Luke · chapter 8 of 24
Updated on
Luke 8 gathers Jesus' teaching and miracles: the parable of the sower and its explanation, the storm calmed on the lake, the Gerasene demoniac freed from a legion, the woman with bleeding healed by touching his cloak, and Jairus's daughter raised. Luke also mentions the women who supported his ministry.
Jesus travels through towns and villages proclaiming the kingdom of God, and Luke 8 shows two sides of that ministry: his teaching in parables and his authority over nature, demons, disease and death. The miracles raise the chapter's question: who is this that commands the winds and the sea?
Jesus goes from town to town with the twelve and with some women he had healed who served him out of their means: Mary Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna. When a large crowd gathers, he tells the parable of the sower: the seed falls along the path, on rock, among thorns and on good soil, and only the last bears fruit. He explains to his disciples that the seed is the word of God and the soils represent different responses of the heart. He also says no one hides a lamp, and that his true family are those who hear God's word and do it.
One day Jesus crosses the lake with his disciples and falls asleep. A storm rises that threatens to sink them; they wake him, he rebukes the wind and waves, and there is calm. He asks where their faith is, and they, amazed, ask one another who this is. On the other shore, in the region of the Gerasenes, a man possessed by many demons, who lived naked among the tombs, falls before him. The demons, who call themselves Legion, ask to enter a herd of pigs, which rushes down into the lake. The man is healed and clothed, and Jesus sends him to tell what God has done. The people of the area, afraid, ask Jesus to leave.
Back across the lake, Jairus, a synagogue ruler, begs Jesus to come heal his twelve-year-old daughter, who is dying. On the way, a woman who has had bleeding for twelve years touches the edge of his cloak and is healed; Jesus brings her forward and tells her that her faith has saved her. Then word comes that the girl has died, but Jesus tells Jairus to believe. In the house he takes the girl by the hand and tells her to get up; she rises and he asks that she be given something to eat.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Jesus makes clear that the seed is the word of God. With that key, the parable stops being a farming story and becomes an invitation to examine how we receive the message of the kingdom.
Jesus rebukes the wind and waves and all grows calm, and he asks the disciples where their faith is. They are amazed that even nature obeys him, and their question, who is this, is the central question of the Gospel.
Jesus tells the freed man to go home and tell how much God has done for him. The man does not stay with Jesus but proclaims throughout the town what Jesus has done.
Jesus calls the woman who touched his cloak daughter and tells her that her faith has made her well and she should go in peace. He not only restores her health; he also restores her before everyone, from an illness that made her unclean.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: The word of God. — Luke 8:11
Answer: He rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and there was calm. — Luke 8:24
Answer: He said his name was Legion, because many demons had entered him. — Luke 8:30
Answer: The herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. — Luke 8:32-33
Answer: Twelve years. — Luke 8:43
Answer: Do not fear, only believe, and she will be well. — Luke 8:49-50
Luke 8 puts the sower's question to us: what kind of soil is my heart? Sometimes the word is lost on the path of distractions, to hardness, to worries. In a small group you can identify which thorns are choking faith and what can be done this week to make room for the word.
The miracles show that Jesus is Lord of our storms and of our dead ends. Jairus and the sick woman came to him in desperation, and Jesus received them. When circumstances seem too late, his word to Jairus still rings: do not fear, only believe.
Luke 8 closes with a girl standing up and astonished parents, whom Jesus asks not to tell what happened. In Luke 9 Jesus sends out the twelve with the same power and asks them who they say he is.
Parables reveal the kingdom to those who have ears to hear and hide it from those who do not want to receive it. Jesus cites Isaiah about seeing without seeing. With his disciples he explains the meaning, inviting people to come close and ask, not merely to listen from afar.
They were people of the region across the Sea of Galilee, in largely Gentile territory. They were afraid of the power they saw, and perhaps also over the loss of the herd. Luke says fear gripped them, not that they recognized him as Lord.
Because he wanted the woman to come into the open and be healed in her relationship with the community as well. She was unclean because of her bleeding and would have preferred to go unnoticed. Jesus calls her daughter and publicly acknowledges her faith.