Lange Commentary - Luke 8:22 - 8:25

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Lange Commentary - Luke 8:22 - 8:25


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

3. The King of the Kingdom of God at the same time the Lord of Creation, of the World of Spirits, of Death. Luk_8:22-56

a. The Stilling Of The Storm In The Lake. Luk_8:22-25

(Parallels: Mat_8:23-27; Mar_4:35-41. Gospel for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany.)

22Now it came to pass on a certain day [one of the days], that he went into a ship with his disciples: and he said unto them, Let us go over unto the other side of the lake. And they launched forth. 23But as they sailed, he fell asleep: and there came down a storm [gust] of wind on the lake; and they were filled [were filling] with water, and were in jeopardy. 24And they came to him, and awoke him, saying, Master, Master, we perish. Then he arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: andthey ceased, and there was a calm. 25And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man Isaiah 3 this! for he commandeth even the winds and [the] water, and they obey him.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Harmony.—Without doubt the stilling of the tempest took place on the same evening on which the Saviour had delivered the parable of the Sower and some others. The parable of the Mustard Seed, and of the Leaven (Matthew 13), Luke gives in another connection (Luk_13:18-21); that of the Tares, of the Treasure in the Field, of the Pearl, of the Fishing-net, and of the Slow Growing of the Seed (Mar_4:26-29) he passes over. The question, whether it is in and of itself probable that the Saviour delivered all these parables almost uno tenore on one and the same day on which so much had already taken place (Mar_3:20-35), may here remain provisionally undecided. Enough that the stilling of the tempest, which, according to Luke, took place on one of the days (Luk_8:22), took place, according to Mark (Luk_8:35), on the same day at evening. According to Matthew, who is as far from contradicting as from confirming these chronological statements, the Saviour wished at the same time to withdraw Himself in this way from the people, Luke 18. If it should appear that he transposes the miracle into an earlier period of the life of the Lord than it occurred, we are not to forget that Matthew 8, 9 is a collection of different miracles of the Saviour without the apostle’s having observed any very strict chronological arrangement. On internal grounds, however, we consider it probable that the offer of the two men who wished to follow Jesus (Mat_8:19-22) immediately preceded the tempestuous voyage. Luke communicates this particular in the account of another voyage, narrating those two, moreover, with a third similar case, Luk_9:57-62. Taking it all together now, it no longer is difficult to represent distinctly to ourselves the whole course of events. The long day—one of the few in the public life of the Lord where we find ourselves in a condition to follow Him almost from step to step—was visibly hurrying towards evening, but still Jesus beholds around Him numerous throngs desiring instruction and help. If, therefore, He is to enjoy the rest which at last has become absolutely necessary, He must withdraw Himself from the throng and give the multitude opportunity to reflect upon the parables they have heard. Accordingly He gives immediate command to His disciples as to the departure, after He had previously left behind on the shore the scribe who had desired to follow Him, and another whom He called in vain. His disciples took Him with them in their vessel, according to the graphic expression of Mark: ὠò ῆ ̓ í , that is, without any further preparation for the journey. As to the rest, the Synoptics give essentially the same account. If Mark communicates particulars which confirm the surmise that the personal remembrances of Peter have not been without some influence upon the form of his account, he nevertheless agrees perfectly with Luke. From the two, Matthew deviates in this twofold respect; namely, that he, in the first place, has given the address of the Saviour to His disciples as if preceding His word of might to the tempest; and secondly, that he has put the exclamation of astonishment at the very end, not exclusively in the disciples’ mouths, but in those of the men ( ἄíèñùðïé ) who were in the ship. But as respects the last, we do not see what improbability there is in the view, that besides the Twelve some other persons also, attendants and the like, may have been present in the ship, and may have joined with the disciples in the tone of wonder to which the disciples (Mark and Luke) undoubtedly give louder and stronger expression than all the rest. With regard to the first mentioned point, the representation of Matthew, it appears, has the most probability in its favor, for we know that the Saviour was wont first to awaken faith, before He performed a miracle; and on a later occasion also the wind did not sink until He had asked the sinking Peter: “Oh, thou of little faith, wherefore dost thou doubt?” The address to the disciples and the mighty word of deliverance followed one another so quickly, that Mark and Luke might easily reverse the order without making themselves guilty of a censurable inaccuracy.

Luk_8:22. That He went into a ship.—According to Mar_4:36, there were other vessels also accompanying the Saviour near by, which is least of all to be wondered at, at the end of such a day. If one is not disposed, therefore, to seek the ἄíèñùðïé of Matthew (Luk_8:27) upon the vessel of the apostles, the conjecture then that the companions of the voyage on the ἄëëïéò ðëïéáñßïéò had been, at some distance, witnesses of the miracle, and, therefore, made manifest their astonishment without reserve,—such a conjecture certainly will not be too hazardous.

Unto the other side.—The eastern shore is here meant. According to Mark, the Saviour seats Himself in the ðñýìíá , hinder part of the ship, comp. Act_27:29; Act_27:41, and falls fast asleep upon a ðñïòêåöáëáßῳ . Now awakes the storm,—according to Matthew and Mark, a óåéóìüò (by which also an earthquake is signified, Mat_28:2); according to Luke, more precisely, a ëáßëáø ἀíÝìïõ , which precipitates itself from above upon the sea.

Luk_8:24. Master, Master.—If we assume that Luke has most accurately communicated the words of the troubled disciples, we should then notice in the expression itself the trace of the anxious fear that was in them. They call the Lord, we may note, with a double ἐðéóôÜôá to help while Mark puts in their mouths a äéäÜóêáëå , and Matthew even a êýñéå . But more than the expression, the exclamation itself bears witness of utter faintness of heart. So ὀëéãüðéóôïé (Matthew) are they, that really it may be said of them, they have no faith (Mark and Luke), yet now as ever their faith manifests itself in this, that in their distress they flee to none but Jesus. Without doubt the storm must have been very unexpected and violent, for experienced sailors like these to be attacked by so violent a terror. But the malady of unbelief also has an epidemic character, and undoubtedly the unwonted view of the sleeping Saviour did not a little augment their distress.

Luk_8:24. A calm, ãáëÞíç = ãְּîָîָä , Psa_107:29 in Symmachus.—An additional sign of a miracle, since otherwise, even when the storm has subsided, a disturbed movement of the air and the water always continues for a time. According to Mark, the Saviour gives His rebuke with the words: “ óéþðá , desiste a sonitu, and ðåößìùóï , obmutesce, desiste impetu.” Bengel. First of all the Lord rebukes the storm in the heart, afterwards the storm in nature.

Luk_8:25. What manner of man is this?—No question, we may believe, of doubt, but of the deepest astonishment, which is heightened by the unexpectedness and unexampled character of the miracle. Here also, as in Luk_5:8, the astonishment is so great because the miracle is wrought in a sphere familiar to them. It is as if they had never yet conceded to the greatness of the miraculous worker its full rights. It is true, they knew Him previously, and yet their feeling is like that of the Baptist when he exclaimed: “I knew Him not.” Joh_1:31.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. A miracle such as this we have not yet met with in the Gospel of Luke. We have, in miracles of nature like this, as well as at Cana and elsewhere, to meet the objection that wholly inanimate nature appears to offer no point of attachment whatever to the mighty will of the miracle-worker; but that this difficulty gives us no warrant whatever for the fallacies of the naturalistic interpretation, needs hardly be mentioned. The vindicators of this show that they have as little knowledge of nature, as true knowledge of the human heart. As little can we accede to the view of those (Neander) who, by sharply distinguishing the objective and the subjective side of the account, suppose that the Saviour actually only quieted His disciples; so that now before the eyes of their enlightened faith the raging of nature displayed itself in another form, and their ear, as it were, no longer heard the raging of the storm, while later, when the storm had actually subsided, that was ascribed to the working of Jesus upon nature, which was only the consequence of His influence upon their mind.—[This of Neander may fairly be called as flat and vapid a rationalizing away of a simple narrative as Paulus himself was ever guilty of.—C. C. S.] This error, moreover, could hardly remain concealed from the Saviour, and at least could have exercised no influence on the less susceptible shipmen, who did not belong to the Apostolic circle, and least of all could it have been favored by the Saviour Himself. Whoever leaves it undecided (Hase) whether the Saviour professed or wrought the miracle, contradicts in fact the sacred record. No, that they here mean to relate a miracle is plain to the eye, and the question can only be simply this: did it take place or did it not take place? Have we here history or myth?

2. The mythical explanation stumbles not only against these general obstacles, but has here, moreover, the particular difficulty to solve that not a single Old Testament narrative has so much agreement with the Evangelical as to allow of the assumption that the latter arose from the former. It is undoubtedly not hard with lofty air to explain this whole miracle as “an anecdote of the kind that have been related of every century and of the miracle-workers of all times, and whose origin may be explained in a thousand ways” (Weisse). Such arbitrariness, however, condemns itself, so long as the genuineness of one of the Synoptical gospels is still admitted. Nothing else, accordingly, is left but to acknowledge the reality of the miracle, and if one wishes to seek a medium of it, to say with Lange: “The Saviour rebukes the storm in the inner world of His disciples, in order to find a medium of rebuking the storm in nature. He removes the sin of the microcosm, in order to remove the evils of the macrocosm.” We have here the concurrence of the will of the Father with that of the Son, which belongs to the deepest mysteries of His Theanthropic being. In His whole fulness Christ stands here before us as an image of Him who “sitteth upon the waters and drinketh up the sea by His rebuke.” Psalms 29, 93. What Moses performed in the might of Jehovah when he opened with his staff the way through the waters for himself, that the Son of the Father does through the efficacy of His will alone. Here also we meet with that union of the Divine and human nature and operation which we so often discover in the Gospel. He who wearied with His day’s work lays Himself a while to sleep, because He needs bodily rest, and remains quiet in the most threatening danger, rises at once in Divine fulness of might and commands the tempestuous wind and bridles the sea. As sinful man can work mechanically upon the creation, so does the God-Man work dynamically, and thus does this whole activity become a prophecy of the future in which the spirit of redeemed mankind will govern matter, and the hope of Paul, Rom_8:19-23, will be fully realized.

3. The purpose of this miracle soon strikes the eye. It was to make the companions of the apostles in the voyage for the first time or renewedly attentive to the Lord; it was to exercise and strengthen the disciples in faith, but above all it was to hold up before them a sensible image of that which afterwards, when they were entered upon the apostolical career, would befall them. As their little ship was now thrown around, so should also the young church, at whose head they stood, appear often given over to the might of the waves and billows. But then also they should become aware at the right time of the Lord, who would arouse Himself to change the darkness into light. This is the deep sense of the symbolical explanation of the miracle, which deserves censure only when it is put in opposition to the purely historical, instead of being grounded upon it. No wonder if many have essayed it, if not always so beautifully as, for example, Erasmus, when he writes, Prœfat. in Evang. Matth. in fine: “hinc nimirum illa periculosa tempestas, quia Christus dormit in nobis.—Diffisi prœsidiis nostris, inclamemus Jesum, pulsemus aures illius, vellicemus, donec expergiscatur. Dicamus illi flebili voce: Domine, tua non refert, si pereamus? Ille, ut est exorabilis, audiet suos, suoque spiritu repente sedabit tempestatem mundano spiritu agitatam. Dicet vento: quiesce,” &c. Comp. the Hymn of Fabricius: “Hilf, lieber Gott, was Schmach und Spott,” &c., and the spiritual interpretation of this narrative in Luther’s Kirchen-Postille, ad loc. The homage which was offered to Christ after He had performed the miracle, is an echo of the Old Testament Choral: Psa_107:23-30.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Wherever Jesus goes, thither must His disciples accompany Him.—The duty of the disciples of the Lord: 1. To follow Him upon every way; 2. to call on Him in every distress; 3. to glorify Him after every deliverance.—The calm is followed by a tempest, the tempest by greater calm.—Jesus sleeping in the storm; by this one feature of the narrative, 1. The greatness of the Lord is manifested; 2. the perplexity of the disciples explained; 3. the rest of the Christian prophesied.—The distress of the disciples of Jesus: 1. Its causes; 2. its culmination; 3. its limits.—Whoever, even in distress, can call on Jesus, has no destruction to fear.—No storm so vehement but the Lord can still it: 1. In the world; 2. in the Church; 3. in the house; 4. in the heart.—The question, “Where is your faith?” now as of old: 1. A question for the life; 2. a question for the conscience; 3. a question for the times.—What manner of man is this that he commandeth even the wind and the water?—Jesus’ greatness revealed in the obscure night of tempest. On the little ship He exhibits Himself as: 1. The true and holy Man; 2. the wise and gracious Master; 3. the almighty and adorable Son of God.—The storm on the sea an image of the Christian life: 1. The threatening danger; 2. the growing anxiety; 3. the delivering might; 4. the rising thanks.—If the storms within us are still, those without us then also subside.—Trial and deliverance work together: 1. To reveal the Lord; 2. to train His people; 3. to advance the coming of His kingdom.

Starke:—Quesnel:—The present life is, so to speak, only a passage from one side to the other, and finally from time into eternity.—Canstein:—Sleeping and rest has even in the ministry its season. Enough that the Keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. Psa_121:4.—Where Christ is there is danger, and sometimes even greater than where He is not; yet not for destruction, but for trial.—Majus:—Danger at sea is a mighty arouser to prayer.—Osiander:—Christ is the Lord of the sea and of the winds, and to Him, even after His human nature, all things are subject. Psa_8:2 seq.—So oft as we receive a benefit from the dear God, our faith should become stronger.

Heubner:—Nil desperandum, Christo duce.—Christian fearlessness in danger: 1. Its necessity, 2. its nature, 3. the means of attaining it.—Dr. J. J. Doedes, Prof. in Utrecht, a homily:—1. The commencement of the voyage; 2. the raging of the tempest; 3. the fear of the disciples; 4. the rest of the Lord; 5. the rebuke of the weak in faith; 6. the power of the word of might.—Rautenberg:—The heavier the cross, the more earnest the prayers.—Gerdessen:—The appearance of Christ in earthly tumult: 1. He lets it rage, a. as if without measure, b. without concern, c. without remedy; 2. He stills it, a. the stormy world, b. the stormy life, c. the stormy heart.—Lisco:—Concerning trust in the Lord: 1. Wherein it reveals itself; 2. what its nature Isaiah 3. how it is rewarded.—Florey:—The words in the ship at the storming of the sea: 1. The word of terror; 2. the word of censure; 3. the word of might; 4. the word of astonishment.—Höpfner:—The disciples of Christ according to this Gospel: 1. Willingly following, 2. anxious, 3. praying, 4. ashamed disciples.—Denninger:—The wondrous ways of the Lord: Wonderfully does He bring His own: 1. Down into the deep, 2. up out of the deep.—Fuchs:—Why sleeps the Lord so often in the tempests of this life? He will lead us: 1. To the knowledge of our powerlessness; 2. to faith in His almightiness; 3. to prayer for His help; 4. to praise of His name.

Footnotes:

Luk_8:25.— Ἐóôéí is according to Tischendorf and Lachmann (A., B., L., X., cursives) an addition whose genuineness is doubtful. [Tischendorf in his 7th ed. has it with Cod. Sin. and 13 other uncials; om., A., C., L., X.—C. C. S.]