Jesus Christ Is Lord
JESUS CHRIST IS LORD
LUKE 8:16-25
Those who both hear the message and also do it are the ones who really belong to Jesus’ family.
Verses 16-18. The ancient lamp was small and feeble enough. It gave little illumination from its tiny wick of flax or tallow. To set it forth to best advantage was common sense. So with the Christian’s feeble testimony. The requirements of a lamp are that it should burn and burn steadily and consistently. It is a thought worth taking to heart.
8:19-21. The Lord’s brothers and sisters are mentioned several times in the New Testament (Matthew 12:46; 13:55-56; Mark 3:32; 6:3; John 2:12), and he himself is called the “first-born.” There can be no doubt that they were the children of Mary. The story that they were the children of Joseph by an earlier marriage, or even cousins of the Lord, was an invention of Jerome and other later writers who were adopting the absurd hostility to marriage and sex which is no part of Christianity but a feature of the obscurantism of the Middle Ages.
Before imagining harshness in the Lord’s attitude, consider both the brevity and the purpose of the story. There are fifty-six words in the Greek text. The visitors were not necessarily rejected nor dismissed unkindly. The Lord delayed the commencement of his ministry until Mary’s other children were sufficiently independent to sustain her, or to be no burden on her resources. He does, however, use the occasion to speak of the brotherhood and close relationship of all believers, and it is a fact of experience that those who are one in Christ can be more intimately linked than blood relations who do not share their faith. It is also a sad situation, later to pass away, that at one stage the Lord and his family were not at one (John 7:1-5).
8:22-25. It was late in the day (Mark 4:35) when the band of disciples pushed out into the lake. The hills on the far side rise blue and steep not many miles away, but far behind them is the desert, spawning-ground of winds. Hence sudden storms. It was an awesome experience to see the turmoil of air and water fall still at his word. Let it be true of the soul’s tempest.
Notes 8:16-18: an important complement to 8:10. The Lord turns from the imperious multitude to enlighten the Twelve. 8:24: note the development of Luke’s theme—Christ is Lord of the elements.