Luke 4

It seems to me, Luke is FAR more descriptive about Nazareth than any of the other Gospels?  And it seemed like the people in the synagogue thought highly of Jesus until Jesus told them they woudn’t because He was from Nazareth…it says ALL SPOKE WELL OF HIM…and 5 minutes later (ok, that is just my time) they are running Him out of the town and wanting him to be sent off a cliff?

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

14Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18″The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[e]

20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.

23Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’ “

24″I tell you the truth,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27And there were many in Israel with leprosy[f] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”

28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Luke Chapter 3

21When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

Luke doesn’t say John baptized Him.  Interesting…all of the rest of it is the same as the other books but this part is not the same.  I wonder what made Luke leave out little things…this isn’t the first thing I’ve noticed.  I am chalking it up to Luke being a physician, matter of fact about things and just leaving out the details he saw as unimportant?  Except this is the Word of God…so how does that reconcile?  That is a good question:  How are the writings of the same stories sooo different even though the stories and lives are God-breathed?  Anyone?? Victoria???

Not in Matthew or Mark that I can remember:

22When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”[b]), 24and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”[c]

I don’t remember reading about this part in Matthew or Mark.  Maybe I’m losing my mind but this is interesting information…I am also finding it fairly interesting to read Luke after reading Matthew and Mark because Luke is very matter a fact about everything.  It’s a different style of writing altogether!!!