Luke
4
- 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.'"
- 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.
- 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."
- 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."
- 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.
- Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in
Galilee, and on the Sabbath began to teach the people.
- They were amazed at his teaching, because
his message had authority.
- In the synagogue there was a man possessed
by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice,
- "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus
of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One
of God!"
- "Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly.
"Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them
all and came out without injuring him.
- All the people were amazed and said to each
other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power he gives orders
to evil spirits and they come out!"
- And the news about him spread throughout
the surrounding area.
- Jesus left the synagogue and went to the
home of Simon. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever,
and they asked Jesus to help her.
- So he bent over her and rebuked the fever,
and it left her. She got up at once and began to wait on them.
- When the sun was setting, the people brought
to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each
one, he healed them.
- Moreover, demons came out of many people,
shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would
not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.
- At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary
place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was,
they tried to keep him from leaving them.
- But he said, "I must preach the good
news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I
was sent."
- And he kept on preaching in the synagogues
of Judea.
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