Luke 8:16-25: He Even Commands Winds and Waters
1 Chronicles 10-11, Psalm 128, Luke 8:16-25, Colossians 2:16-23
Three more moments that underline the power and importance of God’s Word. First, from verses 16-18 Jesus teaches in parabolic language about the importance of using God’s Word openly and boldly. You don’t light a lamp and then cover it up; in the same we are to be witnesses to Christ and boldly share the light of God’s Word. Preachers are especially not to hide the truth but to proclaim it with clarity and brightly and openly. We are to be careful then how we hear, for the one who is ready to receive will find they receive more, whereas the one who refuses will not in the end receive anything. All stands by the proclamation of, and the reception of, the gospel, the Word of God.
To underscore this reality, then come along Jesus’ mother and brothers (8:19-21). What could claim a higher loyalty on Jesus than they? But now Jesus once again evidences the priority that he gives, and that we are also thereby to give, to God’s Word. “My mother and brother are those who hear the Word of God and obey it.” What could more clearly indicate the importance that Jesus attaches to hearing God’s Word and putting it into practice! Let us then be people of the Word!
And now comes a storm (8:22-25). We have the lesson taught by parables, compared to the great loyalty of family, and now the power of God’s Word is put up against a most frightening event: a storm at sea. Jesus is asleep. Watch the calmness of that divine visage! Whatever storms you are going through, they do not threaten the sovereignty of God that guards your life for good! The disciples are terrified. They awake him, frightened, “We are perishing!” Jesus wakes up, “rebukes” the storm. What a thing to do! He tells the storm off! He sends it to time out. These waves, that are putting them in danger of perishing, are simply dismissed by the word of Jesus.
He turns to his disciples saying, “Where is your faith?” What a question, a question that we are often rebuked by too. It is easy to look back on trials and storms and from a safe vantage point trust that God had a good plan. How much harder to trust when you are in the boat and the waves rage around you! May God give us faith to be at peace at all times. They respond now rightly: they are “afraid.” Now not of the storm, but of the one who calmed the storm! But what is it that makes them so amazed? Listen: “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” They are astonished by the power of the Word of Jesus for it reveals Jesus as God.
Let us, then, be people of God’s Word. Let us prioritize reading God’s Word. Let us keep God’s Word central in our churches and in our families. God’s Word is light; God’s Word generates an intimacy with our spiritual family; God’s Word is power even over storms. God’s Word is God’s Word: let us then be people of that Word.