Bible Commentaries
Luke 8

Verses 22-39

A Storm and a Healing

(Matthew 8:23-34; see Mark 4:35-41; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:22-39)

These two episodes, told in Mark with more detail, engraved themselves deeply on the minds of the disciples. The raging storm, with Jesus sleeping unconscious of the danger; their fear and his calm; the sea canned by his voice as at that of God himself (see Psalms 107:23-30) gave rise to the question which came to their minds: Who is this man?

The next episode was at Gadara, where Jesus met two demoniacs (in Mark and Luke there is only one) whose raging madness terrified the country. In Jesus these recognize their enemy, the Son of God, whose coming is their condemnation and the precursor of the end of the age (the "time"). The rest of the story the demons taking refuge in the swine which plunge into the sea remains mysterious and we do not attempt to explain it. The people of the city begged Jesus to leave, doubtless because of the great loss which they had just experienced, the responsibility for which they attributed to him. Matthew does not reproduce the end of Mark’s story, where Jesus made the healed demoniac his witness in the midst of the pagans (Mark 5:18-20). He tells only of the rejection of Jesus by the Gadarenes, their herds being more important to them than the salvation of a man. (On demon possession, see comment on 8:16.)