Tested and anointed: the wilderness, Nazareth and Capernaum

Luke, the physician and companion of Paul according to early church tradition (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24), wrote this Gospel and its sequel, Acts, for Theophilus and for Greek-speaking readers who needed assurance about what they had been taught (Luke 1:1-4). Some critical scholars doubt that the author knew Paul personally, and the date is disputed: the early 60s AD (because Acts ends with Paul still in Rome and does not mention Jerusalem's fall) or about AD 80 to 90, as most critical scholars hold. On the synoptic problem, the most common view is that Luke used Mark and a sayings source called Q; Luke 4 draws on both, since Mark has a brief temptation account and Matthew and Luke share a longer one. Others reject Q, and some hold that Matthew was written first.

Luke 4 opens Jesus' ministry. The setting moves from the Judean wilderness near the Jordan to Nazareth, where Jesus grew up, and then to Capernaum, a fishing town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee that becomes his base. Synagogues were local gatherings for prayer and for reading and explaining the Scriptures on the Sabbath; any competent man could be invited to read. Luke places Nazareth first, ahead of Capernaum, even though 4:23 mentions things done in Capernaum already. Mark 6:1-6 and Matthew 13:53-58 place a visit to Nazareth later in the ministry and with a gentler result. Scholars explain this either as Luke moving the scene forward to introduce Jesus' program and its rejection at the start, or as two visits. Either way, Luke's placement gives the Nazareth scene a role as the key to the whole Gospel.

Luke 4 is narrative organized in three scenes, each answering the question that the baptism raised: who is the Son whom the Father called beloved (3:22)? In the wilderness, the devil challenges the title 'Son of God' directly. At Nazareth, Jesus defines his mission with Scripture. At Capernaum, demons name him and he silences them. The pattern is title, mission, authority.

The central interpretive question is how to read Jesus' use of the Old Testament. In the temptation he quotes Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13 and 6:16, all texts about Israel's testing in the wilderness. He is not using proof texts at random; he is replaying Israel's story and succeeding where Israel failed. At Nazareth he reads Isaiah 61:1-2 and applies it to himself. Here the historical-grammatical question comes first: what did Isaiah mean? The speaker is a Spirit-anointed herald who brings good news to the poor, in a setting shaped by the jubilee year of Leviticus 25, when debts were released and land returned. Then the Christian question follows: what does Luke mean by the claim that this is fulfilled?

The passage also shows Luke's way of telling stories by contrast. The devil quotes Scripture too (Psalm 91:11-12, in the third temptation), and Jesus answers with a different text. This is a warning that quoting a verse is not enough; the question is whether it is read in the light of the whole of God's word and in obedience to God.

Verses 1–13

Jesus returns from the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit and is led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days. The number echoes Israel's forty years (Deuteronomy 8:2) and Moses' forty days on Sinai. In the first temptation, the devil tells a hungry Jesus to turn a stone to bread. Jesus answers with Deuteronomy 8:3: man does not live on bread alone. Israel had been fed manna to teach exactly this. In the second, the devil shows him all the kingdoms of the world and offers them in return for worship. Jesus answers with Deuteronomy 6:13: worship and serve the Lord alone. In the third, in Luke's order, the devil takes him to the pinnacle of the temple and quotes Psalm 91 to urge him to throw himself down. Jesus answers with Deuteronomy 6:16: do not put the Lord your God to the test. Matthew puts the temple and the kingdoms in the opposite order, which suggests that the Gospel writers organized the same events for their own emphasis. Luke ends with Jerusalem, the place toward which his whole Gospel moves. The devil departs until an opportune time (4:13), and he returns at the passion (22:3, 53).

Verses 14–21

Jesus returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and is praised by all. In Nazareth on the Sabbath he stands to read, and the attendant gives him the scroll of Isaiah. He finds the place: the Spirit of the Lord is on him because he has anointed him to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. The quotation is from Isaiah 61:1-2, with a phrase from Isaiah 58:6 added, and Jesus stops before the words about the day of vengeance. He rolls up the scroll, sits (the teacher's posture) and says, 'Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.' The word 'release' (aphesis) is used both for the freeing of captives and for the forgiveness of sins. 'Anointed' is the root of 'Christ'.

Verses 22–30

At first all speak well of him, but they ask whether this is not Joseph's son. Jesus answers with two proverbs: physician, heal yourself, and no prophet is accepted in his hometown. He reminds them that in Elijah's day there were many widows in Israel, yet Elijah was sent to a widow at Zarephath near Sidon (1 Kings 17), and in Elisha's time many lepers in Israel but only Naaman the Syrian was cleansed (2 Kings 5). The point is that God's favor has previously reached outsiders when Israel resisted. The congregation is enraged and drives him out of town to throw him off the cliff, but he passes through the middle of them and goes on his way. Luke has set out his program and its cost.

Verses 31–37

In Capernaum on the Sabbath Jesus teaches, and the people are amazed because his word has authority. A man with the spirit of an unclean demon cries out, asking what Jesus of Nazareth wants with them, and calls him the Holy One of God. Jesus rebukes the demon and commands it to be silent and come out, and it leaves without harming the man. The people ask what kind of word this is, since he commands unclean spirits with authority and power.

Verses 38–41

Jesus enters Simon's house and heals his mother-in-law of a high fever. She rises and serves them. At evening many are brought with all kinds of sicknesses and he lays his hands on each. Demons come out crying that he is the Son of God, and he rebukes them and does not let them speak, because they knew he was the Christ.

Verses 42–44

At daybreak Jesus goes to a solitary place. The crowds try to keep him, but he says he must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because he was sent for this. Luke ends by saying he preached in the synagogues of Judea; some manuscripts read Galilee.

Luke 4 gathers several themes that the whole Bible develops. The first is the Spirit's role in the Messiah's work. Jesus is filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit and anointed by the Spirit. The Old Testament had said that the Spirit would rest on the king and servant (Isaiah 11:2; 42:1), and Luke shows that promise at work.

The second is Scripture as the weapon against temptation. Jesus answers each challenge with Deuteronomy, the book of covenant loyalty. The devil's offer of the world's kingdoms has the form of a shortcut to the very rule that the Father promised the Son (Psalm 2:8), without the cross. Obedience to God's way is the theme of the passage.

• The third is the gospel to the poor and the outsider. The jubilee background shows that salvation involves release in every sense, spiritual and bodily. The examples of Elijah and Elisha show that the grace of God reaches beyond Israel, a theme that continues in Acts.
• The fourth is conflict with the powers of evil, which is the setting for much of the Gospel. The demons know who Jesus is, and he silences them, because the identity of the Messiah is to be shown by his words and works and by the cross, not by the testimony of evil spirits. Paul later says that the Son has delivered us from the domain of darkness (Colossians 1:13).

The clearest connection is fulfillment. Jesus reads Isaiah 61:1-2 and applies it to himself in 4:21, naming himself the Spirit-anointed one. The title 'Christ' means 'anointed', so Luke's whole Gospel is the answer to the question of who the anointed one is and what he does. His works that follow in this chapter, freeing a man from a demon and healing the sick, are the content of the release he announced. When John the Baptist's disciples later ask whether Jesus is the one who is to come, Jesus answers with a list that echoes Isaiah 35 and 61 (Luke 7:22).

The temptation presents a type. Israel, God's son (Exodus 4:22), was tested forty years in the wilderness and failed (Deuteronomy 8:2; Psalm 95:8-10). Jesus, tested forty days, answers with Israel's own Scripture and stays faithful. The genealogy of Luke 3:38 calls Adam 'son of God', so the devil's challenge, 'If You are the Son of God', echoes the question about whether God's son will trust his Father. Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin.

The Nazareth scene also anticipates the cross. A prophet rejected by his own people is the pattern that Jesus names, and the attempt to throw him from the cliff foreshadows the plot against his life. The same Jesus who reveals himself in the synagogue as the fulfillment of Isaiah will be rejected in Jerusalem.