Study 18. Luke 8:1-18

 A note on the women following Jesus:

• It was uncommon for a rabbi to allow women to accompany him.
• Luke is the gospel that most highlights Jesus' interaction with women.
• Mary Magdalene has been (wrongly) identified as the 'sinner' of the previous passage.
• The women came from different backgrounds.
• Many other women (the Greek of 'many others' and 'their' is feminine) supported Jesus' ministry.
  

 1. What main point is Jesus trying to commuicate in this parable to the crowds who flocked around Him(see 8:5-8, 11-15)?

The Parable of the Sower (Mt 13:3-9, Mk 4:3-9) is given on the background of large/great crowds.  because there are those to whom 'is given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God' (v.10), whereas those outside the kingdom are taught in parables in order that they may not 'see... and.. understand' (cf Is 6:9-10). 'Secrets' (Gk mysteria) are truths which we could never discover for ourselves, but which God has revealed.The parables are sovereignly used by God to both teach His own, and to harden hearts in judgment.

"Parables both reveal and conceal truth: they reveal it to the genuine seeker who will take the trouble to dig beneath the surface and discover the meaning, but they conceal it from him who is content simply to listen to the story. This is plainly the result of the parables, but Jesus says it is also their purpose (so that …). Parables are a mine of information to those who are in earnest, but they are a judgment on the casual and careless" (Morris)

In this parable some have emphasized the rich return of a few seeds to the preaching of God's word despite the different responses of men. Most see a warning about responding in the right way to the word of God. In a sense, this is a parable about all the parables - about the response of hearts to the word of God. There are different ways of hearing mentioned here: 1) hearing, after which the Devil takes away the word 2) hearing with joy, then falling away 3) hearing, yet choked, 4) hearing with a good and honest heart.

• Everyone 'hears' physically, but not everyone 'hears'/understands spiritually
•  We see that people can respond very differently to the same gospel. 
• Their response depends on their nature. A different nature that responds to the word necessarily comes from the working of God to 'gives us to know' spiritual truth.
  
• Like the disciples, we have questioning hearts that seek to know the meaning of God's word to us.
• We must strive to produce good fruit of the word in our lives. Fruit here refers to all the good consequences of the gospel, both in personal holiness (Gal 5:22-23) as well as in multiplication of what is like ourselves (seed to fruit)

Some notes:
Are those who represent the soil with thorns 'saved'? They have fruit, but it is not 'mature'. The parable speaks about bearing fruit, not about the seed growing or only of salvation. Fruit-bearing is proof of discipleship (Jn 15:8). In the other synoptics the result is said to be 'unfruitful", yielding "no grain". Fruit is evidence of salvation.

"Cares (= worries, troubles), riches (= pursuit of all the material resources the world can offer) and 'pleasures of life' (= even good and right things) can choke our spirituality and stop us from growing and reproducing spiritually.

Bearing fruit requires 'patience' - it can take time and persistent effort (Gk hypomone)

2.What kind of person does God enable to understand the puzzle of the kingdom (see 8:9-10. compare 5:10-11, 7:50, 8:8)?

Those with 'faith', the 'good soil', the ones Jesus calls. Faith is a gift of God (Eph 2:8-9). And we cannot change our nature from one soil to another. And we must have Jesus' call before we can come (Jn 6:44, 65)

 

3. Family was enormously important in Jewish culture, so Jesus' statement in 8:21 would have been shocking. Why do you think Jesus' true family are those who do what God's word says?

 Family in scripture has to do with likeness rather than genetics. Those who obey God's revealed ways will conform to His character. (cf Jn 8:39-44)

 

What does it mean to have 'a noble and good heart' (8:15)? How can a person develop one?

 'honest' (Gk kalos, lit 'beautiful') and 'good' (Gk agathos)

 The answer to this question is perhaps seen in the lesson of the lamp under the jar- that light should be allowed to shine to dispel darkness. Light (v.16) here is another picture of what it means to have fruit (v.15)

Our hearing rightly is equated to 'having' a true posession of God's word. Jesus says that the one who has this knowledge and shines forth with it will have increasing knowledge. The one who fails to express this knowledge will lose even the little he thinks he has (Lk 19:26). This spiritual principle of multiplication and subtraction interprets the parable: 3 of the soils lose the seed, the last soil multiplies it.

The one who is honest/noble and good shows it and proves it in increasing measure by acting according to the revealed word he has grasped.

 

Jesus' earthly ministry was a mystery at the time. But did He intend his message to remain a secret forever? Why or why not (see 8:16-17)?

This is an example of why we don't get the right way forward by asking ourselves 'What would Jesus do?'

As evidence of ("for") the principle that light is meant to be shone, all hidden/secret things in the darkness will be revealed in the light. So our lives and actions must shine forth (cf. Matt 5:16, Lk 12:1-2) so that we bring light to the world, even before the final revelation of the last judgment. We do this by living according to the word of God we have grasped and becoming a testimony to the world.

 

What implications did this intention have for Jesus' disciples, who would be the only people who understood the secret once Jesus left the world (see 8:16-18)?

They/we must share the truth as taught to them. As Jesus says Mt 10:27, "What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops." 

 

Why must both inquirer and disciple take care to respond to whatever knowledge of God's truth they do have (see 8:16)? What does 8:18 imply for your life?

 The law of spiritual growth and multiplication is both warning and encouragement. If we make small efforts and are faithful to what we have attained (cf. Phl 3:16), we will be rewarded with growth. If we make no efforts, we lose the spiritual riches we have.