December 4, 2021
Luke
Chapter Four
The Message (MSG) Copyright
© 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
Tested by the Devil
1-2 Now Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the
Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wild. For forty wilderness days and
nights he was tested by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when
the time was up he was hungry.
3 The Devil, playing on his hunger, gave the first
test: “Since you’re God’s Son, command this stone to turn into a loaf of
bread.”
4 Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy: “It takes
more than bread to really live.”
5-7 For the second test he led him up and spread out
all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once. Then the Devil said, “They’re
yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I’m in charge of them all
and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they’re yours, the
whole works.”
8 Jesus refused, again backing his refusal with
Deuteronomy: “Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him
with absolute single-heartedness.”
9-11 For the third test the Devil took him to
Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, “If you are God’s Son,
jump. It’s written, isn’t it, that ‘he has placed you in the care of angels to
protect you; they will catch you; you won’t so much as stub your toe on a
stone’?”
12 “Yes,” said Jesus, “and it’s also written,
‘Don’t you dare tempt the Lord your God.’”
13 That completed the testing. The Devil retreated
temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity.
To Set the Burdened Free
14-15 Jesus returned to Galilee powerful in the
Spirit. News that he was back spread through the countryside. He taught in
their meeting places to everyone’s acclaim and pleasure.
16-21 He came to Nazareth where he had been raised. As
he always did on the Sabbath, he went to the meeting place. When he stood up to
read, he was handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll, he
found the place where it was written,
God’s Spirit is on me;
he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good
news to the poor,
Sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and
recovery of sight to the blind,
To set the burdened and battered free,
to announce, “This is God’s time to shine!”
He rolled up the scroll,
handed it back to the assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the place was on
him, intent. Then he started in, “You’ve just heard Scripture make history. It
came true just now in this place.”
22 All who were there, watching and listening, were
surprised at how well he spoke. But they also said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son,
the one we’ve known since he was just a kid?”
23-27 He answered, “I suppose you’re going to quote
the proverb, ‘Doctor, go heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we heard
you did in Capernaum.’ Well, let me tell you something: No prophet is ever
welcomed in his hometown. Isn’t it a fact that there were many widows in Israel
at the time of Elijah during that three and a half years of drought when famine
devastated the land, but the only widow to whom Elijah was sent was in Sarepta
in Sidon? And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet
Elisha but the only one cleansed was Naaman the Syrian.”
28-30 That set everyone in the meeting place seething
with anger. They threw him out, banishing him from the village, then took him
to a mountain cliff at the edge of the village to throw him to his doom, but he
gave them the slip and was on his way.
31-32 He went down to Capernaum, a village in Galilee.
He was teaching the people on the Sabbath. They were surprised and
impressed—his teaching was so forthright, so confident, so authoritative, not
the quibbling and quoting they were used to.
33-34 In the meeting place that day there was a man demonically
disturbed. He screamed, “Stop! What business do you have here with us, Jesus?
Nazarene! I know what you’re up to. You’re the Holy One of God and you’ve come
to destroy us!”
35 Jesus shut him up: “Quiet! Get out of him!” The
demonic spirit threw the man down in front of them all and left. The demon
didn’t hurt him.
36-37 That knocked the wind out of everyone and got
them whispering and wondering, “What’s going on here? Someone whose words make
things happen? Someone who orders demonic spirits to get out and they go?”
Jesus was the talk of the town.
He Healed Them All
38-39 He left the meeting place and went to Simon’s
house. Simon’s mother-in-law was running a high fever and they asked him to do
something for her. He stood over her, told the fever to leave—and it left.
Before they knew it, she was up getting dinner for them.
40-41 When the sun went down, everyone who had anyone
sick with some ailment or other brought them to him. One by one he placed his
hands on them and healed them. Demons left in droves, screaming, “Son of God!
You’re the Son of God!” But he shut them up, refusing to let them speak because
they knew too much, knew him to be the Messiah.
42-44 He left the next day for open country. But the
crowds went looking and, when they found him, clung to him so he couldn’t go
on. He told them, “Don’t you realize that there are yet other villages where I
have to tell the Message of God’s kingdom, that this is the work God sent me to
do?” Meanwhile he continued preaching in the meeting places of Galilee.
Father,
bless today’s reading of your Word.
