Category: Luke Chapter 8

The verses we have now read, contain one of the three great instances which the Holy Ghost has thought fit to record of our Lord restoring a dead person to life. The other two instances are those of Lazarus and the widow’s son at Nain. There seems no reason to doubt that our Lord raised others beside these three. But these three cases are specially described as patterns of His almighty power. One was a young girl, who had just breathed her last. One was a young man, who was being carried to his burial. One was a man, who had already lain four days in the grave. In all three cases alike we see life at once restored at Christ’s command.

Let us notice, in the verses before us, how universal is the dominion which death holds over the sons of men. We see him coming to a rich man’s house, and tearing from him the desire of his eyes with a stroke. “There cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, thy daughter is dead.” Such tidings as these are the bitterest cups which we have to drink in this world. Nothing cuts so deeply into man’s heart as to part with beloved ones, and lay them in the grave. Few griefs are so crushing and heavy as the grief of a parent over an only child.

How much misery and trouble sin has brought into the world! The passage we have just read affords a melancholy proof of this. First we see a distressed father in bitter anxiety about a dying daughter. Then we see a suffering woman, who has been afflicted twelve years with an incurable disease. And these are things which sin has sown broad-cast over the whole earth! These are but patterns of what is going on continually on every side. These are evils which God did not create at the beginning, but man has brought upon himself by the fall. There would have been no sorrow and no sickness among Adam’s children, if there had been no sin.

Let us see in the case of the woman here described, a striking picture of the condition of many souls. We are told that she had been afflicted with a wearing disease for “twelve years,” and that she “had spent all her living upon physicians,” and that she could not be “healed of any.” The state of many a sinner’s heart is placed before us in this description as in a mirror. Perhaps it describes ourselves.

We see in this passage two requests made to our Lord Jesus Christ. They were widely different one from the other, and were offered by people of widely different character. We see, moreover, how these requests were received by our Lord Jesus Christ. In either case the request received a most remarkable answer. The whole passage is singularly instructive.

Let us observe, in the first place, that the Gadarenes besought our Lord to depart from them, and their request was granted. We read these painfully solemn words–“He went up into the ship, and returned back again.”

The well-known narrative which we have now read, is carefully recorded by all of the first three Gospel-writers. It is a striking instance of our Lord’s complete dominion over the prince of this world. We see the great enemy of our souls for once completely vanquished,–the “strong man” foiled by One stronger than he, and the lion spoiled of his prey.

Let us mark, first, in this passage, the miserable condition of those over whom the devil reigns. The picture brought before us is a frightful one. We are told that when our Lord arrived in the country of the Gadarenes, there met Him “a certain man which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.” We are also told that although he had been “bound with chains and in fetters, he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.” In short, the case seems to have been one of the most aggravated forms of demoniacal possession. The unhappy sufferer was under the complete dominion of Satan, both in body and soul. So long as he continued in this state, he must have been a burden and a trouble to all around him. His mental faculties were under the direction of a “legion” of devils. His bodily strength was only employed for his own injury and shame. A more pitiable state for mortal man to be in, it is difficult to conceive.

The event in our Lord’s life described in these verses is related three times in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke were all inspired to record it. This circumstance should teach us the importance of the event, and should make us “give the more heed” to the lessons it contains.

We see, firstly, in these verses, that our Lord Jesus Christ was really man as well as God. We read that as he sailed over the Lake of Gennesaret in a ship with his disciples, “he fell asleep.” Sleep, we must be all aware, is one of the conditions of our natural constitution as human beings. Angels and spirits require neither food nor refreshment. But flesh and blood, to keep up a healthy existence, must eat, and drink, and sleep. If the Lord Jesus could be weary, and need rest, He must have had two natures in one person–a human nature as well as a divine.

These verses form a practical application of the famous parable of the sower. They are intended to nail and clench in our minds the mighty lesson which that parable contains. They deserve the especial attention of all true-hearted hearers of the Gospel of Christ.

We learn, firstly, from these verses, that spiritual knowledge ought to be diligently used. Our Lord tells us that it is like a lighted candle, utterly useless, when covered with a bushel, or put under a bed,–only useful when set upon a candlestick, and placed where it can be made serviceable to the wants of men.

The parable of the sower, contained in these verses, is reported more frequently than any parable in the Bible. It is a parable of universal application. The things it relates are continually going on in every congregation to which the Gospel is preached. The four kinds of hearts it describes are to be found in every assembly which hears the word. These circumstances should make us always read the parable with a deep sense of its importance. We should say to ourselves, as we read it: “This concerns me. My heart is to be seen in this parable. I, too, am here.”

Let us mark, in these verses, our Lord Jesus Christ’s unwearied diligence in doing good. We read that “He went throughout every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.” We know the reception that He met with in many places. We know that while some believed, many believed not. But man’s unbelief did not move our Lord, or hinder His working. He was always “about His Father’s business.” Short as His earthly ministry was in point of duration, it was long when we consider the work that it comprised.

Let the diligence of Christ be an example to all Christians. Let us follow in His steps, however far we may come short of His perfection. Like Him, let us labour to do good in our day and generation, and to leave the world a better world than we found it. It is not for nothing that the Scripture says expressly: “He that abideth in him ought himself also so to walk even as he walked.” (1 John 2:6)