Friday, December 5, 2014

Day 8 Advent Reading: Luke Chapter 8

Jesus uses some good images to try and help people understand what he is teaching them.

Many biblical scholars would argue that Luke 8: 11-15, the interpretation of the parable of the sower, does not contain Jesus' actual words; rather, Luke added this interpretation (and credited Jesus with it) of the parable that the early church taught.

WE again see the presence of fear when the disciples are caught in a storm on the boat (8: 22-25).  Notice that the fear is not noted until after Jesus had calmed the seas, as if the power of Jesus is more frightening than the storm!  In some ways, I think we have lost any sense of fear when thinking about the power of Christ.  Fear seems like a bad thing in our day, but fear in Luke seems to be tied to an acknowledgement of how awesome or powerful Jesus was.

Fascinating that after Jesus heals the Gerasene demoniac, Jesus refuses the man's offer to come with him and instead sends him home to tell others about what Jesus had done (8:38-39).

In the story of the healaing of the bleeding woman and Jairus' daughter, I have always been intrigued by the fact that the woman thought she could be healed by merely touching the fringe of Jesus' clothes (8:40-48), and indeed she was correct.  How long it must have seemed to Jairus to wait for Jesus to deal with the woman before moving on to Jairus' house to see his sick daughter.  In the aftermath of Black Friday when no one has any patience or concern for anyone else as they try to find the best deals, Jairus' waiting seems extraordinary (as the parent of a daughter, I find it excruciatingly painful to think about waiting for Jesus to deal with someone else while my daughter is dying).

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