Luke 4:19-38

¹⁹to proclaim the accepted year of the Lord.’

²⁰Then, closing the book and returning it to the attendant, he sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him,

²¹and Jesus began, “This very day this passage has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

²²All who were present spoke well of him, and were astonished at the beautiful words that fell from his lips. “Isn't Joseph's son?” they asked.

²³“Doubtless,” said Jesus, “you will remind me of the saying — ‘Doctor, cure yourself;’ and you will say ‘Do here in your own country all that we have heard that has been done at Capernaum.’

²⁴I tell you,” he continued, “that no prophet is acceptable in his own country.

²⁵There were, doubtless, many widows in Israel in Elijah's days, when the heavens were closed for three years and six months, and a severe famine prevailed throughout the country;

²⁶and yet it was not to one of them that Elijah was sent, but to a widow at Zarephath in Sidonia.

²⁷And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, yet it was not one of them who was made clean, but Naaman the Syrian.”

²⁸All the people in the synagogue, as they listened to this, became enraged.

²⁹Starting up, they drove Jesus out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town stood, intending to hurl him down.

³⁰But he passed through the middle of the crowd and went on his way.

³¹Then Jesus went down to Capernaum, a city in Galilee. On the Sabbath he taught the people.

³²They were amazed at his teaching, because his words were spoken with authority.

³³In the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of a foul demon in him, who called out loudly,

³⁴“Stop! 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!”

³⁵But Jesus rebuked the demon. “Be silent! Come out from him,” he said. The demon flung the man down in the middle of the people, and then came out from him, without causing him further harm.

³⁶And they were all lost in amazement, and kept saying to one another, “What words are these? For he gives his commands to the foul spirits with a marvellous authority, and they come out.”

³⁷And rumours about Jesus travelled through every place in the region.

³⁸On leaving the synagogue, Jesus went into Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was suffering from a severe attack of fever, and they asked Jesus to cure her.