Anchor My Faith

Return to Galilee

Scripture: Mark 1:14b; Luke 4:14-15; John 4:43-45

We originally covered the verses in John 4:43 – 45 in the study of the Gospel of John, but now in this harmonization study we need to add some additional information from Mark and Luke.

After a very successful two-day faith building mission in Samaria, Jesus decides to go to Galilee. The people of Samaria were considered to be outcast by the Jews, but Jesus without performing any signs or wonders was able, with simply the spoken word, convince people to accept him as their Messiah; “Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”’  (John 4:41 – 42 NASB). This response among the Samaritans was so much stronger than anything Jesus had experienced among his own Jewish people.

“Jn 4:43 After the two days [Jesus] Lk 4:14 in the power of the Spirit Jn 4:43 departed for Galilee, Mk 1:14b proclaiming the gospel of God​​ Jn 4:44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.”

After spending two days Jesus in the power of the Spirit departed for Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God. Notice how this sentence was drawn from the four references above. That is the process of harmonization, but that process also has a weakness; one of which occurs here.

Lesson H085 ended by covering Luke 4:13 (ESV): “And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.” With this lesson, H151, we pick up Luke 4:14 (ESV): “And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee.” The material covered with lessons H086 through H150 came from the gospel of John and was inserted between Luke 4:13 and Luke 4:14 and in so doing the “power of the Spirit” gets associated with Jesus leaving Samaria not leaving the wilderness. Let us remember that the Spirit came upon Jesus at his baptism and remained with him for his duration on earth.

It appears that Jesus is going to some place in the region of Galilee, but not to his home town of Nazareth, to a people who welcome him because of his ability to perform signs and wonders, but in time they will dishonor him because they will not understand him and as a result they do not honor him for who he is; the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

As a result of what Jesus was saying and doing, “A report about him went out through all the surrounding country. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all” (Luke 4:14b – 15).

Prayer

Father, this was an important lesson for me in the harmonization process. To realize that I had to reach back across 65 lessons to get the correct context for “in the power of the Spirit” was an eye opener for me in the importance of context. It is amazing how much happened between Luke 4:13 and Luke 4:14, making it easy to forget when the Spirit actually came upon Jesus.