The Gospel of Luke
Chapter 4
When once Jesus had been baptized by John, He was to begin His public ministry. But exactly what kind of ministry was this to be? And how was He to be prepared to fulfill this ministry? It must begin with a sojourn in the desert. It was there, while He was alone, that the devil tempted Him to reject the concept of ministry and accept the mantle of self-satisfaction, glory and worldly power in its place. But Jesus rejected the temptations and accepted His ministry to humanity—even though it gained for Him suffering and rejection from those who had known Him best.
Temptation—Luke 4:1-13
Upon His baptism, Jesus was impelled by the Holy Spirit to move into the desert (which identifies only an uninhabited place, not necessarily some arid region). He remained isolated there for some 40 days and the devil tempted Him there. Luke gives us the sense that throughout the 40 days the devil was continually tempting Jesus. It is well understood how someone might resist temptation at the first, but continual pressure might in time wear down defenses to the point that we fall. It is also well understood that Jesus experienced the temptations in their fullness because He did not fall! Others never understand the complete pressure that temptation can exert because they fall into sin long before the peak pressure is applied!
Jesus is human and, therefore, subject to temptation. His divine nature did not make of this some kind of fiction; temptation was not impossible to Him. The deprivation He experienced made the first test even more urgent than it might otherwise have been. The true goal of temptation is not the pleasure that might be gained in the moment; it is the consequence of the sin committed. The force of temptation is in the distraction of our attention from the consequence to the pleasure. If we can lose sight of the result of our failure in favor of the momentary thrill, we can be led to commit unspeakable sins in the service of passing whims.
The first temptation was not merely to make bread, but to use His great power to serve Himself. Even though it might have been no sin for Him to feed Himself, it would have set the precedent of using His power for His own comfort. Jesus’ answer merely quoted Deuteronomy 8:3 to indicate that true life and health proceeded from God’s word and will. The next temptation recorded by Luke is apparently given in a series of visions in which the devil promises Jesus all splendor of the earthly kingdoms in exchange for a moment of private worship. The consequence would be to trade an eternal kingdom for a brief, earthly kingdom—and the eternal loss of all mankind. Jesus again answered with Scripture; in this case, Deuteronomy 6:13. Then the devil drew Him to the “pinnacle” of the Temple, perhaps the highest point of the colonnade above the Kidron Valley, and offered Him a passage of Scripture in an attempt to get Jesus to commit a pointless, but dramatic, miracle. Jesus recognized the misuse of Scripture and countered with a quote from Deuteronomy 6:16. The devil left Him for a time, then, and Jesus had proved His sinlessness. He was actually tempted just as we are, yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
Rejection—Luke 4:14-30
From this time, Jesus
returned to Galilee and taught in various synagogues. All the people were
impressed with Him and they praised Him. And then He went to Nazareth. Just as
He had done in so many other places, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath.
He stood up to read from the
Scriptures and chose a passage from Isaiah 61:1-2, carefully unrolling the lengthy scroll until He found the place. Then He read the Messianic promise that God would provide redemption to all His people, and Jesus declared that He was the fulfillment of that promise.
This gives us the key so that we can know how Jesus understood His mission. He came to provide freedom, fulfillment and fellowship with God for all people. This was the situation in the Garden, when Adam and Eve walked with the Lord in the cool of the day. Luke points out to us that Jesus “began” with that passage—apparently He continued to preach to the people. At first, they were very pleased with His gracious words as He spoke of the sad situation of mankind: wretched, imprisoned by sin, blinded to goodness, crushed by the devil’s schemes. As He preached they were glad to own Him as one of their own—“Joseph’s son!” And then He indicated that He was not their property.
They presumed that He would exercise His immense power on their behalf. They were ready to see some things like He had done in Capernaum. However, He never performed for sensational reasons. They were unwilling to accept Him as a prophet. They needed to remember that in the past prophets were preached to the people of Israel (who disbelieved!) and did their miracles to gain a hearing with the Gentiles (who often believed!). As examples, He noted Elijah, who preserved a Sidonian widow, and Elisha, who miraculously healed a Syrian! They preached powerfully to Israel, but their power was poured out far from home! In that moment, the fickle crowd turned on Jesus in fury. They were actually ready to throw Him off a cliff but Jesus walked through the crowd and went on His way. Leon Morris wrote that so far as we are able to determine, Jesus never returned to Nazareth. Rejection can be final.
Confirmation—Luke 4:31-44
From Nazareth, Jesus went downhill to the seaside to Capernaum. There He entered the synagogue ( a known location) and began to teach the people on the Sabbath. They were impressed with His teaching and His authority. And then He encountered a man with an evil spirit, a demon. The man cried out the identification of Jesus as the “Holy One of God” and asked if He were present to destroy the demons before it was time. Jesus silenced the demon and commanded the demon to leave the man. After a paroxysm, the demon left the man unharmed and the people were all amazed—as they might well be from such a demonstration of supernatural power! There seems no discussion for the moment about a healing taking place on the Sabbath. In fact, this is the first of five Sabbath healings that Luke records Jesus performing!
From the synagogue, Jesus went to the home of Simon Peter and there found Simon’s mother-in-law suffering from a “high fever.” It is interesting that Luke noted it was “high” while other writers merely said it was a fever. Perhaps his medical training insisted on accurate labeling. At any rate, Jesus instantly healed her and she quite naturally began to serve her guests. When the sun went down, the Sabbath was ended and the people began quickly to congregate at Peter’s house in order to have Jesus heal the sick. Jesus consented to heal the sick and cast out demons, who often shouted that He was “the Son of God.” He silenced the demons and brought relief to the masses. The demons knew He was the Christ; it took the disciples longer.
Very early, Jesus went outside to be alone. Although Luke doesn’t say so, Mark tells us He went to pray. The people (especially the disciples) went to find Him and urge Him to return with them, but Jesus set their requests aside in favor of preaching to yet more and more people. He insisted that it was His mission so to do. Although Jesus was in the region of Galilee, Luke speaks of the “synagogues of Judea” here, using the Roman provincial label that would be so clear to Theophilus.
No matter what, Jesus’ public ministry has begun. Now He can only go forward.