20. He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the synagogue assistant, and sat down. Every eye in the synagogue was fixed on him.
21. He began to explain to them, "Today, this scripture has been fulfilled just as you heard it."
22. Everyone was raving about Jesus, so impressed were they by the gracious words flowing from his lips. They said, "This is Joseph’s son, isn’t it?"
23. Then Jesus said to them, "Undoubtedly, you will quote this saying to me: ‘Doctor, heal yourself. Do here in your hometown what we’ve heard you did in Capernaum.’"
24. He said, "I assure you that no prophet is welcome in the prophet’s hometown.
25. And I can assure you that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s time, when it didn’t rain for three and a half years and there was a great food shortage in the land.
26. Yet Elijah was sent to none of them but only to a widow in the city of Zarephath in the region of Sidon.
27. There were also many persons with skin diseases in Israel during the time of the prophet Elisha, but none of them were cleansed. Instead, Naaman the Syrian was cleansed."
28. When they heard this, everyone in the synagogue was filled with anger.
29. They rose up and ran him out of town. They led him to the crest of the hill on which their town had been built so that they could throw him off the cliff.
30. But he passed through the crowd and went on his way.
31. Jesus went down to the city of Capernaum in Galilee and taught the people each Sabbath.
32. They were amazed by his teaching because he delivered his message with authority.
33. A man in the synagogue had the spirit of an unclean demon. He screamed,
34. "Hey! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are. You are the holy one from God."
35. "Silence!" Jesus said, speaking harshly to the demon. "Come out of him!" The demon threw the man down before them, then came out of him without harming him.
36. They were all shaken and said to each other, "What kind of word is this, that he can command unclean spirits with authority and power, and they leave?"
37. Reports about him spread everywhere in the surrounding region.