Ready for another peek into Luke’s gospel? How will chapter 8 relate to Advent and to our lives today?
Luke 8 contains parables, miracles and teaching. Still, a thread pulls us through the different events. As a storm races across the sea of Galilee and threatens to flood their boat, the disciples are afraid; when Jesus calms the storm, they are terrified. After Jesus casts demons out of a Gerazene man, the townspeople are afraid and ask Jesus to leave. A woman with a hemorrhage trembles when Jesus calls her forth from the crowd. And Jairus fears when he hears his daughter has died.
Fear is a powerful emotion. Decades earlier, Zecharias feared when he saw the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:12-13), Mary was afraid when the same angel delivered a message to her (1:30), and shepherds in the field feared when a host of angels appeared in the heavens (2:9-10).
The fact that all these people experienced this basic emotion encourages me. They were human. They had real fears. I can identify with their fears.
Did Jesus ever experience fear? Was he truly as human as you and me? In the Garden of Gethsemane, he prayed fervently, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me.” On the cross, he shouted out, “Father, why have you forsaken me?” Both incidents speak to that essence of humanity: when our lives are threatened, we cry out in fear.
What fears beset you this season? What keeps you from joyously celebrating the events of Christmas? Jesus understands. And he challenges us to pray as he did: “Not my will, but yours.”
