
Read Luke 8:22-56.
1. Imagine having Jesus sleeping in front of you. I mean, if you knew that there was something amazing about Him, something miraculous about Him, do you think you’d talk about Him with the other disciples while He was just sleeping there?
2. Jesus appears to be sleeping through the squall, totally at peace. Shoot, I get motion sickness on a boat in good weather…
3. The disciples said that they were going to drown, and Jesus “rebuked” the wind and the waves. You rebuke something when you are correcting it. I just think it’s interesting that it says rebuke, like He’s the Teacher; and nature is the student.
4. I know where the disciples “faith” was. They knew Jesus could do all kinds of cool stuff, but they didn’t think He could do this! But…He could.
5. And of course, this took their thinking about Jesus to a whole other level…
6. OK…so demon-possessed guy meets Jesus and Co. when they come to shore. Apparently, this guy was naked and crazy! I wonder we would have thought about him nowadays. He lived in the tombs. Maybe this was a sign of how spiritual dead he was?
7. He fell at Jesus’ feet and shouted at the top of his lungs (this must have been an interesting scene). What does he shout? 1) He identifies who Jesus really is, the Son of God. 2) He asks not to be tortured. Do you think the Son of God would torture an evil spirit, or do you think that, perhaps, this is the way that things are dealt with in the kingdom of darkness?
8. Jesus commanded the spirit to leave the man (maybe that seemed like torture to the spirit?). (Apparently, this guy had been tormented for a long time, breaking through chains to be in solitary places) Does this freak anyone out besides me?
9. Interestingly, Jesus asks the name of the spirit… Technically, wouldn’t Jesus know already?
10. “Legion.” Interesting name. A legion was the term used to describe an entire Roman force. (It comes from the root “lego,” which means “collect.” Hooray for legos!) Anyway, this guy wasn’t just possessed by one demon, he was possessed by a collection. Anyone seen “The Exorcism of Emily Rose”?
11. Not that I understand much about the spirit world, but I find it interesting that the demons begged not to be sent to “the Abyss.” So…I would assume that demons prefer to torment people than having to be banished to Hell. Interesting, since we always think of the demons having a good ol’ time in Hell, tormenting “bad” people. This would imply that demons would be fellow sufferers, not landlords.
12. I wonder if pigs were filthy to the demons like they were to the Jews.
13. I’ve always wondered about the whole stampeding herd of pigs part of the Bible. Was it so miserable for the demons to be in pigs that they had to drive the pigs to kill themselves? When they died, were they “free to move about the country” or were they now dead? And, if they were dead, then didn’t they have to go to the very “Abyss” that they begged Jesus not to go to? Hmm… You can tell I think too much.
14. I know my wife would be sad for the pigs too. Were the pigs simply “expendable”?
15. Imagine being a pighearder! Dude, that guy with the stylish beard just “commanded” all my pigs to run off a cliff! Where’s my pitch fork?
16. So…they show up, probably ready to lynch Jesus; and the town crazy guy is sitting at Jesus’ feet in his right mind. That would make me at least drop my pitch fork…or…maybe I’d shakily try to hold it a little tighter. I guess there were people who were close enough to the event to know what really happened; but, instead of clearing everything up, this made everyone more scared. They asked Jesus to leave. Why do you think they were so scared?
17. The guy who was healed wanted to join Jesus’ crew, but it appears that Jesus had a job for him. Who could deny God’s work in his life? His job was to tell everyone what Jesus had done for him in town (with clothes on).
18. I wonder if the disciples were just aching to tell that crowd all the crazy stuff that Jesus had just done!
19. Jairus was a high-up religious official, but he humbled himself before Jesus. When someone you love is hurting, I think most people would do just about anything to make it better. And Jairus had probably heard of Jesus’ reputation as a healer.
20. So…you think that this is going to be all about Jairus’ daughter being healed. You can see the newspaper headline now. But…something else happens in the middle of this story…
21. A woman who could not stop (internally?) bleeding for twelve years shows up. And here’s what’s amazing. She just tries to touch Jesus’ cloak. Maybe she felt that if she could touch the tip of His cloak that THAT would heal her. Man, what faith! It works, and that would have been an amazing story in and of itself– a secret story of God’s healing.
22. But Jesus feels it. He feels His healing power going into someone. Wow. And He asks who touched Him. Imagine Jesus asking that, surrounded by a crowd of people. Who touched Him…well, hasn’t everyone? I can see where Peter’s logic was.
23. Why do you think the woman was afraid?
24. Interestingly, Jesus doesn’t say that He healed her. He says that her faith has healed her. What’s the difference, or is there one?
25. Such an awesome story, that you almost forget what Jesus was on His way to do…remember and IMPORTANT person’s daughter is sick. Well, not any more– she’s dead.
26. I wonder if Jairus was mad at the woman for taking Jesus’ precious time. I wonder if he felt like that was a fair trade? It would have been hard for me to not be bitter; but, apparently (based on Jesus response), he was really just afraid.
27. Jesus tells Jairus to believe. Believe what? Believe that his daughter can be healed from DEATH?
28. Jesus let the mom, the dad, and Peter, James, and John into the the house. Why only these three disciples?
29. Imagine Jesus saying that she’s not dead but that she’s just asleep. I wouldn’t know what to think.
30. I think that that laughter was probably pretty bitter, more like a snicker. But, in the midst of those snickers, Jesus took the girl by the hand and told her to get up. And she did. And, apparently, she was hungry. Give her some pitas.
31. Why do you think Jesus told the parents not to tell anyone what happened? And, really, how hard to you think it would be to keep THIS story bottled up?