The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 207

hnd just given them, showed them bow during his pablio ministry, not among hia ro1>Ily simple and ndapted to everyday life "own," but still near him, watching him, his tenching wns. "No man," said the Lord, and listening to him with a half-wondering, "when he hath lighted the candle of the half-grudging admir!ltion. But John ltllB true knowledge, really wislies to hide it- us (vii. 5) thBt they did not believe in him. he rather displays it that men may see the It needed the Resurrection to convert them. light: and that is what I have been doing The crowd round the Ma~ter at this juncture for you in my careful explanation of my was so great that they-hie kinsmen-coald story." not press through it to speak to him. They Ver. 17.-J'or nothing is secret, that shall conveyed to him, however, a mcesitge. The not be made manifest ; neither anything Heart-reader knew well what were the hid, that shall not be known and oome motives which induced them to come to abroad. "All will gradually become clear him just then; the brothers were so ilia- to them. Whilst the night thickens over trustful that they had suffered themselves Israel on e.ceount of ita unbelief, the dis- to be carried away by the Pbarisees' evil ciples will advance into even fuller light, surmises, that J esue wae possessed by a until there is nothing left in the plan of devil. The mother, influenced by her God which is obscure or hidden. The earthly fears for her Son, wo.e induced to heart of Jesus is lifted up at this prospect. accompany the brothers, no doubt hoping This aocounte for the poetical rhythm which to induce him to withdraw himself from tho always appears at such moments" (Godet). scene of excitement, at all events for a This is very good, but Godet scarcely goes season. far enough. The Master's words surely Ver. 21.-And he answered and said 11I1to promise that, as the ages advance, more and them, My mother and my brethren are these ever more light on the subject of God's which hear the Word of God, and do it. The dealings with men will be vouchsafed to Master used the opportunity to send home the humble, patient searcher after the Divine into the hearts of the many listeners the wisdom. This apophthegm seems to have stem, grave lesson that there was some- been a very favourite one of our Lord; be thing more solemn even than family ties, evidently used it on several occasions (see, and that these, holy and binding though for instance, Matt. x. 26, where the same they were, must not be allowed to stand in words are reported to have been spoken in a the way of plain, unmistakable duty. different connection). Vers. 22-25.-The lake-storm is stilled. Ver. 18.-Take heed therefore how ye Ver. 23.-J!nt as they sailed he fell a.eleep: hrar: for whosoever bath, to him shall be and there came down a storm of wind on the given; and whosoever bath not, from him lake; and they were filled with water, and shall be ta.ken even that whioh he seemeth were in jeopardy. In the three Gospels of to have. A grave warning to his disciples Matthew, Mark, and Luke, this and the primarily, and then to all who take upon three following incidents are closely united themselves any work, even the humblest, -the lake-storm ; the devils sent into the connected with teaching Divine truth. The herd of swine; the raising of the little real student, patient, humble, and restlessly daughter of Jairus; the healing of the industrious, he shall be endowed with ever- woman afflicted with the issue of blood. increasing powers; while the make-believe, Although this cycle of acts is al ways 11nited lazy, and self-sufficient one shall be punished by the three, yet they do not occupy the by the gradual waning of the little light same position chronologically in the three which once shone in his soul. Gospels. The explanation of this probably Vere. 19-21.-InteTjerenc<! of Christ'• is that in the primitive apostolic teaching ii motheT and hia lrrethren. was usual to relnte these four incidents of Ver. 19.-Then oame to him his mother the Master's work together. In St. Matthew, and his brethren. St. Mark, in his third between the recital of the healing of the chapter, gives us the reasons whioh led to demoniao &nd the raising of the daughter of this scene. It had been bruited abroad that Jairus, are intercalated the healing of the a species of frenzy had seized upon that paralytic, and the oall of Matthew, and the strange Man who had been brought up in feast which followed. These incidents, in a their midst, and who had lately aroused more extended primitive discourse, were no 1uch enthusiasm in all the orowded lo.ke- doubt joined to tile other four recitals. Had dietrict of Galilee. It is difficult to estimate they used a common document, the three aright the feelings of hie own family to- would surely have ple.ced them in the same wards him ; admiration and love seem to connection with other events. They most have struggled in their hearts with pre- likely were worked, with many other signs, judioe and jealousy-not in the case of Mary, somewhere in this period gf publio work, but in the oase of the so-called brothers. and were ohosen by the first preachers of They s,,em ever to have been close to him "the NiAwe" 1111 epeoinlly illu~tmthe acu,  THE oosrEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. [en. VIII. 1-58. -- ---- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - •l10wing the Lord'& power over the ele- Cn.p0rnn11m. There Rro 8ome ruins now on ments, over the unseen spirits of evil, over this spot still known by 1hc very slight <l<'ath. over wearying chronic sir!..-ness. On corruption of Kerz/,a, Tliere is ecflroely Oie sudden st0rm, trnYollers remark how, any douLt thn.t the scene of the miracle without warning, winds from the snowy on the poor demoniac, and or the subsequen\ summits of the neighbouring Hermon rush possession of tile swine, muet be looked for down the mountain gorges into the w1trm on tliis spot. Bnt it wns nn obeoure, little- tropical Rir of the lake-bRBin, 11,nd in a short known spot, and in very early de.ye the spaoc• nf time the co.Im Galilee srn is lnsh<'d proRehers wlio told the story of the great i~to storm nnd foam. The grn phic dcscrip- miracle may have often spoken of the hon of 111ark is, as usual, the most vivid, nnd country as the district of the well-knoum gi ms us, in a frw master-touches, the aspect Ger~S.'\ or Gadarn, ratuer thau of the u,1- nf the scene. The weary ?,faster sleeping in known village of _Gerges~ Hence probably t\1(' slcrn of the fishing-boRt; the pillow be- the variations in the name in the older tH:nth his hcn,1; the diseiples, terrified by the manuscripts here. sudden uproar of tl,e warns surging round Ver. 27.-There met hiin out of the oity a their frail bark, as the wild winds rushed oertain man ; better rendered, there met him down on the lake, hastily awaking their a man of the city. He bad beon e dweller tired Mnster. The dangtr must have been in Gergesa in old days b,·fore the terrible very renl 1o have alarmed these Genneelll'et possr·ssion began. St. Matthew, in his fishermen; the storm must have been some- account, tells us of two dt,moniacs. SS. thing more than the usual lake-tempests. Mnrk and Luke, however, both only mention The verv words the Lord used when he one, the other for some reason or other ho.d lifted up.hie head and saw the danger, St. passed out of their thoughts-possibly the Mark preser'l'es for us. With hie "Hush!" malady was much less severe, and the he silenced the wild roar of the wind~ and strange dialogue and its results bad not waters; with his "Be still I" lie quieted the taken place in bis case. Whioh had devils heaving waves. Some commentators. reason- long time; better, dmmons (daimonia), ing from the M:wit.er's personal address to the One of the current Jewish traditions was elements-the winds an( •-be waters-sup- that these evil spirits were not fa.J.len angels, pose tLat, in the midst of tt,., storm, wwi some but the spirits of wicked men who were evil presence, who, taking advantage of our dead (see Josephus,' Bell. Jud.,' vii 6. 3). Lord's helpkss condition-asleep in thnt The plural form "devils "-bitterly referred fmil fisher's boat-raised up the wild storm, to later by the sufferer, when he was o.sked hoping, perhaps, to cut short his life. The hie name-seems in his case to speak of a idea of spirits thus blending with the ele- very aggravated form of the awful me.lady. ments is one by no means unknown to And ware no clothes, neither abode in any Scripture. •· "Who maketb his angels winds house. 'fhese were no uncommon features [mtlier tLan the llSllal, better-known trans- of the soul-malady-the horror nt any bodily lation, 'spirits '], his ministers a flaming reetra in t, either connected with clothes or fire" (Pa. civ. 4; Heh. i 7; Job i. J 2)- dwellings; a similar shrinking is not un- Vers. 26-39.-The et:il spirii in the usual even in the comparatively modified Gergeune demoniac u, diBmiBsed into tlte herd modem phases of madness. But in the of swine. tombs. Until the teaching and spirit of Yer. 26.-And they arrived at the country Jesus had suggested, even among men who of the Gadare:ies. There is a perplexing bad no faith in his Name, some thought and difference in the reading of the older manu- consideration for the helpless sufferers of scripts here, but it is simply a question of humanity, neither hospital, nor home, nor the precise nnwe of the loce.lity wLere the asylum existed where these unhappy ones great miracle was worked. In the three could find n refuge. In these gloomy tombs uarratives of Matthew, Mark, and Luke the hollowed out of the rock on the mountain• older manuscripts vary between " Gerge- sit.le-polluted spots for the living, according seoes," "Geras-enes,'' and" Gadarenes.u Ga,. to the Jewish ritunl-these mauiacs founc1 dara was a city of some importance, about the utter solitude they craved for. three hours' journey distant from the southern Ver. 28.-When he saw Jesus, he oriel' end of the Lake of Genneearet. Its ruins are out, and fell down before him, and with a well known, and are distinguished by the loud voice said, What have I to do with r..ri1'l.ins of two amphitheatres. Geraoa was thee, Jesus t "The eight of Jesus appears also a place of mark, and was situate about to have produced an extraordinary impres- fifty miles from the lake. These cities sion upon him. The holy, calm, gentle might iu the days of our Lord have either majesty, the tender compaijsion, and the gin,a its name to a great district stretching conscious sovereignty which were expressed to the !,orders of the lakt,. Gergesa was a in the aspect of our Lord, nwakened in Lim, bIIuLll ,rnd v.,ry obscure town nearly opposite Ly forco uf contrast, the humbling couscioUd• en. vni. 1-!'iG.J TUE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. LUKE. ?ri7