In Luke 8 on which I am to speak tonight, the Lord is seen not only going forth now to preach, but with a number of men and women in His train, children of wisdom surely, the poor but real witnesses of His own rich grace, and thus devoted to Him here below. “And the twelve were with him, and certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance.” Here, too, is it not a wonderfully characteristic picture of our Lord Jesus, and so only found in Luke? Entirely above the evil of men, He could and did walk in the perfect calm of His Father’s presence, but withal according to the activity, in this world, of God’s grace.
Hence, He is here presented in our Gospel as speaking of the sower, even as He was then scattering the seed of “the word of God;” for so it is called here. In the Gospel of Matthew, where the same parable appears as introducing the kingdom of heaven, it is called “the word of the kingdom.” Here, when the parable is explained, the seed is “the word of God.” Thus it is not a question of the kingdom in Luke; in Matthew it is. Nothing can be more simple than the reason of the difference. Remark that the Spirit of God in recording does not limit Himself to the bare words that Jesus spoke. This I hold to be a matter of no little importance in forming a sound judgment of the Scriptures. The notion to which orthodox men sometimes shut themselves up, in zeal for plenary inspiration, is, to my mind, altogether mechanical: they think that inspiration necessarily and only gives the exact words that Christ uttered. There seems to me not the slightest necessity for this. Assuredly the Holy Spirit gives the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. The differences are owing to no infirmity, but to His design; and what He has given us is incomparably better than a bare report by so many hands, all meaning to give the same words and facts. Take the chapter before us to illustrate what I mean. Matthew and Luke alike give us the same parable of the sower; but Matthew calls it “the word of the kingdom;” while Luke calls it “the word of God.” The Lord Jesus may have employed both in His discourse at this time. I am not contending that He did not; but what I affirm is, that, whether He did or did not employ both, the Spirit of God did not give us to have both in the same Gospel, but acts with divine sovereignty. He does not lower the evangelists into mere literal reporters, such as may be found by dint of skill among men. No doubt their object is to get the precise words which a man utters, because there is no such power or person to effect the will of God in the world. But the Spirit of God can act with more freedom, and can give this part of the utterance to one evangelist, and that part to another. Hence, then, the mere mechanical system can never explain inspiration. It finds itself entirely baffled by the fact that the same words are not given in all the Gospels. Take Matthew, as we have just seen, saying, “Blessed are the poor” (Matt. 5:33Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3)), and Luke, saying, “Blessed be ye poor” (Luke 6:2020And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said, Blessed be ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God. (Luke 6:20)). This is at once an embarrassing difficulty for the mechanical scheme of inspiration; it is none at all for those who hold to the Holy Spirit’s supremacy in employing different men as the vessels of His various objects. There is no attempt in any of the Gospels to furnish a reproduction of all the words and works of the Lord Jesus. I have no doubt, therefore, that although in each Gospel we have nothing but the truth, we have not all the facts in any Gospel, or in all of them. Hence, the richest fullness results from the method of the Spirit. Having the absolute command of all truth, He just gives the needed word in the right place, and by the due person, so as the better to display the Lord’s glory.
After this parable we have another, like Matthew’s, but not relating to the kingdom, because this is not the point here; for dispensation is not the topic before us as in Matthew. Indeed, this parable is one not found in Matthew at all. What Matthew gives is complete for the purposes of his Gospel. But in Luke it was of great importance to give this parable; for when a man has been laid hold of by the word of God, the next thing is testimony. The disciples, not the nation, were given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. Enlightened themselves, the next thing was to give light to others. “No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter may see the light. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad. Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have.” Thus responsibility in the use of light is enforced.
What follows here is the slight of natural ties in divine things, the approval of nothing but a relationship founded on the word of God heard and done. Flesh is valueless; it profits nothing. So when people said unto Him, “Thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to see thee. And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it:” Still it is the word of God. It is not as Matthew puts it, after the formal giving up the nation to apostasy, and a new relationship brought in; here it is simply God’s approval of those who keep and value His word. The place that the word of God has morally meets the mind of Christ.
But Christ does not exempt His witnesses from troubles here below. The next is the scene on the lake, and the disciples manifesting their unbelief, and the Lord His grace and power. Passing to the other side we see Legion, who, spite of this awful evil, has a deep divine work wrought in his soul. It is not so much a question of making him a servant of God. That we have in Mark, and much detailed. Here we have him rather as a man of God; first, the object of the delivering power and favor of the Lord; then, delighting in Him who thus made God known to him. No wonder, when the devils were cast out, the man besought that he might be with Jesus. It was a feeling natural, so to speak, to grace and to the new relationship with God into which he had entered. “But Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to thine own house, and show how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him.”
The account of Jairus’s appeal for his daughter follows. While the Lord is on His way to heal the daughter of Israel, who meanwhile dies, He is interrupted by the touch of faith; for whoever went to Him found healing. The Lord, however, while He perfectly meets the case of any needy soul at the present time, does not fail in the long run to accomplish tilt purposes of God for the revival of Israel. He will restore Israel; for in God’s mind they are not dead but sleep.