Four Miracles. Luke 8:22-56 Gentile believers in Christ, to whom Luke’s Gospel would have had a special appeal, would have been able to identify the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ over four areas of life with which they were very familiar. The variety of nature, demons, disease, and death are all greater than we can control. The four miracles demonstrate the authority of Jesus over them all, as He openly showed. None of those miracles we kept private because all human beings everywhere are affected by them all.
The interaction of the Lord with people from many walks of life and a variety of situations was addressed by Luke as he showed unmistakably that Jesus was the Son of God who came from heaven to earth as the Son of Man to save us from our sins. He didn’t really need the help of those faithful women of Galilee who gave their money to supply His physical needs. He created bread and fish by His own power. But when believers show their love for Him and do what they can, motivated by love for their Savior, He gladly accepts what they give. People of faith believe in Him and obey Him. In that way, He identifies them as being in His family, not just the few who were His earthly family.
Jesus has Authority over Nature. When things around us are calm, we can become complacent about why we are here and God’s intentions for us. By nature, people like to be comfortable and feel in control of everything that happens in their lives. Perhaps that is why God allows His creation to act out of the ordinary. Our purpose in living is far more meaningful than just eating, drinking, and being merry. Forest fires, hurricane winds, tornados, floods of water, thunder, lightning, and earthquakes; anything that awakens our sense of fear makes people afraid because they don’t know what the outcome will be, and there is an underlying fear of death and what comes after.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was a real man, but He was the Perfect Man. As a man, He could have pity and sorrow. He could love and be angry, but He could never be afraid. His trust was in the Father, and He always did the Father’s will. Therefore, sleeping in a boat in a wild storm was perfectly natural to Him in contrast to His fearful disciples. His sleep was in contrast to Jonah’s sleeping in a storm because Jonah’s sleep was the sleep that comes when one is afraid of God and is exhausted by the emotion involved.
When the disciples woke Jesus from sleep, it was obvious to Him they were afraid they would drown. Even though they had been with Jesus for quite some time and were eyewitnesses of miracles and events that proved to them He was God in human flesh, they had not yet learned the extent of what that meant.
His authority and power over all things in heaven and earth never diminished when He humbled Himself and became found in fashion as a man. God is sovereign and has the final authority over even the out-of-control nature that Satan used against Him. The devil had tried to kill Him when He was a baby in Bethlehem. He tried to have people push Him over a cliff in Nazareth. He was likely the force behind the wind and the storm as they crossed the Sea of Galilee, but the Lord Jesus Christ “rebuked the wind and the raging of the water.”
Our lives on earth will have stormy times over which we have no control. We may think we are going down under the pressures on us until we realize that our faith is in the One who controls all of nature, and He, with a simple question, “Where is your faith?” speaks peace to our soul, removes our fear and assures us of His presence as we pass through the valley of the shadow of death.
Jesus has Authority over Demons. The area east of Galilee is called “the country of the Gadarenes.” It is also called Gerasene or Gergesene. This is part of a larger area called Decapolis (ten cities), which were self-governing Greek cities. Very few Jews would have lived there among the Gentiles because of Jewish rules that didn’t apply to the Gadarenes. In this area, a naked man lived in the place where they buried the dead because a legion of demons possessed him.
Demon possession is terrible in any case, but this man was an exceptionally bad case in that he could not be controlled, not even with chains that he could break. When people open the door of their minds to spiritual darkness, demons under the power of the devil have an entrance into a person, claiming authority over their body, soul, and spirit. Astrology, the occult, witchcraft, and charming all are under the influence of spiritual darkness through which the devil will take advantage of a person’s sinful curiosity. Demons are evil spirits that can gain access to animals and birds as well as people. Demons are all opposed to God and the Lord Jesus Christ because they know they are not able to overpower divine authority and a sinless, spotless character. They can enter and control those people who make a god of themselves and/or worship false gods. They cannot enter one who has been born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. The indwelling Spirit in a child of God will not allow darkness into our body, soul, and spirit because the precious blood of Christ has redeemed us. We have been “bought with a price. Therefore, we are to glorify God in our body and spirit, which is His.” Even so, a wise person will stay as far away as possible from anything or anyone that is associated with such evil.
When the Lord of heaven and earth stepped ashore at Gadara, the demons in the possessed man knew they could not avoid the power of divine Light and Holiness. The possessed man prostrated himself before the Lord Jesus, and using the voice of the man, the demons loudly testified that Jesus was the Son of the Most High God. “The demons believe and tremble” at the presence, power, and Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. They knew who He was and knew He had the power to cast them into the bottomless pit immediately.
When Jesus commanded the legion of demons to come out of the body of that possessed man, they had to leave. A far greater power than theirs has authority over the powers of darkness. The Lord Jesus responded to their request to not be cast into the abyss by allowing them to enter a herd of pigs. Even the pigs could not stand having demons in them and rushed into the water and drowned.
This whole narrative emphasizes the importance of having nothing to do with the power of darkness. Whether it be a mere curiosity, games with occultic names or emphasis, palm reading, signs in crystals, or crystal balls – anything at all that has to do with such subjects puts a person in a place where evil influences can affect a person’s mind. We must “resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near unto you.” He must flee because we are under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For His own reasons, the Lord did not destroy the demons; he cast them out of people. The challenge of good and evil continues in today, allowing human beings to exercise their free will to choose to trust the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. When this day of grace is over, and our Lord reigns, the earth will have a time of peace as divine justice carries out its authority over sin when it happens. Ultimately, Satan, demons, and all people who choose to follow him or choose not to follow the Lord will be forever in the lake of fire. God will deal with evil in the world in His own time and way, which will include new heavens and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness.
A sad commentary on the Gadarenes that Luke described is that they were more concerned about the pigs than the man who had been delivered from the power of darkness and brought into the light of the kingdom of God. They put pressure on the Lord Jesus to leave them and their country. Perhaps they thought that if such authority and power were used, all sorts of violent activity might happen there, especially if their own sins were revealed. The healing of the man who had been incurable must have created an awesome fear in them because of Jesus’ miraculous power, and they may have wondered what would happen next. The “man from across the lake” was not welcome there.
Changes in a person who has been set free from the power of sin and Satan cannot be concealed. Where there is life, there is light. New life flourishes when a person becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus. Evidence of salvation is seen in changed attitudes as well as actions. Words, ways of interacting with others, facial expressions, and even body language show that God has worked for the whole person when God saves them. Then, when a person verbally testifies to the work of grace in their heart, truth becomes clarified in ways that cannot be denied.
Like the new man clothed and in his right mind, believers today have been set at liberty to obey the Lord. That Gentile man wanted to be with Jesus and follow Him, but the Lord gave Him a specific commission, “Return to your house and tell what great things God has done for you.” He obeyed the Lord, and the whole city and his own home knew that Jesus had done for him what no one else could do. That is the kind of testimony people need to hear from us and one they can’t easily forget.
It is likely because of his evangelizing efforts that when Jesus went there later, many came to be healed by Him, and many believed in Him. We have the commission to let people know what God has done for us. We may not see the results, but when we do what He has told us to do, we leave the results to Him. We know God’s word will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent.
Jesus has Authority over Disease and Death. These two incidents involving two women give us further insight into the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, who He is, and what it means to be healed by Him. They had in common an extreme need of which the Lord Jesus could only meet. Luke’s Gospel account indicates a special interest in assuring those who read this book that they knew of Jesus’ concern for women. In both cases, normal human help failed. Both were actually unclean by Jewish laws. In both cases, faith was vital to the Lord to act in grace. In the woman who needed healing, her faith in Christ made her healing possible. In the dead twelve-year-old girl, it was Jairus’ faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that was the key to the resuscitation of his daughter. In both cases, Jesus’ authority as God was demonstrated, and His miracles enforced His words.
When He crossed from Gadara to Capernaum, the Lord was welcomed back. The crowd expected Him, and Jairus wanted Jesus to come to his house. For a synagogue ruler to fall before Jesus in respect and reverence demonstrated the faith He had in the Lord. The Lord Jesus respected such humility and faith and went with the anxious father.
True faith and an urgent matter remove a lot of the personal hindrances people have that keep them from coming to Christ. Jairus wasn’t concerned about being identified as a helpless father who knew he needed Jesus. He wasn’t embarrassed to express his need in front of a crowd. Desperation is often the key to an active faith that doesn’t wait, hesitate, or worry about what people think. When a need is real, and we know the only solution to a problem is for God to act on our behalf, we can have confidence in Him to meet the need according to His will.
True faith is not only out in the open, but it may also be hidden in the heart of one who is an outcast, alone, afraid, and avoided by other people. The Lord, who knows the heart of every person, is not limited by any means when it comes to meeting needs. A woman who had been sick from the time Jairus’ daughter was born had become poverty-stricken and hopeless until Jesus came. “When Jesus comes, the tempter’s power is broken. When Jesus comes, the tears are wiped away. He takes the gloom and fills life with glory. For all is changed when Jesus comes to stay.”
In faith, the sick woman bowed low and reached to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. People were crowding around Him and bumping up against Him, so she had obstacles to get past, but she did act in true faith and instantly knew healing had come as she faded into the crowd. For those around Jesus to know what her problem was would have been an embarrassment to her and a defilement to those who had touched her. In this delicate situation, she had secretly approached Jesus, unnoticed and unknown by others, and touched the hem of His outer garment in faith. Just like her faith had assured her, immediate cleansing took place.
Believing faith isn’t in objects like a piece of cloth or some physical action. Faith must be in a real living Person who can and will save all who come to Him. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ makes it possible for Him to save a sinner from their sins and sins consequences. Vital faith in Christ makes a living as a Christian, with a life of usefulness and honor for God, possible. He can do for us what is impossible for us to do in our own strength or by our will.
The Lord Jesus knew all about the woman and her faith and had healed her. But in this case, He was not done. When He stopped and said, “Who touched Me?” it seemed strange to ask when One is being jostled by a pushy crowd who wanted to see Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the omniscient Son of God, and He knew it would be good for women to confess their faith openly. It would also be good for the crowd to hear what happened because of her faith in Jesus. A teaching moment was there, and though Jairus would have wanted Jesus to hurry to his house, Jesus stopped until the woman came forward and openly confessed why she touched His garment and what had happened when she did.
To tell others what happened to us personally is a good and simple way to testify to others. Tell them the results of putting one’s faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. Blessing from God when we are at our extremity is worth telling other people about. For unbelievers, it makes the Gospel real and important. For believers, it gives us reason to praise God together. A touch of faith is of far greater value than a hearty handshake of greeting. Our inner motives are all open before our Lord. “The Lord knows them that are His.”
While the Lord Jesus was speaking to the woman who had been healed, news came from Jairus’ house that his daughter had died. Jesus knew that and knew how the father felt at hearing the news. To many people, death is the end of everything. “Trouble not the Master” indicated that whoever brought the message didn’t have unreserved faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those who believe in a real, personal, and living God from whom we receive life and our personhood know that “the grave is not the goal.” Eternal life with a meaningful and blessed purpose is ahead of those who have put their faith in Christ, and we live and work with confidence. Eternal death and uselessness are ahead of those who do not know God.
When we speak about faith in Christ to heal, the emphasis is on His ability and authority to heal, not on the healing itself. Our need and total dependence on God are focused by faith on what His will is and whether He is willing to do what we ask. Our God is full of compassion and deeply cares about human needs. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost.
Jairus knew Jesus could heal people and believed that Jesus could heal his daughter. Perhaps the healing of the woman on the way to his house confirmed his faith but also frustrated him in his anxiety about the healing of his daughter. The news that his daughter had died likely made him despair, and perhaps he thought all hope was gone. Anticipating this, the Lord Jesus kindly said, “Do not be afraid; only believe, and she will be healed.” The reality of Jairus’ faith was put to the extreme test. “Healed? She died; how can dead people be healed?” would likely have been in his mind, but it seems like there was still a glimmer of hope in him.
The times when we have reached the end of our hopes may be the greatest experience of faith in our lives. That is what happens when a person truly realizes they are totally lost in their sins. The only one who can help is Jesus. “Jesus alone can save!” That may happen in other situations that come in our lives as we walk in the light of His word. People around may give up and say, “What’s the use!” but with faith in our Lord, we go further and find He is full of grace and mercy, and the results He gives far exceed our expectations.
Jairus did bring Jesus to his house, so his faith, though it may have been somewhat diminished, hoped that Jesus would do what he said even though his daughter was dead. When Jesus said, “She is not dead but asleep,” it wasn’t that He was saying was not true, but that the sleep of death was only temporary. It was her body that was dead, not her. He has the keys to life and death and uses them according to His sovereign will. The body without the spirit is dead, but in Christ, there is victory over death, disease, demons, and nature.
The small group in the room with Jesus were people who had faith in Him. Even so, Jairus and his wife were astonished when the child responded to the words of Jesus and stood up. The instruction to give her something to eat would have been a positive assurance that resuscitation was real and she was back to life in a real and normal way. The three disciples would have remembered later what they learned that day. The words He said, what He did, and what happened after were all impressed on them to be used after He returned to heaven. They were given His divine power, and the authority of His name was needed to do the same. What a joy it must have been to witness such a blessing! When we are close to the Lord, He gives us many reasons for joy, even amidst sorrow. That miraculous event was to be kept private because He was not yet ready to take the rule as the great King.
LUKE 9 GOING FARTHER AFIELD