Luke 4

¹Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness ²for forty days, being tested by the Slanderer. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were completed, he was famished. ³The Slanderer said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” ⁴Jesus answered him, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

⁵Then, leading him up, the Slanderer showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited world in a single moment of time. ⁶And the Slanderer said to him, “I will give you all this authority and their glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. ⁷So then, if you will prostrate yourself in homage before me, it will all be yours.” ⁸Jesus answered and said to him, “It is written: ‘The Lord your God you shall worship, and him alone you shall serve.’”

⁹Then he led him into Jerusalem and stood him on the highest parapet of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here; ¹⁰for it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ ¹¹and ‘On their hands they will lift you up, so that you do not strike your foot against a stone.’” ¹²And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said: ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” ¹³Having finished every kind of testing, the Slanderer departed from him until an opportune time.

¹⁴Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. News about him spread through the entire surrounding region. ¹⁵He began teaching in their synagogues, and he was being honored by everyone.

¹⁶He came to Nazara, where he had been raised. According to his custom, he entered the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. ¹⁷The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling the scroll, he found the place where it was written:

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he has anointed me to announce good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To send the shattered away in release, ¹⁹To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

²⁰He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed intently on him. ²¹He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²²Everyone began to speak well of him and were astonished at the gracious words coming from his mouth. They were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?” ²³He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself.’ You will say, ‘Do here in your own hometown the things we heard happened in Capernaum.’” ²⁴He continued, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in his own hometown. ²⁵But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut for three years and six months and a great famine came over all the land; ²⁶yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸When they heard these things, everyone in the synagogue was filled with rage. ²⁹They stood up, drove him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, intending to hurl him off the cliff. ³⁰But he passed through their midst and went on his way.

³¹Then he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. He was teaching them on the Sabbaths, ³²and they were overwhelmed by his teaching because his word carried authority. ³³In the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, ³⁴“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!” ³⁵Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silenced and come out of him!” After the demon threw the man down in their midst, it came out of him without hurting him at all. ³⁶Amazement seized them all, and they began talking to one another, saying, “What is this word? For with authority and power he commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” ³⁷And news about him spread into every place in the surrounding region.

³⁸After leaving the synagogue, he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him for help on her behalf. ³⁹Standing over her, he rebuked the fever and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them. ⁴⁰As the sun was setting, all who had people suffering from various diseases brought them to him. Laying his hands on each one of them, he healed them. ⁴¹Demons also came out of many, shouting and saying, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.

⁴²When day broke, he departed and went to a deserted place. The crowds were looking for him, and they came to him and tried to prevent him from leaving them. ⁴³But he said to them, “I must announce the good news of the Kingdom of God to the other cities as well, because I was sent for this purpose.” ⁴⁴And he continued preaching in the synagogues of Judea.