For The One
One day Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake.” So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. “Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples. In fear and amazement they asked one another, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him.” They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes,[b] which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” “Legion,” he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So he got into the boat and left. The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. Now when Jesus returned, a crowd welcomed him, for they were all expecting him. Then a man named Jairus, a synagogue leader, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with him to come to his house because his only daughter, a girl of about twelve, was dying. As Jesus was on his way, the crowds almost crushed him. And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. “Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.” But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.” Hearing this, Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” When he arrived at the house of Jairus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother. Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her. “Stop wailing,” Jesus said. “She is not dead but asleep.” They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead. But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!” Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. (Luke 8:22-56)
A day with Jesus (“One day…”)
Three stories = one story
What stands out to me
Healing the demoniac
Jesus eventually wakes up as they near the other side, and He instructs them to land near a Gentile graveyard, some pigs grazing on the nearby slopes. These good Jewish boys are not in Kansas anymore.
As they get out of the boat and begin walking up the hill, they hear a scream.
A naked man, cuts all over his body, eyes burning with an unholy fire, comes running down the hill screaming at them.
The disciples bolt back toward the boats; Jesus simply stands there, and says, in a voice remarkably similar to the one He had used with the storm, “Leave him alone.”
The man fell at Jesus’ feet and screamed something strange, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”
What do you suppose the disciples were thinking at this point? How does he know Jesus’ name? Oh yeah! And, what do you mean, “Son of the Most High God”?
Jesus, not at all concerned (the disciples still cowering): “What’s your name?”
The story ends with soggy bacon and…
…the man dressed (Jesus clothed him) and in his right mind.
Jesus, after what must have been less than an hour with him, thought him fit to be the first missionary to his people.
And, again, everyone is terrified. What was the boat ride back like?
The woman
Arriving back, the disciples were disappointed to see that the crowds were waiting for them. Who needs sleep anyway?
They were hoping Jesus would send them away, but of course, He was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He’d slept the whole way across the lake!
Jesus walked into the waiting crowd and begin to greet them.
A man came pushing through the crowd yelling Jesus name. Fortunately, this one was clothed. In fact, they knew him. Everyone knew him. Jairus, the synagogue leader. Poor Jairus with the sick daughter. He came shoving his way through the crowd, and just like the man on the other side, fell at the feet of Jesus, this time weeping.
“My daughter is dying. Please come quickly.”
Jesus: “Of course, lead the way.”
Jairus tried to hurry, but the crowds were crushing around them. It must have been agony for him.
And to make matters worse, Jesus didn’t command them to get out of the way. He seemed unhurried.
Jesus stopped. “Who touched me?” (Jairus is losing it by now.)
The disciples think Jesus is insane. “Everyone is touching you,” they say, shoving people out of the way.
Jesus, “This was a different kind of touch. Power went out.”
The woman, again someone everyone knew, because she had a condition that had made her unclean for years—poor woman, probably her fault, though. No one could hang out with her, object of pity and scorn—approached Jesus and the crowds parted, everyone scurrying out of the way.
She too fell at His feet.
He looked her right in the eye, smiled, and said the most beautiful word she had ever heard, “Daughter…” Not even her own parents had called her that in years. “Your faith has healed you.”
Suddenly, everyone wanted to talk to her.
Jairus
What stands out? Jesus.
“As a child, I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene . . . . No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase-mongers, however artful. –Albert Einstein
When everyone else is jostling, cowering, or bowing. Jesus is standing, literally standing out.
Unflappable, dauntless: not like a robot but like a king.
Majestic
Not just King of the Jews. King of the Jews explains the crowds and excitement, but not the fear. There is only one explanation for their fear. It is a holy terror. They knew they were in the presence of the divine. God as in the boat. God was among the tombs. God was in the crowd. God was in the house. Think about it: Lord of the storm (who but God), Lord of the spirits (Jesus said as much to the delivered man), Lord of the restoration, Lord of life.
Why is Luke making the point that Jesus is God? Lots of reasons, but one of the most significant is so that, having seen Him as God we will go back through the story and ask the question: What kind of God Is He?" God who loves without precondition, who loves the unclean, the poor, the needy, the outcast.
For you but not just for you.
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