Lk. 4:14-30 One Sabbath day, according to his usual custom, Jesus goes to the local synagogue in Nazareth where he was brought up (see 4 on Map 5). When asked to read from the scriptures (in line with Jewish tradition), he picks up the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, unrolls it, and begins to read, “The Lord has put his Spirit in me, because he appointed me to tell the Good News to the poor. He has sent me to tell the captives they are free and to tell the blind that they can see again… to announce the time when the Lord will show his kindness” (Luke 4:18) (see Isaiah 61:1-2).
All eyes in the synagogue are fixed on him as he says, “While you heard these words just now, they were coming true!” (Luke 4:21). Many are impressed by Jesus’s teaching, but others, realising he is a local boy – ‘Joseph’s son’ – dismiss his words as arrogant nonsense, and they threaten to throw him down the steep cliff below the brow of the hill on which Nazareth is located.
Jewish synagogue in Galilee (Luke 4:14)
Lk. 4:31-37 Following this rejection in his home town, Jesus goes down to Capernaum, by the lakeside (see 5 on Map 5). On the Sabbath, he begins to teach the people. In the synagogue, a man with an evil spirit shouts out, “Jesus of Nazareth! What do you want with us? Did you come to destroy us?” (Luke 4:34) Jesus commands the evil spirit to leave the man, and after throwing him to the ground, it leaves him without harming him. The crowds are amazed that Jesus has the authority to drive out evil spirits.