Luke Chapter 8

Many things happened in Luke Chapter 8. Jesus spoke parables and performed many miracles. One important teaching would be from the parable of the sower which Jesus explained. It is about how to receive the word of God so as to bear fruit.

Jesus taught that to bear fruit, we ought to receive the word of God with a good and noble heart. On the contrary, he also warned against the pitfalls in our lives of faith, depicted by the places the seeds fell on. Those whose seeds fell on the wayside are those who upon hearing, do not believe. The word of God is then snatched away by the devil and no longer remains. There are those whose seeds fell on the rock, who hear the words of God but fall away in times of testing, and those whose seeds fell among the thorns. These are the ones who are choked with cares of the world and bring no fruit to maturity.

Despite this parable being easy to understand, it is perhaps not easy to recognize when we belong to the wrong groups. Perhaps we can use some characters in this chapter as practical examples when it comes to hearing the words of God.

Those who fell on the wayside:  The people in the house of Jairus belong to this group. Though Jesus explicitly told them to believe that the daughter of Jairus would be made well, they did not accept it, and ridiculed Jesus for it (v53).

Those who fell on the rock: the disciples gladly followed Jesus and experienced many miracles. Despite experiencing the power of Jesus, they lost faith in the face of a storm, leading to Jesus rebuking them for their lack of faith (v25). Their faith was unable to stand against trials.

Those who fell among the thorns: The people who witnessed the exorcism fled and told it to the city, and the whole multitude of the Gadarenes asked Jesus to depart from them. Isn’t it strange? Jesus just performed a great miracle yet this was met with fear. Why? The people of the country of Gadarenes were actually mainly gentiles, which explains why there was a herd of swine. The cost of the miracle was the loss of their livestock, and it was proven they cared less about spiritual matters, and more about their physical needs. It did not matter that only Jesus (and none of their religious people) had authority over the demons. It was likely they were worried how much more physical losses they would have to sustain in exchange for spiritual experiences.

Those that fell on good soil: After the man was exorcised of his many demons, he wanted to follow Jesus. But Jesus had other plans for him and wanted him to bear testimony in his own house. He obeyed the word of Jesus and went proclaiming Jesus throughout the whole city.

Though many people experience the word of God, many of us respond differently. Do we see similarities between the people above and ourselves?

For example, how many times have we heard a sermon, but rejecting the words of the speaker, we soon forget the contents of the sermon?

We have seen the wondrous acts of God in the bible and in our lives. It is easy to have faith in God in a similar problem when we have experienced His help before. But how many times have we lost faith in God, in the face of a different problem?

How many of us, for fear of losing out in this world, choose to shut Jesus out and give less time to Him, and in doing so, lose out on what is truly valuable?  

May God help us see these behaviours in ourselves, and like the demon possessed man, receive His word with obedience to bear fruit.

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