Luke 8
God’s domain is like seed falling on different terrains
Shortly after that, he started traveling to all the nearby cities and villages proclaiming and announcing the great news of God’s domain. The 12 went with him along with some women who had been cured from rotten lifeforces and sicknesses. They included Mary Magdalene (who had 7 rotten supernatural beings come out of her), Joanna (Chuza’s wife), Susanna (Herod’s steward), and many others who supported them with contributions from their own accounts.
People joined him from various cities, and when a large crowd had formed, he told them an analogy:
The farmer went to plant his seed, and as he threw the seed, some of it fell next to the road where it was trampled on and eaten by the birds. Other seed fell on rocky terrain, and as soon as it sprouted, it withered away because it had no moisture. Other seed fell in the thorn bushes where thorns grew up right beside it and eventually chocked it out. Other seed fell on the good soil where it grew up and produced a crop 100 times as much.
Whoever has ears to understand should take heed.
His students asked him what this analogy meant, and he said,
You’ve been granted the ability to understand the mysteries of God’s domain, but to everyone else, it’s just words: even though they see it, they don’t understand it, and even though they hear it, they don’t comprehend it.
Here’s what it means:
The seed is God’s message. The seeds next to the road represent people who have heard it but then the accuser removes it from their hearts so that they won’t believe and be saved. The seeds on the rocky ground represent people who hear it, happily accept it, but lack roots—they believe for a while, but when they are tested, they abort. The seeds that fell in the thorns represent people who comprehend it, but as they progress, they are choked with the concerns, wealth, and pleasures this life has to offer, preventing them from producing any fruit. But the seeds in the good soil represent the people who understand the message with a good and fair heart, cling to it, and steadily produce fruit.
After turning on a lamp, no one covers it up or puts it under a bed. They make sure it’s unobstructed so that everyone who comes in will be able to see the light. Everything that was hidden will become visible, and everything that was secret will become exposed in the light. Pay attention, because whoever has will be given more, and whoever doesn’t have will lose what they thought they had.”
At this point his mother and brothers came to see him, but couldn’t get through the crowd to reach him. When someone told him this, he replied,
“My family is whoever hears God’s message and carries it out.”
The wind and water listen to Jesus
One time when they were going from city to city, Jesus and his students got into a boat and he said, “Let’s go over to the other side of the lake”. They set sail, and Jesus fell asleep. A fierce windstorm descended on the lake and started filling their boat with water. In danger of sinking, they woke Jesus up saying “Leader, we are dying!” He got up, scolded the wind and waves, and it became calm. He asked them, “Where is your faith?” They were both terrified and in awe asking each other “Who is this? Even the wind and water obeys his orders.”
Jesus sends demons out of a man and into pigs
Then they sailed to the country where the Gerasenes live (which is across the lake from Galilee). When he set foot on the land, he was met by a man who had come from the city and was held by evil supernaturals. The man was naked and lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he shouted and fell down in front of him wailing,
“Jesus, son of the Ultimate God, what business do we have with each other? I beg of you: please don’t torture me.”
He had ordered the impure lifeforce to come out of the man, since it had suddenly taken hold of him numerous times. Even though he was chained, shackled, and guarded, he would often break free and be driven by the supernatural into the desert. Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” And he responded, “Squadron,” because many supernatural beings had gone inside him. They begged him not to send them into the bottomless abyss.
There happened to be a herd of pigs eating on that mountainside, so the supernaturals begged him to let them enter the pigs. He gave them permission, so the supernaturals exited of the man, entered the pigs, and the herd ran down the cliffside and into the lake where they drowned.
When the pig herders saw what had happened, they ran away and reported it to the city and country. Lots of people came to see what had happened, and when they reached Jesus they saw the man in his right mind, wearing clothes, and sitting at Jesus’s feet. That struck fear into their hearts. The witnesses spread the news about how the man controlled by supernatural lifeforces had been restored. Everyone throughout that country and the surrounding district were so spooked that they asked him to leave. Jesus got back into the boat and returned. The man who had the supernaturals leave begged Jesus to stay, but he dismissed him saying, “Go back home and recount the incredible things that God has done for you.” So the man departed, proclaiming how much Jesus had done for him.
Woman pulls power out of Jesus by touching him
When Jesus returned, everyone welcomed him because they were all waiting for him. A man named Jairus (a church official) came and fell at his feet, begging him to come to his house because his only daughter (about 12 years old) was dying. So he started making his way through the crowds.
There was one woman who had an internal bleeding issue for 12 years that couldn’t be helped by anyone. She came up behind Jesus, touched the edge of his shirt, and the bleeding immediately stopped. Jesus asked, “Who touched me?” No one admitted to it, so Peter said, “Leader, everyone is packed around you and bumping into each other.” But Jesus said, “Someone kindled me because I noticed power come out of me.” When the woman realized they were on to her, she came forward trembling and fell down in front of him admitting her reason for touching him and that she had been healed immediately. He told her, “Daughter, your belief has rescued you. Proceed in peace.”
Jesus wakes up a dead girl
Before he had finished talking, someone from the church official’s house came and said, “Your daughter has died. No need to trouble the teacher anymore.” When Jesus heard this, he said,
“Don’t be scared any more, just believe and she will be rescued.”
When he got to the house, he didn’t let anyone else enter with him except for Peter, James, John, and the girl’s parents. They were all crying and grieving for her, but he said,
“Stop crying, because she’s not dead. She’s just asleep.”
They laughed at him because they could all tell that the girl was dead. But he took her hand and declared,
“Child, wake up!”
Her lifeforce returned, and she got up immediately. He requested that they give her something to eat. Her parents were dumbfounded, and then he told them not to tell anyone about what had just happened.