Read or listen The Gospel of Luke, chapter 8 online (ESV, Bible Gateway)

Women in Jesus’ Traveling Company – Luke 8:1-3

The beginning of the episode is another reminder to us that Luke could only tell us a small part of what Jesus did.

This account sheds light on how Jesus and his disciples provided for food and other practical matters during Jesus’ public ministry. John tells us that the disciples’ common purse was with Judas Iscariot. (John 12:6) But money alone was not enough; there had to be people who bought food and prepared it. These women served Jesus not only with their money but also with their hands.

Of the three women mentioned, the most famous is Mary Magdalene/Mary Magdalene. Magdala was a village on the western shore of Lake Gennesaret. Joanna is mentioned on Easter morning at Jesus' tomb (Luke 24:10). It has been suggested that her husband Chuzas was the royal official whose son Jesus healed (John 4:46-54). Susanna is only mentioned here, we know nothing about her.

The fact that Jesus had female disciples was exceptional. The Jews did not teach girls the law, and the rabbis did not have female students. So Jesus was not bound by the customs and beliefs of the society of his time, as is sometimes claimed.

The Sowing of the Word is not in vain – Luke 8:4-15

In Israel at that time, the fields were rocky. You couldn't just sow in good soil, you had to sow everywhere that could yield a harvest. The sower in the parable acted normally – he was not particularly wasteful or generous. Yes, he expected a harvest from all he sowed, not just from some. The sowing of God's Word must be done in the same way: you must not only look for the best soil. On the other hand, you must always expect a harvest, and not think: "After all, some of it has always failed!"

The parable of the sower is an encouragement to the disciples: although some of the sown Word of God is wasted, there is also a part that produces a harvest even a hundredfold. The parable is also a sign that God does not want to give up on little: he calls into the kingdom of God even those who seem unfit for it.

The result of the sowing work can be of four kinds. In the same way, the gospel can encounter four kinds of people.
1. Those who do not accept it at all.
2. Those who believe, but who will give up their faith when persecution and tribulation come. Since the early years of the Church, there have also been those who give up the faith.
3. Those who believe, but who over time slip back into the world. We could call them secularized Christians.
4. Those who believe all the way to the end.

The idea in verse 10 that only the disciples have been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God may seem unfair. However, the underlying idea is clearly that everyone hears the gospel, but only those who believe in Jesus receive it and understand it, while to those outside the church it is an incomprehensible mystery. If we think about Jesus’ death on the cross and its meaning, we see how this happens in practice: for Christians the cross is a place of atonement, for others it is a senseless execution.

Gifts to be used - Luke 8:16-18

God does not give the gospel to be hidden, but to be displayed. Even though there are obstacles, we must not stop sowing. If God’s gifts remain unused, God can take them away. We do not learn a new language to forget it. But if we do not use it, we will forget it.

Verse 18 can be applied to the people of Israel: they thought they were God’s chosen people, so they rejected the Messiah and lost the status of the chosen people to the Christian church.

Primary reference group – Luke 8:19-21

Belief in Jesus practically divided families when Luke wrote his Gospel (Luke 12:49-53). And the same is true today. This is a special problem in the Islamic world, where a person who has converted to Christianity can be excluded from the whole family. However, faith in Jesus and entry into heaven is more important than anything else.

We note that Jesus’ father Joseph was already dead. Mark 6:3 gives the names of Jesus’ brothers, Jesus had at least four brothers and two sisters.

Jesus is Lord of all creation

At the end of chapter eight are four miracles, works of power, which illustrate Jesus' power over four "opponents."
1. Power over natural forces, verses 22-25
2. Power over spiritual forces, verses 26-39
3. Power over sickness, verses 40-48
4. Power over death, verses 49-56

One might interpret these four miracles to mean that a Christian no longer needs to get sick, die, or be subject to the forces of nature. But that is not the lesson of these stories, quite the opposite. A Christian too will have to face the work of God's adversary in his own life, but Jesus has already defeated Satan, so the final victory is God's - and the Christian's, who lives in connection with God.

God does not always respond in the same way to the same troubles. This time Jesus calmed the storm, but on his way to Rome the apostle Paul was driven for two weeks by a storm (Acts 27:27). God has defeated the adversary, but his response to our problem - for example, illness - is not always the same: instead of healing, he may give strength to endure the illness.

The Lord over the forces of Nature – Luke 8:22-25

The surface of the Sea of ​​Galilee is about 200 meters below sea level. There are no islands in the lake. When the wind from the Mediterranean began to descend the mountain slope (perhaps from the Pigeon Pass), the air cooled and caused a storm. Even an experienced fisherman could be surprised by the storm, they rose so quickly. The fishing boats were small, so the risk of drowning was real. The situation was made worse by the fact that the disciples and Jesus were on the move at night (Mark 7:35-36, note also "fell asleep", verse 23).

After Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples wondered who Jesus really was. We could say that all four of these miracles were Jesus’ answers to that question. Slowly, the disciples began to realize that Jesus was something more than what they thought he was: not just a great teacher, but God himself.

The Lord over Spirits – Luke 8:26-39

Having reached the eastern shore of Lake Gennesaret, Jesus and his disciples had come to a pagan region. The region was called the Decapolis because it was a confederation of ten (Greek: "deka") Hellenistic cities (Greek: "polis") that were part of the Roman Empire. The capital of the Decapolis was Gerasa, hence the name "Gerasan region".

There Jesus was met by a man possessed by demons. There were 6,000 men in the Roman legion. The demons asked Jesus for more time, that is, that they should not immediately go into the abyss of destruction (verse 31). However, the demons immediately drove the herd of pigs and themselves to destruction. The power of evil turned against itself.

The destruction of the "innocent" pigs has been a problem for many Bible readers, and the fact that someone's property was destroyed. It must be remembered that everything is just a loan from God. God can take back the loan if he wants (Job 1:21). Apparently, those pigs belonged to a large farmer living in the city, who had his slaves as herders. It has been observed that at that time the pigs were badly infected with Trichinella, so one can even think that the destruction of the pigs was for the good of the inhabitants. However, fear of the strange guest led to a request for Jesus to leave.

A few details

The tombs were truly "grave caves" (verse 27), where the living could also dwell. In verse 39 Jesus did not tell the man to be silent, but to proclaim the works of God (compare verse 56: the call to be silent). This was because there were no false expectations of the Messiah in the Gentile area.

The Lord over Sickness – Luke 8:40-48

The woman with the issue of blood was ritually unclean: she was not allowed to participate in worship, and no one could touch her without becoming ritually unclean (Leviticus 15:25-27). Perhaps this was the reason why she wanted to be healed in secret. Perhaps she was afraid that Jesus would not want to touch her either. But true faith also includes public confession, which is why Jesus wanted the woman to come forward. At the same time, her healing was also revealed: she no longer had to be avoided.

In verse 43 Luke states (although this passage is only in some manuscripts) that the woman had spent all her money on doctors without being helped. However, he leaves out the woman's sufferings and the fact that the treatment had not helped, but made her condition worse (Mark 5:26). This has been seen to support the writer being a doctor, Luke.

The Lord over Death – Luke 8:49-56

The only child of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, was terminally ill (verse 42). Jairus believed that Jesus could help him even after the news of her death had come. Although he probably did not expect Jesus to raise his daughter from the dead, he believed that Jesus could provide some help. He saw his faith fulfilled beyond his expectations: Jesus raised the girl from the dead.

Luke has shortened Mark's text quite a bit. Thus, Luke's text does not clearly state that Jesus raised the girl up in the presence of only five people (Mark 5:40). Luke does assume that this was the case - otherwise there would have been no point in forbidding the story (verse 56) - and Luke even mentions these five people (verse 51). It is worth noting that the absence of a detail from the Bible text does not necessarily mean that the writer did not know about it.

"She is not dead, but sleeps" (verse 52, together with the raising of Lazarus in John 11:11) has given Christians reason to speak of death as "sleeping out."

The "teacher" (verse 49) could not have done anything for Jairus' dead daughter. But Jesus was not just a teacher, he was much more: he was God, the Creator and Giver of life. The Greek word "soodzoo" can be translated both "heal" and "save" (verses 48 and 50).