LUKE 8
The Lord going through the country city by city, and village by village, is an intimation that He would have the power of the kingdom of God to be known in a large number of different localities. The reign of grace was to come into expression in many places, a foreshadowing of what would come about by the setting up of local assemblies in connection with Paul’s ministry. Not only did the Lord preach and announce the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, but the power of the kingdom was seen in the persons who accompanied Him. “The twelve” represented His authority in administration, but the women who had been healed of wicked spirits and infirmities, and who now ministered to Him of their substance, were a personal evidence of the power of the kingdom. The Lord would have that kind of administration, and that kind of personal testimony, in every city and village that He visits throughout the world. The authority of those whom He has chosen to be apostles must be everywhere owned, for they are the representatives of His authority, but there must also be the subjective state set forth in the women, who were healed persons, set free from the power of evil, and now ministering to Him in love. The woman seen at the end of the previous [p. 105] chapter is a selected pattern of the kind of persons who can be with the Lord and can minister to Him in every City and village. The true character of the kingdom of God is that the authority of Jesus is owned, but it is owned by those whose sins have been forgiven, and who have been healed of wicked spirits and infirmities, and who now love Him much and minister to Him as the woman did in Simon’s house. What a testimony to be set in every city and village!
The testimony of God in this world largely hangs on the appreciation of Jesus as the Friend of sinners. Where Jesus is loved and ministered to, and where His heart is gratified by what He receives from those who love Him, there is the kingdom of God in power. Perhaps many of us would be more vitally in the kingdom of God if we were more in the ardent affection of those to whom much has been forgiven. Perhaps some of us still need healing of infirmities which hinder us from expressing what God is in grace. Mark tells us that the Lord cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene, but here in Luke we read that they had “gone out”. It suggests that they could not remain where Jesus was loved. But if the demons go out it is that the Lord’s appointments may be recognised as set forth in “the twelve”. For us this would mean that the Lord’s commandments through His apostles have their full place in directing us as to how we walk together (see 1 Corinthians 14: 37). One important way in which love to the Lord Jesus comes into expression is by regard for that assembly order which He has instituted.
The first three verses of chapter 8 really connect with the end of chapter 7; verse 4 begins a new subject. There is now “a great crowd coming together”, and this brings before the Lord’s mind that the kingdom of God was going to take a certain form in which it would be necessary to discriminate between different classes of persons who would come into relation to it. The word of God would be widely sown, and many would hear it, but it would only be fruitful in “good ground”, where there would be, as presented in Luke, a full result — a hundredfold. What we see here is the normal yield from seed so valuable and fertile as “the word of God”. The word of divine grace falling into good ground produces a full result for God. The Lord gives His disciples a clear understanding why the word in many cases does not result in a normal yield. These are “mysteries” known only to those [p. 106] initiated into them. Many at the present time hear the word of God, but they are not so affected as to become fruitful. In the woman at the end of the previous chapter we see one in whom the word had become very fruitful, and those mentioned in verses 2 and 3 of this chapter had brought forth fruit with patience. But this proves that the seed had fallen into good ground. “An honest and good heart” in man can only be the result of a work of God.
In this parable as Matthew gives it there is a diminishing result — “one hundred, one sixty, and one thirty” — because things are viewed there as committed to the responsibility of men. In Mark there is an increasing result — “one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred” — because a service patterned after that of the Son of God is in view. But in Luke the word of God is regarded as producing its own normal fruit because it is the word of God, not as Moses spoke it or as the prophets spoke it, but the word of God in grace as the Son of God spoke it, and that word falling into an honest and good heart — that is, a heart exercised in self-judgment, for every man is dishonest until he repents and acknowledges that he is a sinner. Then a good heart appreciates goodness as seen in the Friend of sinners. The woman in chapter 7 had an honest heart; she knew that her sins were many; but she had a heart that deeply appreciated the goodness and grace that she found in Jesus. She delighted to lavish her all upon Him, the best and choicest that she possessed. She was one in whom the word of God would bring forth a hundredfold.
The seed sown by the wayside, or on the rock, or in the midst of thorns, bears no fruit. This explains why the word of God does not become fruitful in all who hear it. By the wayside the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart that they may not believe and be saved. How solemn to know that there is a positive action of the devil when careless people hear the word! Then those on the rock are superficial; they readily profess to believe, but they have no root; there has been no breaking up of the fallow ground with them, and in time of trial they fall away. Then that among thorns gets choked under cares and riches and pleasures of life. The Lord would give us spiritual understanding as to these things.
Keeping the word of God (verse 15) would be treasuring it in the heart; then there is the bringing forth fruit with patience. The word multiplies itself as it produces in believers [p. 107] what corresponds with it. And the grace of God cherished in the heart is capable of producing a full result; we ought not to contemplate anything less than a hundredfold.
Then the Lord has the thought, not only of fruit for Himself and for God, but that there shall be a testimony shining forth for men to see. No one who lights a lamp covers it with a vessel or puts it under a couch, but sets it on a lamp-stand. The knowledge of God in grace in the heart of man is, at first, hidden and secret, but He intends it to become manifest and known. It is to shine, and therefore we are to take heed how we hear, so that it may really shine forth as light from us; as it does we shall get more, but if we are not possessed of it so that it shines the Lord says that we shall lose what we seem to have — a very solemn consideration.
A very precious result of hearing the word of God and doing comes out in verse 21. There is a generation produced that is morally kindred with Christ. The word “it” in that verse is not in the original; it reads literally, “those who hear the word of God and do”. That is, the word puts them in motion, as it did the woman in chapter 7, and the women in chapter 8: 3. To “do” something in relation to Christ is the thought, to minister to Him. The world can understand good works, but to do something purely to minister to Him is another matter. For instance, He said, “Do this in remembrance of me”. That act of love means very little to the world, but it means much to Him.
“And it came to pass on one of the days, that he entered into a ship, himself and his disciples; and he said to them, Let us pass over to the other side of the lake; and they set off from shore”, verse 22. I think “the other side of the lake”, as presented here, has the Gentile world in view. The Lord was educating His disciples in preparation for the extension of the testimony of grace to those who, up to that time, had been beyond the range of any direct testimony from God. They were now coming into the divine view for blessing, but this would entail special difficulties and opposition from Satan. This would be of such a character that it could only be overcome by the power resident in the Son of God. The water of the lake speaks of the unstable conditions which existed in the world, and upon which Satan could act. In carrying the testimony to “the other side” there would be peculiar difficulties to meet which the Lord perfectly understood. He was [p. 108] with His disciples, but not apparently active on their behalf; “he fell asleep”. It was going to be a testing time for them, but He knew all about it, and He indicated to them by falling asleep the restful confidence which was suited to such conditions. They would apparently be without any outward security, and exposed to danger through adverse power. The conditions of the world to come were not yet present, but the Person was there who could bring them all in. Did they know Him well enough to be restful in a sudden squall of wind? Do we know Him well enough to be restful when the enemy’s power shows itself? His sleeping was a voice to them; it was as much as to say, It is a time to be restful. We have noticed, and we shall notice, how things are patterned in Jesus in this gospel. We may be quite sure that His conduct in any circumstance was the right conduct for that circumstance. His servant Peter had learned the lesson when he slept in prison (see Acts 12). A great storm was then breaking on the little ship, for James had been killed with the sword and Peter was put in prison with every probability, humanly speaking, of being put to death. But such was his confidence in the Lord that he slept, though there was no sign as yet of any divine intervention on his behalf. Quietness and confidence are one great proof that the Lord is with His people, even though conditions may be very unsettled, and we may be very conscious of weakness in ourselves. The Lord would not have us to doubt that He is with us. It is said of Israel that they tempted Jehovah by saying, “Is Jehovah among us or not?” If we say that, we tempt Him; we have called His love in question. Some of the last words of the Lord to His own were, “These things have I spoken to you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye have tribulation; but be of good courage; I have overcome the world”.
When the Lord “entered into a ship, himself and his disciples”, He knew what He was doing. He knew all about the storm that was coming and He intentionally put Himself in that position, but He was with them in it. Note that word, “Himself and his disciples”. It is necessary that we should know the Person who is with us. The previous chapters had been enough to show who He was, and yet they thought they could perish with Him in the ship. A dreadful storm burst upon Stephen, but he had no thought of perishing; his last hour was one of calm and holy triumph, though there was no [p. 109] intervention outwardly on his behalf. Such is the Lord’s tender compassion that He often quiets a storm, as He did in the scripture before us. He will assuredly not fail in consideration for our weakness, but He would like our hearts to be filled with the consciousness of what we have in Himself. He does not always change circumstances, but He over-rules them for the good of His saints, and in view of His testimony.
“The country of the Gadarenes” (verse 26) would probably be inhabited by Gentiles, and the man who had demons may set forth the condition of things as seen in the Gentile world. The full strength of the power of evil was manifested there in a terrible way. We have only to read Romans I to see what man was as in the Gentile world: idolatry, licentiousness, violence and corruption in their full strength were seen as holding possession of man. There was not even the outward propriety which, to some extent, marked the Jew. Philosophers and moralists had tried to curb the most glaring evils, but without success. But it was in the mind of God that His grace, revealed through Jesus, should go out to the Gentile world in delivering power. God needed the Gentile to bring out the fulness of His grace; God’s house could not be filled by Jews alone, so the bondman was sent out into the ways and fences — that is, into the Gentile world — to compel men to come in to the great supper of grace.
This incident intimates how the Lord would effect full deliverance for men outside privileged Israel. What a marvellous sight it was for heaven to look down and see Corinthians, Cretans, Thessalonians and Romans clothed in garments of righteousness and holiness and sitting at the feet of Jesus! The Lord has secured a testimony to Himself in the Gentile world in those once dominated by the power of evil, but now delivered and restful, and left here to be a witness of what Jesus has done for them. Every believer delivered from the power of sin is part of that witness.
But Gadara was as little prepared for the powers of the world to come as Judaea. They asked Him to depart from them. It was soon manifested in the Gentile world that Jesus was not wanted by the mass of people, but He secured a witness for Himself, and there has been a witness to Him in the Gentile world ever since, though the mass of people do not want Him. I have no doubt, the time is coming when Jesus will be as definitely refused in Christendom as He was in Gadara.
[p. 110] Complete apostasy has not yet come, but it is drawing near.
The sovereign power of the Lord in delivering from the active energy of evil is set forth in the man who had demons. There is no evidence of any godly exercise in the man, or of any desire on his part to be set free, though he did fall down before Jesus. Our attention is called in his case to the interest the Lord had in him, and what the Lord did for him, rather than to any exercises he had. The gospel going out to the Gentile world was a matter of pure sovereignty; it was God visiting the nations to take out of them a people for His Name. And so it is still in many cases. Sometimes the most violent and outrageous sinners are met by divine power acting in grace, and they are subdued and delivered without having previously any desire for Jesus.
But in the case of the woman with a flux of blood we see a history of exercise such as would be found with those who have had some knowledge of God but are conscious of needs that no human power or skill can meet. There had been long experience of weakness, and of effort and desire to be healed; her state was obviously a very defective one, and she had twelve years experience of it, but in the end she got the virtue that was in Another. Her condition rendered her unclean (see Leviticus 15).
If she had eaten a peace offering, she would have been cut off from the people of God altogether. Her condition rendered her unclean, but she felt it, and was very anxious to be relieved of it. The fact that she had spent all her living on physicians was a commendation for her; it proved that she was in dead earnest and that there was an intensity of desire that was prepared to sacrifice all her living in this world that she might get back to the enjoyment of spiritual privileges. Her condition incapacitated her for spiritual privilege; she could have no communion with the altar of God. She wanted to be relieved of this disability, and she went industriously to work. For twelve years she did everything that suggested itself to her mind to get relief, so that she might return to the enjoyment of communion with the altar, and be able to eat the peace offering which speaks of communion; all who partook of it were brought into communion with the altar.
There is something very beautiful in the intense earnestness with which this woman had sought to have her disability removed, and the confidence she was brought to after long [p. 111] experience of the fruitlessness of everything else; she was brought to be perfectly assured that if she could but touch His clothing she would be healed. What faith in His Person! We have been considering in this chapter that all turns on having the faith of His Person; if the disciples in the boat had had the faith of His Person they would not have waked Him from sleep. This woman came to the faith of His Person. However long she might have been in that state, and however hopeless was every other resource, she had perfect confidence that if she could but touch His clothing she would be healed. She was brought to the faith of what was in Christ for her, and we all have to come to it.
The presence of Jesus calls faith into activity. If we get an apprehension of Him it brings faith into activity, and we begin to realise that no case is hopeless. The man possessed with demons was brought to the feet of Jesus in the sovereignty of divine power. But now this inward exercise has to be met. The woman apprehended what was there in His Person, and touched the hem of His garment; she touched the ribbon of blue. Full of the sense of her own weakness and failure, and full of the experience which twelve years had given her of spending all her living without getting better, she sees now in Another the heavenly perfection of everything which she had experienced was lacking in herself, and she put herself in contact with Him. She had been struggling for twelve years with what was in herself, but now she put herself into contact with what was in Him — that is the whole secret. Have we been in dead earnest about it? I knew a very pious lad in Yorkshire who was greatly concerned about what he found in himself, his own weakness and failure. He came to me one day and said, ‘I have saved up a little money and have £150 in the bank — do you think it would help me if I gave it to the Lord’s work? I am willing to give it now if it would help me’. He was ready to spend all his living, and sacrifice all that he had belonging to life in this world to get spiritual healing. What we see here is a soul going through a prolonged exercise because of a condition in itself which deprives it of the joy of communion. I suppose every one of us knows something of what it is to be in a state where we could not say that anything particularly wrong in a word or deed was on our conscience, but we found ourselves deprived of the joy of spiritual communion. That was the case with this woman — [p. 112] what could put it right? The remedy was to get linked up in her faith and affection with another Person in whom there was perfection after a heavenly order. There is perfection in Christ of everything we crave for, and we may pass over from the consciousness of what we are, and the failure of our efforts, to the consciousness of what is in Him. Then we can go to the altar of God with exceeding joy and eat the peace offering; we can enjoy fellowship with God and with His people.
Earnest people try many physicians — the law, resolutions to be different, or prayer — prayer is a very common resort of earnest souls, but it is possible to pray and yet not touch Jesus. Some of us have known what it was to have natural propensities which, when active, operate to hinder communion. I have known what it is to pray earnestly to God to give me grace to overcome them, and then get up from my knees and find the same things working still. It is a Person we want. This woman got power and virtue out of the Lord. The Lord did for her what she could not do for herself, and what no physician of any kind could do for her.
There is much that we have to arrive at for ourselves. The gospel presents the full measure of divine grace to us objectively; the Lord’s servants preach it and will keep on preaching it until the Lord comes; but then all that is presented objectively in the glad tidings has to be reached from our side. We have to put the link on. This woman put the link on from her side; it was a personal transaction, a personal touch. We see the divine deliverance in its completeness from God’s side in the man possessed with demons; the sovereignty of divine power acting in grace did everything for him. From one point of view we may say the gospel does everything for us; it comes to the poor sinner and tells him of One who can truly deliver him “from sin, the world and Satan”, One who will delight to blot out his sins and give him the Spirit. Through Christ and in the value of redemption he can be washed, sanctified, and finally glorified, having a body like Jesus. That is one side, but we have also to take up things from the side of our exercises, and learn through them the reality of what there is in Jesus for us. This woman learnt what was in Him at the end of twelve years of exercises.
I think the demoniac might be said to answer to Romans 6, the woman to Romans 7, and the little maid to Romans 8, where the Spirit is life. In the demoniac there was a past [p. 113] history of the power of the devil, and in the woman a past history of the incapacity of the flesh, disqualifying her for communion. In the case of the damsel it is rather the drooping and withering of everything that seemed attractive and beautiful. Just at the time when the father would be looking for his daughter to answer to him in intelligent affection more fully than ever before, she droops and dies. How often there is with us a lack of living affections! It has often been my deep exercise that I have a sense of the lack in my heart of living affections that would be suitable for right relations with God. I suppose many of us know what it means. What is the good of Christian privileges if we are not there in living affections? We need affections moving in the energy of, life, and for this there must be the quickening word and touch of Jesus. One thinks tenderly of children brought up, as we might say, in the synagogue; this girl was brought up in relation to the synagogue. We do find children who are attractive, their ways are comely, they are obedient to their parents, no vice is manifest in them, but have they a life that death cannot touch? There may be everything beautiful outwardly like the young man whom the Lord loved when He saw him; but he had not eternal life; he had not a life that death could not touch, and he knew it. I think we have to pass through an exercise which teaches us the necessity for divine quickening in our affections.
In saying that she was not dead the Lord was looking at her from His own point of view; the case was not hopeless in His eyes. Psalm 119 is very helpful in relation to this question. We find there great delight in the law of God, in His commandments, His word, and His statutes, but ever and anon through that Psalm there is a prayer for quickening. If the heart is to answer affectionately to God there must be a quickening of the affections. It is not enough to be outwardly correct; we need divine quickening in our affections so that we truly answer to the place and relationships in which divine grace has set us. When Israel is quickened they will answer to God; they will love God with all their heart, and their neighbour as themselves. We sing sometimes, “We’ve heard Thy quickening voice”. The word ‘quicken’ in Hebrews refers both to making alive and keeping alive. We need not only a first quickening, but we need quickening in the sense of keeping alive. We are to live in our affections in a new and divine way. This chapter looks on to conditions which will be public in the world to [p. 114] come. If a person is to live in the world to come he must have eternal life, that is, life that death cannot touch.
This maid was the subject of her father’s devoted affection; she was his only daughter, the darling of his heart, and he was suddenly smitten with the terrible fear that he was going to lose all response from her. That led to his bringing the Lord in, and in bringing the Lord in, he brought the power of life in. The Lord can quicken us and keep us alive, so that when we come together to remember Him it is not done in a formal way merely because it is the right thing to do, but it is done with a living spring of affection towards Himself; there is life there. Then “he commanded something to eat to be given her”. I think we miss something if we do not look at the Lord’s supper as food; it is not only a remembrance of Him, but it is food for our affections. If we have eaten the Lord’s supper a great many times there should surely be vigour in our affections, vigour that would delight to minister to the Lord in the energy of life. It is not the divine thought that we should eat the Lord’s supper and go away without increase of strength in our spiritual affections. If this girl had not lived she could not have eaten; we must live to eat, and then we eat to live. It is the Lord’s intent that our affections should be enlarged and invigorated every time we eat the Supper. Without living affections it would be merely a religious form; but then on the other hand we eat to live. We eat that we may be nourished, enlarged, and strengthened in our spiritual affections. I have known what it is to be concerned and worried about something, and to come to the Lord’s supper and get such a sense of His love that I felt what had troubled me did not matter a straw.