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.