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My local church group has been studying Luke via Zoom, which is my favorite book of the Holy Bible. We have been studying for a few weeks now, and I wrote some notes for the Bible Study, going from Luke 8:22 to Luke 8:56
8:22-8:25
Now it happened on one of those days, that he entered into a boat, himself and his disciples, and he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out. But as they sailed, he fell asleep. A wind storm came down on the lake, and they were taking on dangerous amounts of water. They came to him, and awoke him, saying, “Master, master, we are dying!” He awoke, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and it was calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” Being afraid they marveled, saying one to another, “Who is this, then, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”
I see Jesus as being irritated that they woke him up to do something they themselves could had done if they had enough faith (stop the storm). My pastor, in tonight’s study, saw it as Jesus being upset that they thought he couldn’t rescue him just because He was sleeping.
My notes: Yes, we do have the power to control the weather. It takes faith in science, moving away from fossil fuels, and using more renewable sources of energy.
Also, I think fusion is still something we need to explore, because if we can figure out fusion, that’s infinite power without nearly as many issues as fission (which, yes, is infinite power as long as we have uranium, but leaves some really messy stuff which takes 30,000 years to clean itself up).
8:26 - 8:39
They arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.
When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man out of the city who had demons for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and didn’t live in a house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!” For Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For the unclean spirit had often seized the man. He was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters. Breaking the bands apart, he was driven by the demon into the desert.
Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered into him. They begged him that he would not command them to go into the abyss. Now there was there a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain, and they begged him that he would allow them to enter into those. He allowed them. The demons came out from the man, and entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned. When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country.
People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who saw it told them how he who had been possessed by demons was healed. All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were very much afraid. He entered into the boat, and returned. But the man from whom the demons had gone out begged him that he might go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your house, and declare what great things God has done for you.” He went his way, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.
Our pastor helped us visualize this story by describing the Golan Heights (near where this event occurred) and what the place looks like. It looks like this: Golan Heights - Wikipedia
I will always visualize the scene in the 1979 Jesus movie when reading this.
It seems unusual that Jesus would allow these demons to kill all of those pigs. We can brush it off with a “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts” evasion, but I think it might make more sense that this event never happened, and this is another parable. In more detail, it’s a backhanded criticism of the Roman occupation: Legion is the Roman legions, and they are worse than swine (pigs). See also:
Did Jesus Kill 2000 Pigs?
I will note that, as we get to the passion narrative later on, Luke (and the other gospel writers) go to a lot of effort to place the blame for Jesus’s death with the Pharisees and Sadducees and not with the Romans. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ takes the opposite approach, painting the Roman soldiers as cruel and inhumane in their torment of Jesus.
8:43-8:48 (I am jumping around because this is one story inside another story)
A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any, came behind him, and touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately the flow of her blood stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?”
When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes press and jostle you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
But Jesus said, “Someone did touch me, for I perceived that power has gone out of me.” When the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared to him in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. He said to her, “Daughter, cheer up. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
I always found it very interesting that Jesus’s healing power is something which he could feel in his being spiritually, to the point he could feel it leaving him every time someone miraculously got healed by him.
We learn relatively little about the exact nature of Jesus’s magical power, except that anyone with sufficient faith can have it, and that it allows one to invoke God to control the evil spirits which cause illness. But, here we see it’s a tangible “energy field”, if you will, that the healer can feel.
This is where I give you my “God’s ways are mysterious, and His thinking is not my thinking” cop out.
Usually, when someone is healed by Jesus, it’s their own faith that heals them, but here it’s the power Jesus has as God made flesh that heals the woman.
8:40-8:56 (excluding 43-48)
It happened, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. Behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. He fell down at Jesus’ feet, and begged him to come into his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. But as he went, the multitudes pressed against him. [...]
While he still spoke, one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house came, saying to him, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t trouble the Teacher.”
But Jesus hearing it, answered him, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be healed.”
When he came to the house, he didn’t allow anyone to enter in, except Peter, John, James, the father of the child, and her mother. All were weeping and mourning her, but he said, “Don’t weep. She isn’t dead, but sleeping.”
They were ridiculing him, knowing that she was dead. But he put them all outside, and taking her by the hand, he called, saying, “Child, arise!” Her spirit returned, and she rose up immediately. He commanded that something be given to her to eat. Her parents were amazed, but he commanded them to tell no one what had been done.
God’s power is not only incomprehensible to me, but it’s incomprehensible and scary for people without faith. I remember, when I was an atheist, indications of God’s power and might scared me; thankfully, God had other plans and brought me to Him.
I bring this up because of Luke 8:53, where they mock Jesus--this ridicule comes from a knowledge and fear of God’s power.
We can fear God’s power. We can mock it. But our fears and our mockery do not change God’s nature. Better to accept the reality of God than to deny it.
(All Bible translations from the Public Domain World English Bible)
8:22-8:25
Now it happened on one of those days, that he entered into a boat, himself and his disciples, and he said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake.” So they launched out. But as they sailed, he fell asleep. A wind storm came down on the lake, and they were taking on dangerous amounts of water. They came to him, and awoke him, saying, “Master, master, we are dying!” He awoke, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased, and it was calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” Being afraid they marveled, saying one to another, “Who is this, then, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”
I see Jesus as being irritated that they woke him up to do something they themselves could had done if they had enough faith (stop the storm). My pastor, in tonight’s study, saw it as Jesus being upset that they thought he couldn’t rescue him just because He was sleeping.
My notes: Yes, we do have the power to control the weather. It takes faith in science, moving away from fossil fuels, and using more renewable sources of energy.
Also, I think fusion is still something we need to explore, because if we can figure out fusion, that’s infinite power without nearly as many issues as fission (which, yes, is infinite power as long as we have uranium, but leaves some really messy stuff which takes 30,000 years to clean itself up).
8:26 - 8:39
They arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.
When Jesus stepped ashore, a certain man out of the city who had demons for a long time met him. He wore no clothes, and didn’t live in a house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, “What do I have to do with you, Jesus, you Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torment me!” For Jesus was commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For the unclean spirit had often seized the man. He was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters. Breaking the bands apart, he was driven by the demon into the desert.
Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered into him. They begged him that he would not command them to go into the abyss. Now there was there a herd of many pigs feeding on the mountain, and they begged him that he would allow them to enter into those. He allowed them. The demons came out from the man, and entered into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned. When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country.
People went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who saw it told them how he who had been possessed by demons was healed. All the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were very much afraid. He entered into the boat, and returned. But the man from whom the demons had gone out begged him that he might go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your house, and declare what great things God has done for you.” He went his way, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him.
Our pastor helped us visualize this story by describing the Golan Heights (near where this event occurred) and what the place looks like. It looks like this: Golan Heights - Wikipedia
I will always visualize the scene in the 1979 Jesus movie when reading this.
It seems unusual that Jesus would allow these demons to kill all of those pigs. We can brush it off with a “God’s thoughts are not our thoughts” evasion, but I think it might make more sense that this event never happened, and this is another parable. In more detail, it’s a backhanded criticism of the Roman occupation: Legion is the Roman legions, and they are worse than swine (pigs). See also:
Did Jesus Kill 2000 Pigs?
I will note that, as we get to the passion narrative later on, Luke (and the other gospel writers) go to a lot of effort to place the blame for Jesus’s death with the Pharisees and Sadducees and not with the Romans. Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ takes the opposite approach, painting the Roman soldiers as cruel and inhumane in their torment of Jesus.
8:43-8:48 (I am jumping around because this is one story inside another story)
A woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her living on physicians, and could not be healed by any, came behind him, and touched the fringe of his cloak, and immediately the flow of her blood stopped. Jesus said, “Who touched me?”
When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, “Master, the multitudes press and jostle you, and you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
But Jesus said, “Someone did touch me, for I perceived that power has gone out of me.” When the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared to him in the presence of all the people the reason why she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. He said to her, “Daughter, cheer up. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.”
I always found it very interesting that Jesus’s healing power is something which he could feel in his being spiritually, to the point he could feel it leaving him every time someone miraculously got healed by him.
We learn relatively little about the exact nature of Jesus’s magical power, except that anyone with sufficient faith can have it, and that it allows one to invoke God to control the evil spirits which cause illness. But, here we see it’s a tangible “energy field”, if you will, that the healer can feel.
This is where I give you my “God’s ways are mysterious, and His thinking is not my thinking” cop out.
Usually, when someone is healed by Jesus, it’s their own faith that heals them, but here it’s the power Jesus has as God made flesh that heals the woman.
8:40-8:56 (excluding 43-48)
It happened, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. Behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue. He fell down at Jesus’ feet, and begged him to come into his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying. But as he went, the multitudes pressed against him. [...]
While he still spoke, one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house came, saying to him, “Your daughter is dead. Don’t trouble the Teacher.”
But Jesus hearing it, answered him, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe, and she will be healed.”
When he came to the house, he didn’t allow anyone to enter in, except Peter, John, James, the father of the child, and her mother. All were weeping and mourning her, but he said, “Don’t weep. She isn’t dead, but sleeping.”
They were ridiculing him, knowing that she was dead. But he put them all outside, and taking her by the hand, he called, saying, “Child, arise!” Her spirit returned, and she rose up immediately. He commanded that something be given to her to eat. Her parents were amazed, but he commanded them to tell no one what had been done.
God’s power is not only incomprehensible to me, but it’s incomprehensible and scary for people without faith. I remember, when I was an atheist, indications of God’s power and might scared me; thankfully, God had other plans and brought me to Him.
I bring this up because of Luke 8:53, where they mock Jesus--this ridicule comes from a knowledge and fear of God’s power.
We can fear God’s power. We can mock it. But our fears and our mockery do not change God’s nature. Better to accept the reality of God than to deny it.
(All Bible translations from the Public Domain World English Bible)
