Luke 8:26-39

26 So they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes, across the lake from Galilee. 27 As Jesus was climbing out of the boat, a man who was possessed by demons came out to meet him. For a long time he had been homeless and naked, living in a cemetery outside the town.

28 As soon as he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down in front of him. Then he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Please, I beg you, don’t torture me!” 29 For Jesus had already commanded the evil spirit to come out of him. This spirit had often taken control of the man. Even when he was placed under guard and put in chains and shackles, he simply broke them and rushed out into the wilderness, completely under the demon’s power.

30 Jesus demanded, “What is your name?”

“Legion,” he replied, for he was filled with many demons. 31 The demons kept begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit.

32 There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby, and the demons begged him to let them enter into the pigs.

So Jesus gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned.

34 When the herdsmen saw it, they fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran. 35 People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been freed from the demons. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid. 36 Then those who had seen what happened told the others how the demon-possessed man had been healed.37 And all the people in the region of the Gerasenes begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone, for a great wave of fear swept over them.

So Jesus returned to the boat and left, crossing back to the other side of the lake. 38 The man who had been freed from the demons begged to go with him. But Jesus sent him home, saying, 39 “No, go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you.” So he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him.

Comments

Luke follows closely Mark’s account of Jesus’ encounter with the man oppressed by many demons. But he does make a couple of interesting changes that are worth paying attention to.

1. The man was naked. Mark doesn’t tell us this until the end. He tells us the man was seated and clothed and then mentions that clothed was new for this guy. Luke moves this bit of info to the front of the narrative. It gives a clearer picture of what happened. Naked guy runs up to Jesus and starts yelling.

2.The people were afraid. Mark makes a bigger deal of the pigs and it seems like the people are perhaps more upset about the loss of bacon than anything. Luke really downplays this. The people were afraid because Jesus has worked an immediate transformation on a guy they all knew about. Funny that his naked, screaming and breaking chains didn’t scare them as much as him at peace in the lotus position.

I love that this story follows the calming of the storm from yesterday. The storms inside us can be as violent as any hurricane. We who are emotionally naked and out of control and at the mercy of our demons and the storms that rage within – Jesus offer us calm. Peace. Serenity. And he transforms us so completely that we become the agents of his powerful calm. This man remained in his region, telling people about Jesus, healing the sick, and casting out demons. The one once possessed became the exorcist.

And so it is with us. We can be the agents of Jesus’ peace. Luke works to make this story even more real, even more focused on the real in-breaking of God’s power into the man’s life. That same power can calm your storms. That same power can empower you to calm the storms of others. The only thing better than being calm, clothed, and in your right mind is getting up from there and taking that peace to others desperate for it.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Luke 8:19-25

19 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him, but they couldn’t get to him because of the crowd. 20 Someone told Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, and they want to see you.”

21 Jesus replied, “My mother and my brothers are all those who hear God’s word and obey it.”

22 One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s cross to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and started out. 23 As they sailed across, Jesus settled down for a nap. But soon a fierce storm came down on the lake. The boat was filling with water, and they were in real danger.

24 The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!”

When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and the raging waves. Suddenly the storm stopped and all was calm. 25 Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?”

The disciples were terrified and amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked each other. “When he gives a command, even the wind and waves obey him!”

Comments

One of the harder parts about doing this Red Letter Year is breaking the text into manageable chunks. I want to keep them short enough that you can spend time with each piece, but this often means cutting across a point the writer was trying to make in putting certain stories or teachings together. Today’s reading includes a bit that Luke wanted us to read alongside the sower parable and another bit he wanted us to read with Gersasene man’s deliverance.
Reading about Mary and Jesus’ siblings coming to see him in Mark and Matthew, it can sound like they were antagonistic to his teaching and were coming to stop him and take him home. Luke drops all that. Mary has faith in Jesus in Luke’s account. Her son’s ministry fulfills the prophecy she spoke at the beginning of Luke’s account. For Luke, this short account serves to further drive home the importance of Jesus’ followers being bearers and spreaders of the seed that is the word of God. It also serves to highlight again that this work belongs fully to followers of both genders. Mary and Jesus’ sisters are full participants in spreading the Gospel and leading in his new kingdom.
Just as Luke treats Mary and Jesus’ siblings more positively, the disciples also receive better treatment here. In Luke’s account, “they fell asleep in the boat,” not just Jesus. Your translation probably makes this singular, but that is based on an effort to make the story more like Matthew and Mark. Luke uses the plural pronoun here. He meant to say “they” and we should respect that. That they woke up to find the boat taking on water and the wind howling makes their reaction more understandable. Jesus also responds to them in a way that does not belittle them. In Mark, he asks, “have you no faith?” In Matthew, Jesus calls them “men of little faith.” In Luke, he simply asks, “Where is your faith?” Still a question, but not so biting.
Luke wants the focus to be less on the disciples’ failure and more on Jesus’ power. Jesus calms this external storm just as he is about to calm the internal storm raging in the poor man living among the tombs. In both cases, Jesus rebukes – his word carries the power to order chaos and calm turmoil. Our words carry this same power when we engage in the seed casting that the Spirit calls and empowers us to do. Let Jesus speak calm to your storm today. Let Jesus speak calm to someone’s storm through you today. And don’t doubt for a moment that both can happen on the same day. As we will see tomorrow, the delivered man starts spreading seed right away.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale HousePublishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.