at his teaching. This time we hear a reason, he teaches as one with authority. We already know what authority Jesus has, his authority is from God, so the people are definitely correct! As readers we may wonder if the same thing is going to happen here as happened in Nazareth?
Exorcism
Here Jesus meets a demon possessed man, and we will experience the power and authority of Jesus’ words! The demon recognizes Jesus as a threat, calls him by name, mentioning the town that just tried to kill Jesus (possibly a slur, knowing Jesus was not treated well in his hometown). The demon knows exactly who Jesus is, “the holy one of God,” knows that Jesus has power over the demon. Demon possession was known to throw people to the ground injuring them, so it is notable that as Jesus exorcises the demon the man is thrown to the ground, but is not injured. The people wonder about the power and authority in the words of Jesus, and they began spreading the news. It is important here to note that the response to Jesus here is amazement and questions, not praise and submission. Therefore, the crowds treat Jesus as a rock star, rather than the Son of God. They are seeing him have power and authority, they aren’t connecting that to God.
Healing
Jesus leaves the synagogue and goes to a friends (Simon) house, whose mother is ill. The understanding of illness then was more along the lines of being possessed (similar to a demon) of this illness that needs to be eradicated (viruses, bacteria, etc. today also could be considered similar). Note what happens to the sin/evil each time Jesus speaks. They go away; Jesus doesn’t go away from them. Being cured Simon’s mother begins to serve them, which is the correct response to healing, and to the Son of God. This is a submission to the Son of God!
As word got out many others came with illnesses and demons, they come after sundown because that was the end of the Sabbath day, and they could carry someone around then, and Jesus laid hands on them and healed them. Again, the demons know who Jesus is! In this Jesus heals with laying on of hands, and casts out demons (including illness of fever) with words.
Jesus then tries to get away, but the crowds find him, and want him to stay with them. They want him to themselves, which was also part of the problem in his hometown. They want to keep Jesus’ powerful words to themselves. The word of God cannot be contained, and is not limited to only a select few. Jesus stresses his purpose is to proclaim the good news in other places also!! In Luke Jesus’ ministry is spreading out. And the good news obviously includes freeing people from debilitating, and dehumanizing ways of life that God did not intend for us!
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