Luke 8: Where Is Your Faith? A Powerful and Kind Savior

Introduction

In the storm, it is not always enough to be told "Do not be afraid, just trust" for your trust to be renewed. Pierre de Cayron, preacher at the Église Protestante Évangélique Bruxelles-Woluwe, knows this. When his little sister got her driver's license, she sometimes took the curves a bit too close to the edge. He quietly clung on while she told him: "Don't worry, I've got this, trust me." His conclusion: trust is not automatic. He adds, in her defense, that they never had an accident.

Continuing the series on the Gospel of Luke, the previous week had shown that Jesus calls us to listen to his word, keep it and put it into practice. But we can lack trust in him: some refuse to come to him from the start, others lose heart when following him costs something.

Luke 8:22-39 tells two episodes: Jesus facing a storm, then Jesus facing a man under the grip of demons. The preacher draws two lessons from it: the power of Jesus, which we underestimate, and the kindness of Jesus, which we forget. For the idea we have of Jesus shapes the trust we give him, and that trust decides whether we hold firm in trials.

Message Outline

1. You Don't Sit on a Chair You Think Is Fragile

If you think a chair is not sturdy, you do not sit on it, especially when the stakes are high and there is nothing behind you to catch you.
In the same way, if you think Jesus is not very powerful or not very good, you are likely to doubt him and his word as soon as the stakes become serious, as soon as it costs you something.
That is why it matters to have a right perception of who Jesus is.

2. Jesus Facing the Storm (Luke 8:22-25)

Jesus gets into a boat with his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake. During the crossing, he falls asleep. A squall comes down on the lake, the boat fills with water, and they are in danger.
The disciples give way to panic: "Master, master, we are dying!"
Jesus wakes up, rebukes the wind and the waves, and calm returns. There is no struggle and no effort: "It is not like in fantasy movies where you see heroes summon all their energy to channel certain powers." Jesus speaks, and creation obeys.
Then he turns to his disciples: "Where is your faith?" Jesus does not find it normal that they were afraid.
A surprising detail: the account specifies that the disciples are seized with fear after the storm has calmed. "Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?" They discover that Jesus is far more powerful than they thought.
As a child, the preacher was not afraid of most teachers, but everyone feared the principal: he could call the parents, expel, punish. Even when he came to punish other students, he stayed quiet. Facing the immense authority of Jesus, the disciples are seized with awe.
They knew Jesus, though, and had already seen his miracles. They still massively underestimated his power. It is as if he were telling them: "Did you really think we were going to die here? Didn't I tell you we were going to the other side of the lake?"
The teaspoon illustration: imagine an athletic event where you are asked to lift a teaspoon, and all your friends marvel. You would answer: "Do you take me for an ant?" Jesus is surprised in the same way by the unbelief of his disciples. They called him Master without having understood that he was also the Master of all creation.
This text points to the divinity of Jesus: fully human, he sleeps; fully God, he has authority over creation.

3. Jesus Facing Legion (Luke 8:26-33)

On the other side of the lake, Jesus meets an uncontrollable man, without clothes, living among the tombs, under the grip of many demons for a long time. "Personally, I think I would have been afraid."
The Bible presents demons as spiritual beings who really exist, not as a primitive invention of antiquity to describe certain psychological illnesses.
Yet who is afraid in this account? The demon-possessed man. He falls at the feet of Jesus and cries out: "What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me."
The name of the demons is Legion. A legion was a unit of several thousand soldiers: the demonic force was immense. And yet there is no resistance: Jesus speaks and the demon submits.
The preacher warns: this account is not a manual for fighting demons. It is a narrative text about Jesus, not a normative text about our behavior. "First of all, we are not Jesus." What is emphasized is the power of Jesus.
It is not a more or less even fight, as it is sometimes portrayed. Jesus reigns with power.
The demons, less ignorant than many people about who Jesus is, are too afraid of him to despise him. The more you truly know Jesus, the more you respect him.

4. Do Not Underestimate the Power of Jesus

Many still do not know the identity of Christ. They see in him only a mere man. His strength was not visible in his appearance, but he had unmatched power and authority.
Christians often resemble the disciples: we call him Master, Lord, but we underestimate his power. When things do not go as planned, we wonder whether God is really strong enough.
Back to the little sister at the wheel: "It is as if we treated Jesus like our little sister, to whom God had entrusted the wheel of life." At the slightest curve taken badly, we worry. "But it is ridiculous to think like that. Jesus is not our little sister. Jesus is the King of kings, the Master of the universe."
Often our worries come from considering certain things more powerful than Christ himself. "It is a lie."
Nature, the devil, the demons and all the forces that could harm us are subject to the power of Jesus. They can do nothing except what he permits, and only to the extent that he permits it.
We do not always understand. Why does Jesus agree to let the demons enter the pigs rather than sending them into the abyss? Would that not have been simpler for the people of the town? The text only emphasizes: "He allowed them." Jesus sometimes allows trials we do not understand, but that must not lead us to doubt his power.
The action of the demons remains evil, like many things in our lives. But Jesus, without being responsible for it, remains master of our situations.
Facing the devil, two extremes are to be avoided: believing that demons do not exist, or seeing them everywhere, to the point of forgetting our flesh, our sin, the influence of the world or the existence of illness.
Christians hold different positions about a person under the influence of a demon: some think every Christian has authority to cast out demons in the name of Jesus, others that we should rather turn to God in prayer so that he delivers. But all can agree on this point: it is in Jesus alone that we have victory and deliverance.
The next time a situation worries you, hear the question: "Where is your faith?" And answer: "My trust is not in myself. My trust is in Jesus, my Savior, far more powerful than I imagine."

5. The Kindness of Jesus That We Forget (Luke 8:34-39)

The keepers of the drowned pigs go and tell the news in town. The townspeople arrive, see the healed man and the drowned herd, and they too are seized with fear.
Their reaction is surprising: all the people of the region of the Gerasenes ask Jesus to leave them. They probably feared he would cause their ruin. They see his power, but they see a danger in it, and they reject Christ.
"Seeing the power of Jesus is necessary, but apparently it was not enough to inspire trust in him."
The man who was set free reacts the opposite way: he asks to stay with Jesus. Same event, two reactions. The crowd sees a threat; the man sees a Savior. He knows what Jesus has done for him, and he is sure of his goodness.
Out of love for this closed-off crowd, Jesus sends the man to testify to what he has done for him. What he had done for this man far outweighed the loss of the herd.
Under the grip of demons, this man was like a dead man: he lived among the tombs, rejected, naked, humiliated, destroying himself. Now he is seated at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. We can imagine that he will be able to find his family again. It is a radical change of life.
This description illustrates what happens to each of us when we turn to Jesus. Not that everyone has demons, the preacher clarifies, but it is a parallel: dead in our sin, we destroy ourselves through our deceitful desires, and Jesus saves us. We place ourselves at his feet to listen to him, in our right mind, clothed with the dignity he gives us.
"Jesus did not come to torment demons; he came to save many people." He did not come for our misfortune.
Even while acknowledging his power, we can doubt that his plan is good for us: "If I follow him in this situation, where is it taking me?" We see him lead where we do not want to go and we think: "Come on, Jesus, this is almost a kidnapping." So we want to take the wheel back, because we doubt his goodness.
Voices from the world, the devil and our flesh want to make us believe that by following Jesus we deprive ourselves of something. But in this text, he saves his disciples from the storm, he has pity on this man, tears him out of his misery and gives him back his dignity. "Jesus is good. Jesus is kind."
Those who follow Christ can testify to it: we do not follow him out of obligation or under threat, but because we love him and have tasted his goodness.
In doubt, the question comes back: "Where is your faith?" The answer: not in myself, but in Jesus, a Savior full of goodness, filled with love, who will take care of me.

6. At the Cross, the Power and Goodness of Jesus

To conclude, the preacher invites us to look further into the life of Jesus: falsely accused by the religious leaders, put to death on a cross, he rises three days later and appears to his disciples.
The power: through his death and resurrection, Jesus wins the victory over death, the worst of threats, the condemnation that our offenses against God deserved. He offers life and God's forgiveness to all who come to him. We can be declared righteous before God and have the assurance of resurrection and eternal life.
The goodness: Jesus goes to the point of death to save us. He endures pain, humiliation and rejection, and takes upon himself the consequences we deserved. He was not obliged to die on that cross; he did it out of love.
When you doubt his power or his goodness, look at the cross.
One last question: "Where is our faith? Our trust is not in ourselves, it is in Jesus, our Savior, more powerful than we imagine and much better than we imagine."

Key Takeaways

The idea you have of Jesus determines the trust you give him, and that trust decides whether you hold firm in trials.
Jesus commands the wind, the waves and a legion of demons without the slightest effort. Nothing resists him.
Jesus sometimes allows trials you do not understand, but nothing escapes his authority.
Seeing the power of Jesus is not enough: the Gerasenes saw it and rejected him. You also need to be sure of his goodness.
The cross shows both at once: the victory of Jesus over death and the greatness of his love for you.

Personal Application

In what current situation are you clinging on, as if Jesus were not capable of holding the wheel?
What seems more powerful to you today than Christ: an illness, a fear, a situation, a person?
Do you tend to ignore spiritual warfare, or on the contrary to see demons everywhere instead of looking at your flesh and your sin?
In what area do you suspect that following Jesus will deprive you of something good?
What could you tell this week, like the man who was set free, of what Jesus has done for you?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Jesus ask his disciples, "Where is your faith?"

Jesus does not find it normal that his disciples were afraid of dying in the storm. He had told them they were going over to the other side of the lake. For Pierre de Cayron, it is as if he were saying to them: did you really think a little water and wind could swamp me, the Messiah, the Son of God? They called him Master, but they had not understood that he was also the Master of all creation.

Why do the people of the region of the Gerasenes ask Jesus to leave?

They see the man who has been set free and the herd of pigs drowned, and they are seized with great fear. They recognize the power of Jesus, but they see it as a threat to themselves and fear that he will cause their ruin. Seeing the power of Jesus is necessary, the preacher explains, but it is not enough to trust him: you also need to be sure of his goodness.

Why does Jesus allow the demons to enter the pigs?

The text does not explain it, and Pierre de Cayron acknowledges that many questions can be asked. What Luke emphasizes is the authority of Jesus: "He allowed them." The demons' action depends on his permission. In the same way, Jesus sometimes allows trials we do not understand, without being responsible for them, and he remains master of our situations.