Category: Expository Thoughts on Luke by J.C. Ryle

Let us notice in this passage, the variety of opinions about our Lord Jesus Christ, which prevailed during His earthly ministry. We are told that some said that He was John the Baptist;–some that He was Elias;–and some that one of the old prophets was risen again. One common remark applies to all these opinions. All were agreed that our Lord’s doctrine was not like that of the Scribes and Pharisees. All saw in Him a bold witness against the evil that was in the world.

The miracle described in these verses is more frequently related in the Gospels than any that our Lord wrought. There is no doubt a meaning in this repetition. It is intended to draw our special attention to the things which it contains.

We see, for one thing, in these verses, a striking example of our Lord Jesus Christ’s divine power. He feeds an assembly of five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes. He makes a scanty supply of victuals, which was barely sufficient for the daily wants of Himself and His disciples, satisfy the hunger of a company as large as a Roman legion. There could be no mistake about the reality and greatness of this miracle. It was done publicly, and before many witnesses. The same power which at the beginning made the world out of nothing, caused food to exist, which before had not existed. The circumstances of the whole event made deception impossible. Five thousand hungry men would not have agreed that they were “all filled,” if they had not received real food. “Twelve baskets full of fragments” would never have been taken up, if real material loaves and fish had not been miraculously multiplied. Nothing, in short, can explain the whole transaction, but the finger of God. The same hand which sent manna from heaven in the wilderness to feed Israel, was the hand which made five loaves and two fishes supply the needs of five thousand men.

Let us mark, in this passage, the power of a bad conscience. We are told that “when Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by our Lord, he was perplexed.” He said, “John have I beheaded, but who is this?” Great and powerful as Herod was, the tidings of our Lord’s ministry called his sins to remembrance, and disturbed him even in his royal palace. Surrounded as he was by everything which is considered to make life enjoyable, the report of another preacher of righteousness filled him with alarm. The recollection of his own wickedness in killing John the Baptist flashed on his mind. He knew he had done wrong. He felt guilty, self-condemned, and self-dissatisfied. Faithful and true is that saying of Solomon’s, “The way of transgressors is hard.” (Prov. 13:15) Herod’s sin had found him out. The prison and the sword had silenced John the Baptist’s tongue, but they could not silence the voice of Herod’s inward man. God’s truth can neither be silenced, nor bound, nor killed.

These verses contain our Lord’s instructions to His twelve apostles, when He sent them forth the first time to preach the Gospel. The passage is one which throws much light on the work of Christian ministers in every age. No doubt the miraculous power which the apostles possessed, made their position very unlike that of any other body of men in the Church. No doubt, in many respects, they stood alone, and had no successors. Yet the words of our Lord in this place must not be confined entirely to the apostles. They contain deep wisdom for Christian teachers and preachers, for all time.

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.