Pm reading thoughts Luke 4:

Before Jesus starts His public preaching and healing ministry, He goes alone into the wilderness near Judea. He spends forty days fasting, which is almost as long as a human body can go without food. The Holy Spirit drives this experience, but it also includes some tempting from Satan. Satan tries to lure Jesus in different ways, all of which involve turning away from God’s plan and seeking an easier path. In one instance, Satan even quotes Scripture but twists its meaning. However, Jesus resists these temptations, remains obedient to God, and counters with quotes from the book of Deuteronomy. After failing to succeed, Satan leaves Jesus and goes elsewhere (Luke 4:1–13).

After facing temptation and hunger, Jesus returns to Galilee, an area near the Sea of Galilee and north of Jerusalem. There, He teaches in synagogues and receives a great response. However, not everyone in Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, accepts His message. When He visits there, Jesus reads from the book of Isaiah, which prophesies that the Messiah will bring rescue, healing, and good news. But when Jesus claims to fulfill this prophecy, His former neighbors doubt Him, thinking of Him as just another Nazarene who can’t be anything special (Luke 4:14–22).

Jesus knows where this skepticism will lead. People who have witnessed His miracles often demand more supernatural signs when He teaches. But these demands are insincere; those who don’t accept the evidence they’ve already seen won’t likely respond to more signs. Jesus predicts that the people want Him to perform the same miracles He has done elsewhere. However, Jesus criticizes their stubbornness and reminds them that sometimes God chooses to perform miracles for Gentiles—non-Jewish people—rather than Israel (Luke 4:23–27).

At the time Jesus says these things, Israel is upset about being under Roman rule. The Jewish people are resentful of their conquerors. When Jesus suggests that God is willing to reach out to Gentiles, the Nazarenes react angrily. They kick Jesus out of the synagogue and take Him to a nearby cliff with the intention of harming Him. But Jesus miraculously escapes from the crowd unharmed. He manages to do this at other times in His ministry too (Luke 4:28–30)

At some point in the early days of Jesus’ ministry, He encounters a man possessed by a demon in a synagogue. The demon recognizes Jesus as the Son of God and is scared. Jesus commands the demon to leave, and it immediately obeys. The people are already amazed by Jesus’ authoritative words, but witnessing His divine power adds even more excitement to His ministry (Luke 4:31–37).

After leaving the synagogue, Jesus goes to Simon Peter’s house (also called Simon), who would later become one of His disciples. Peter’s mother-in-law is seriously ill and bedridden. Luke, who knows a thing or two about medicine, describes her fever as intense. Just as Jesus had power over demons, He commands the illness to leave, and she is immediately healed. She gets up and starts attending to her hosting duties right away. Since this happens on the Sabbath, people wait until sundown—the start of the next day—to bring the sick and afflicted to Jesus. While Jesus heals them, He instructs the demons not to reveal His identity as the Christ (Luke 4:38–41).

Jesus, being fully human, needs rest and refreshment from time to time. But when He tries to take a break from His ministry, the people living near Simon Peter follow Him. Healing and preaching are good things, but God’s plans for Jesus involve much more than one small area. Jesus understands the importance of choosing what’s “best” over what’s merely “good.” He plans to travel around the region, so He kindly refuses to stay in one place for too long (Luke 4:42–44).

The thing that I noticed most in this chapter, is that we witness Jesus confronting those three temptations, marking the start of his “Galilean Ministry.” We also see how he faces rejection in Nazareth, while receiving great acclaim in the neighboring town of Capernaum.

The part that jumps out to me just before Jesus embarks on his kingship, Satan tries to tempt him into turning away from his allegiance to God. Jesus goes to the wilderness, where he fasts for forty days (Luke 4:2). He faces the same temptations that the people of Israel encountered in the Sinai wilderness. Interestingly, Jesus responds to Satan’s temptations by quoting passages from Deuteronomy 6-8, which recount Israel’s journey in the wilderness. Let’s take a look at these temptations:

First, Satan tempts Jesus to rely on his own power to fulfill his needs instead of trusting in God’s provision (Luke 4:1-3). Satan says, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread” (Luke 4:3).

Second, Satan offers Jesus a shortcut to power and glory, trying to lure him away from his allegiance to God (Luke 4:5-8). Satan says, “If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

Lastly, Satan tempts Jesus to doubt God’s presence and try to force God’s hand in a desperate act (Luke 4:9-12). Satan suggests, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the temple.”

Unlike Israel, Jesus resists these temptations by relying on God’s word. He exemplifies the person that the people of Israel, as well as Adam and Eve, were intended to be but never became. So cool.