Bible Reading: Luke, about Jesus' ministry

Luke 4:14-15

And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee; and the fame of him went out through the whole country. And he taught in their synagogues and was honored by all.

This passage occurs right in the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. First he was baptized by St. John the Baptist, and then Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit that appeared during his baptism, went into the desert for forty days of fasting and prayer. It was during this time he was “tempted,” which means the devil “offered” Jesus dominion in the physical world, if he would only not worship God, i.e. fulfill his mission as Messiah. He and the devil and he quoted scripture back and forth and the devil could not prevail so he departed. So immediately after Jesus completed his forty days of fasting and prayer, he returned to Galilee and “the fame of him went out through the whole country” and “he taught in the synagogues.”

Now, I point out this passage to teach something that many people miss. Notice that Jesus is preaching and has fame before he performs his first miracle. Many people assume that Jesus gained his reputation, attention and fame through his miracles. But actually, he was first an itinerate preacher, teaching in the synagogues and being honored before assembling the Apostles and before performing his first miracle.

Why is this important? Think about it-that in a time of many scholars, scribes, preachers, and would be messiahs, Jesus distinguished himself immediately in his ministry by preaching and teaching in the synagogues. He did not have to “pull in” followers or earn honor, praise and fame by performing miracles. He did so solely with the power and truth of his message, conveyed with the authentic “power of the Spirit.” Jesus started his ministry, as was sampled in advance when he was the twelve year old boy found teaching in the Temple of Jerusalem, as a teacher of the Kingdom of God. He very quickly, in a matter of weeks, came out of nowhere and established himself as a teacher and preacher, “through the whole country” and was “honored by all.”

In fact, his first opposition was when he returned to his home town to preach in Nazareth. He had to flee the town. Yet that was the only “blip,” although an instructive one as people pondered his words, “No prophet is acceptable in his own country” (Luke 4:24.) For immediately upon leaving Nazareth:

And he went down to Capharnaum, a town of Galilee. And there he was teaching them on the Sabbath. And they were astonished at his teaching, for his word was with authority (Luke 4:25.)

So this is a little subtly of timing, but I think pointing this out will help those of you who strive to know who Jesus truly was by thinking about this with some care. He was a reputed and honored teacher first; and he did not have to “launch” his mission with the Apostles or by performing miracles. He drew an audience and fame, even to the point of teaching on the Sabbath, by sounding teaching and preaching, and people were astonished at his word of authority. What this means is he did not bracket or context his teaching as theology or interpretation of the Torah, but he spoke simply and with authority about what the true meaning of the Kingdom of God and the prophecies were. People could tell that he was speaking with the certainty of truthful knowledge and this astonished the listeners. People were not impressed with his entourage, as he had none, or his miracles, as he had not performed any yet, but recognized immediately that he was such an authoritative teacher, a rabbi, the likes of which they had never seen before.

Sometimes in discussion you might talk to people who question your faith, and you find yourself in an apologist role. Often the entry point for skeptical discussion is whether or not Jesus performed miracles. The implication is that people believed in Jesus only because of purported miracles. While he did perform many miracles, beyond those recorded in the Gospels, as the Gospels say that he performed many more than they could record, the foundation of his mission was his role as a teacher. He impressed and transformed people by what he taught, and the light he illuminated on the mysteries of who God is, what God expects of people, and how to achieve the Kingdom of God. Some skeptics attack Jesus based on some sort of scoreboard about miracles, but that totally does not represent the foundation of his ministry, which was to teach in the synagogues, and eventually large masses of people, about God and God’s will with the authority of one who thoroughly knew God. Jesus performed miracles because of the abundance of grace within in, because he was compassionate, and because he knew that this would aid in people’s belief, and so God gave him the power to heal physical and mental ailments. But people who think that this was the sole basis for his following would be wrong.

The bulk of his mission was teaching, which he did by teaching people how to pray, how to obey the commandments, by giving them the beatitudes, by showing people devotion through example, by explaining the nature of God either directly or through parables, and by teaching and forming the Apostles and disciples. If you think about it, history would have gone the same way if all Jesus did was to teach, until he provoked the Jewish authorities with his teaching, was crucified, and resurrected, with the only miracle being that of his death and resurrection. St. Paul makes that very clear in his writing, that it is all about Jesus crucified and arising. Jesus neither needed to perform the curing miracles nor did the Apostles need to “make up” stories about the miracles to impress. What impressed the people (positively) and the authorities (negatively) were the authority of his teaching, and then his rising from the dead. So you can have one hundred percent confidence that Jesus performed the miracles exactly as they are written in the Gospels, because they were not pivotal to his mission, so there would be no reason to lie about them. Skeptical scholars simply are not being logical when they argue that the miracles were propaganda. Everyone and his cow were claiming to do miracles, at least in ancient times, when the Old Testament prophets wrangled against idolaters and magicians. So no Gospel writer would make up miracles thinking anyone would be hearing something totally new. What was new was the miracles actually did occur as presented in the Gospels. They aided the people’s faith and alleviated their suffering, which is why Jesus performed them. But you can read quite clearly that the heart of the ministry of Jesus was his teaching, and his resurrection from the dead.