I am having so many technical issues with this blog site, this will be the last post of the Commentary on Luke.  If anyone is interested in this commentary, leave me a comment and I will email you the entire Luke file.
Paul Austin

Luke 4.13

WITH THE TEMPTATIONS OVER, Jesus is filled with the Spirit almost like a celebration. He does not return to Bethlehem but to Galilee. This region is northeast of Jerusalem, higher in altitude, softer in climate and rich in trees, fruit, streams and easy breezes. It is the perfect place to rest.
Luke says an interesting thing in 4.14--news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. What news was that? That He had defeated the devil? Did they see Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple, did they see Him confronting the devil with the Word of God? Shepherds might have been in the wilderness, close enough to see Jesus confront the devil, but we may never know what news of Him spread after the temptations.

What we do know that Luke reports--He began teaching in their synogogues and was praised by all, 4.15. He began in the small places where the lowest people congregate, the synogogues. He began among the meek, the lowly, the quiet of the land. He was praised by all, in fulfillment of 2.52. Here in Galilee He began His ministry; it would end in Jerusalem.

He came home to Nazareth, where he was brought up, where everyone knew Him as a boy and now as a man. Luke leaves the impression those in Nazareth did not witness the temptations in the wilderness. As was the custom of every Jewish man, He entered the synogogue on the Sabbath, reading from the scrolls, Isaiah 61, Luke says--he found the place where it was written--as if Jesus rolled the scrolls until He found Isaiah 61. This passage is about the kingdom of God.

Whenever Jesus was asked to signify His message and ministry, He always did so with words which echo this passage. He says He came to preach first of all, and first to the poor. When John's disciples come to Jesus in Matthew 11.5, He says the same thing in reverse order: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleanse, the deaf hear, the dead are raised--and the poor have the gospel preached to them.

This is His attack on the devil. Jesus has announced He will unravel the work of the devil, beginning with the most defenseless, the poor--to set free those who are downtrodden, 4.15. He sits down, with all eyes fixed on Him. That may mean more than just eyes were fixed on Him. Everyone there marveled at his gracious words, but they wondered where He got them. They knew He was merely the son of a carpenter; did He go off somewhere to be educated? They were nearly sarcastic with Him.
 
Then Jesus turns against those in the synogogue. He accuses some of them of taking Him too commonly, as if what He did at Capernaum (healed the royal official's son) He would surely do in His own home town. His answer isn't what they wanted. He says God's kingdom is not for everyone. Jesus uses two examples everyone knew: Elijah and the famine and Elisha and the lepers, 4.25, 26. Luke says--all in the synogogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.

The men rose up, threw Him out of the synogogue, out of the city shoving Him to the brow of a hill over a cliff, to cast Him down. But Jesus, using His supernatural powers, passed through them all. The image of being thrown off a cliff is striking. Jesus will cast demons out of a man into swine which He casts off a cliff. Judas will cast himself off a cliff, as if shoved. In Revelation 12.9 the devil and Satan were thrown out of heaven, cast down to the earth.

Simeon had predicted that Jesus would be appointed for the--fall and rise of many in Israel. John had said--the axe is laid to the root. Jesus will not make life comfortable in Israel, especially among the religious, He will call whom He will call.

Luke 4

LUKE THEN WRITES that Jesus, having come up from the Jordan full of the Spirit, is led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. His life is so predestined. Luke tells us Jesus lived in the wilderness 40 days without eating; he does not mention drinking. Evidently, Jesus was communing with God the Spirit and God the Father, a communion of God's word. We see the devil waits until Jesus is weak in the body to approach Him.

The devil says three things:
If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread

if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours (the world and its wealth)

If You are the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here

The three temptations are thought to be about hunger, the world's wealth, and testing God. In the first temptation Jesus answers the devil with Deuteronomy 8.3--Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word which proceeds from the mouth of God. In other words, every human being is a spirit, made in the image of God and not just a body which becomes hungry. The devil can tempt the body but not the spirit, which belongs to God Almighty. Scholars have noted for years that Jesus answers the devil as every Christian can, using the Word of God.

Then the devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. He says the kingdoms of the world have been handed over to him; he will give them to Jesus if He will bow down and worship the devil. Jesus answers with the first of the 10 Commandments--you shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only, 4.8. This tells us the 10 Commandments were not just for Israel or the world, but for the angels in heaven and hell.

We might note in passing that the glory of all the kingdoms of the world will be brought to God in the new Jerusalem, Revelation 21.24.

The devil has failed twice, so he hurls the greatest temptation upon Jesus he can. He puts Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple to say--If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down from here, then quoting Psalm 91.11 that the angels in heaven would guard Him. What the devil does not quote is 91.2--My God in whom I trust. Jesus then answers with Deuteronomy 6.16--You shall not force a test on the Lord your God.

We might note that the three temptations might very well be the devil's acts of rebellion against God that make him what he is. These would be the devil separating himself from God, ruling the world without God, and testing God.

The devil left but Luke notes, he will return--until an opportune time.

This was the challenge of the devil against God, which was foretold in Genesis 3.15, the bruising the devil on the head. The devil is not dead--that will come in Revelation 20--but he knows his time is short. We can notice these three challenges are temptations for Jesus, not real confrontations like Achilleus and Hector in The Iliad. These temptations are readily defeated by the Word of God, seeming almost easy for Jesus. His power is so great that He can cast out demons by His finger, Luke 11.20, Exodus 8.19.

But for the devil, he knows he cannot harm God by fighting Jesus; he will have to deal with the followers of Jesus.

John 3.10

John knows he is not the Christ. His time in the desert may have told him that, contemplating Isaiah 40.3, over and over. He may have thought, leveling the mountains, filling the valleys, making the land flat enables the whole world to see the glory of God when He comes. These images are pictures of a world seeing the glory of God at the same time, all over the world.

So John says to them all at once--I baptize you with water...He Himself with baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Interestingly, the Holy Spirit and fire were both present at the creation of the universe, Genesis 1.2, 3. Truly, the Holy Spirit and fire can enable one to be born again, as with a new creation. But John also preaches the message of judgment of that same fire when he says--God will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire, 3.17. As in creation, with light comes fire.

This can cause us to contemplate this universe. It is not a flawless valley in which no one ages, no one sins, no one has emotions and ambitions. It is a world which deteriorates if the Lord does not uphold it. It is a universe in which those who believe in God must act in holiness and faith. After all, darkness came before light. Darkness surrounds but light illuminates the soul. This is the world in which we live.

But John's preaching of God's winnowing fork in His hand struck against the wicked acts of Herod and Herodias, his brother's wife. Luke does not narrate the account of Herod's brother Philip, married to Herodias, the daughter of Herodias asking for John's head at the birthday party of Herod, and the imprisonment of John. The situation was probably well known.

Luke wants to end chapter 3 with the family history of Jesus, how Jesus was the descendant of Adam, who was the first son of God. It's important to show that Jesus is in the line of Abraham and David. Therefore, Luke puts the baptism of Jesus last in the chapter, although it probably happened before. Putting the baptism of Jesus like this enables Luke to link the Holy Spirit and fire of John with Jesus' baptism of the Holy Spirit and the dove. That recalls the two doves which were sacrificed when Jesus was at the temple in 2.24.

The dove reveals to everyone there that the Holy Spirit has come to fill Jesus. This pronounces to everyone that the upbringing, the training of Jesus is over. He is now filled with the Spirit, meaning the Trinity is in Him. The voice of the Father comes out of heaven, saying--Thou art My beloved Son in Thee I am well-pleased, 3.22. Luke does not say anything about the voice of the Father heard by everyone there. He does not say how cataclysmic this is that those living standing at a river hear the voice of the Lord God Almighty.

We might remember the role of the dove when Noah sends the dove out after the flood to find dry land. When the dove does not return, Noah knows the dry land is supporting growth. As Noah was a savior for the world at the flood with the dove symbolizing the land is at peace, Jesus will be the savior of the world with the dove symbolizing God is at peace with the world.

Genealogies are significant in the Bible to establish the family and the time from one event to another. For Christians, it is interesting to see how many names we can identify and describe in the family tree of Jesus.

Luke 3

THIS chapter begins with the date, as we've seen Luke use before. Luke locates the rulers who surround Jerusalem and the Jordan River where John will preach and baptize. Tiberias Caesar is in Rome, Pilate is in Judea north of Jerusalem, Herod is in Galilee northeast of Jerusalem, with his brother Philip in Ituraea and Lysanias in Abilene. Meanwhile, in Jerusalem Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests who ruled over the religious life of the city.

We notice the Word of God came to John. The angel had told Zacharias that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit, 1.15, and so he is. John comes to the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This in itself is significant because this means salvation comes to the Jews through repentance and forgiveness, not through just being born a Jew. John has thrown Israel out of a unique relationship to God, saying the Jews come to God as anyone else does, through forgiveness of sins.
John quotes Isaiah 40.3 as meaning that God is coming as a king comes, so that the people must make a way for Him. This will be fulfilled in the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem years from now. Then John says it plainly--all flesh shall see the salvation of God, 3.6. Salvation is not just for Israel, but for all flesh. God is showing Himself through Israel to all men and women.

John's sermon extract which Luke has preserved makes all of this obvious. It is not being one of the offspring of Abraham which commends a man to God, it is bringing forth fruit in keeping with repentance. Sin has alienated Israeal from God; they are outside the tabernacle, outside of God. Then John warns the people that the other side of forgiveness is judgment--the axe is already laid to the root of the trees, 3.9. This might remind some of those there at the Jordan of Deuteronomy 28.13-15, where God offers blessings for obedience but curses for disobedience. The axe is already laid at the root.

When those there question John honestly, he tells them what fruit of repentance to bring. This is the application of the Law to the individual, in the spirit of the Law. Many proverbs could be listed to show that John is speaking what God has said before. For instance, when John tells the tax-collectors to take no more than what they have been ordered to, we might recall Proverbs 20.4--

The king gives stability to the land by justice,but a man who takes bribes overthrows it.

Evidently the people took this to heart as fulfilling God's covenant with Israel through repentance and the forgiveness of sins because they became excited over John. They whispered among themselves as to whether John might be the Christ, the Messiah. They recognized that what John was preaching was what the Messiah was expected to say. But John has to tell them all who he is.

Luke 2.52

Finally Luke ends chapter 2 with an amazing statement. Jesus grew in stature with God and with man, 2.52. Many can grow in stature with God by being solely religious, such as John in the desert. Many can grow in stature with men as Alexander the Great did under the tutelage of Aristotle. But now, to do both is quite rare. It means Jesus was not a young man of compartments in which God is here and man is there. He was a young man who saw how much of God is in man and how much of man fufills our concept of God. He seemed to know what it meant to be the image and likeness of God.

Verse 52 could not be possible if Jesus were not God and man, both and yet without shearing the other's nature. This will not be understood until centuries later. It's no wonder Joseph and Mary did not understand what Jesus said; the Pharisees would not, and the priests would arrange his crucifixion when they realized what He had said of His heavenly Father.

THIS has been a long chapter in which Luke compiled everything known for sure about the upbringing of Jesus. Luke does not say if Jesus traveled or what scrolls He read or if He had close personal friends. Luke is focused on Jesus and the growing relationship to His heavenly Father. This relationship to God the Father may have been greatly aided by His relationship to Joseph. I would imagine God chose Joseph in order to teach the young Jesus that God in heaven is His Father. Joseph must have been a man of great maturity in the faith, as Mary was great in her trust of God.

But how does Luke describe a boy who is God? The very thought is bizarre. What was it like to be with Him? When John Milton wrote the poem Paradise Lost, he asked the Holy Spirit to help him:

And chiefly Thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
before all Temples the' upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou knowest...

And in another passage, Milton asks of God:

thou celestial light,
shine inward and the mind through all her powers
irradiate, there plant eyes, all mist from thence
purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
of things invisible to mortal sight.

Luke has described in some details the people around Jesus--mother and father and cousin John and Simeon and Anna, the shepherds, Elizabeth and Zacharias, and those in the temple. He has written down the OT prophecies of Jesus, the talk of those around Joseph and Mary. He said very little of Jesus Himself except that He grew in wisdom and that the grace of God was upon Him.

Luke 2.39
JOSEPH AND MARY then returned with Jesus to their own city. They must've passed through a long line of eyes and those who could have cared less. In the quietness of Nazareth, young Jesus grew up--increasing in wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him, 2.40. Like John in the desert, Jesus belonged to God. Undoubtedly, Joseph had much to teach him about His heavenly Father. Jesus learned to work with his hands as well as with the scrolls about Israel.

The grace of God was upon Him, v.40. Luke does not elaborate on the statement, indicating many stories and incidents might be behind the verse. Luke might be describing what everyone in the village had come to know and accept about Him...that He was not like his father as to being just a carpenter, but that He belonged to God.


The next verse begins with 'And,' but it is not a continuation of the previous verse. This is the narration of an incident in which family and God meet and tangle. When Jesus was 12 years old, Joseph and Mary took Him to Jerusalem for the Passover. The implication was that He did not go to the Passover in Jerusalem before this particular year. The family celebrated the Feast there in a crowded, dust-breathing city full of the smells of animals to be sacrificed, foreigners, high priests and scribes, swindlers, sellers and buyers and an army of children.

Families would gather in groups on the roads to Jerusalem, traveling together for their own protection and sharing food and water. Inside the city gates they might scatter to their own business and manner of worship. After the Feast, the families would leave in wide groups, adults walking together, kids playing all around, yelling, animals snorting and bleating with a humorous chaos of journeying. It would not be unusual for a family to expect their children to be among the other children, since there were so many. So, Mary and Joseph don't miss seeing Jesus for the first day.

Jesus, knowing who He is by now, stays behind in the city as if it were home.

Joseph and Mary go back to the city, now desperate to see his head among the crowd. After two days of frantic searching they find Him in the temple; He had probably been there all along. He might have been with Anna or Simeon or another priest. His parents then see Him among the teachers, listening and asking. As He had grown up in Nazareth under the grace of God, so now everyone is amazed at His understanding and answers.

Joseph and Mary were astonished at Him, evidently not realizing He was destined for the life of a teacher and rabbi.

His mother berates Him with her impatience. When Luke writes of this, he uses the word for 'child,' when he narrates that Mary said--Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you, 2.48. It is the same word Luke used in 2.27 and 2.40. This might imply that Joseph and Mary still thought of Him as a boy, to inherit His father's carpentry business. They thought He was one of them when He was not.

When Jesus says--Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house...this indicates He has already left Joseph's home for His Father's home, the temple at Jerusalem. Still, He was only 12; He must return to Joseph's home for a few years more. Joseph and Mary did not understand what Jesus said, but Mary kept His words in her memory.