The Woman, The Storm, and the Man Among the Tombs

In this podcast episode, the speaker discusses three accounts from the Bible: the healing of the centurion's servant, Jesus calming the storm on the Sea of Galilee, and the casting out of demons in the Gadarenes. The speaker encourages listeners to think about what these miracles teach us about Jesus and his attributes. The speaker also provides historical context and insights into the significance of these events. Overall, the podcast focuses on the power and compassion of Jesus as shown through these miracles. Okay, welcome everyone to the very first podcast I have ever made. I don't know if there's ever going to be a second, but I'm just going to call this the first episode or episode one. As we get started, there's some things you should be aware of. I'm going to do this in one take, which means if there are any mistakes, those mistakes are going to stay. I just want it to be real. I want it to be in the moment and frank and open. And honestly, I just don't want to have to go back and fix things also. So right now, we're going to be discussing Luke chapter seven and Mark four and five, at least three episodes, accounts from those chapters. You just looked at Matthew eight and Luke seven when you studied the healing of the centurion servant. So we're going to move forward and check out those other accounts. There's a scripture study skill I want you to consider and think about using as we discuss these accounts today. And it's a skill of thinking about what does, what do the actions of the savior teach us about him? So we're looking at miracles. What are these? What is what he does in these miracles teach us about the miracle giver. As we talk about the miracles, we consider questions like what are the savior's motives for doing these things? What are his reasons? What do I learn about his priorities, right? And what can I understand about his attributes? In other words, his characteristics from what he's doing, from what he's saying. Okay. Today, we're going to start a study in a little town called name. So Luke prefaces this, this first account with this quote, quote, and it came to pass the day after end quote, what does that mean? Well, it means it happened the day after he healed the centurion son. When you look on a map name is 30 miles Southwest of Capernaum. And if you were to look at the, like the hills, the topography, this means, excuse me, doesn't mean when you look at it, you can see that, uh, it's almost all uphill. If Jesus was in Capernaum one day and in name the next, that means he traveled like all night long. In fact, according to this, um, retired professor at BYU of ancient scripture, they call it emeritus professor. His name is S Kent Brown. He estimates they would have had to have gotten up. Jesus and the disciples would have would to have had to have gotten up at two or 3 a.m. in the morning in order to make it to name the next day. Why would he be in a rush to get to this other place? Why would the savior get the disciples up and walk uphill almost all night? When he gets there, there's a funeral procession going on. And this funeral procession was for the only son of a widowed woman. The situation of a widowed woman was not good back then if you didn't have a lot of money and your husband had a good position. And so having her husband passed away and this being her only son who has just now passed away, she would have had a really rough situation. So the savior comes into this town and you got to think, wow, how many people are in rough situations? Well, something else to consider is that Nain, this is the only time it's mentioned in the entire New Testament. This is it. So this is the moment the entire town of Nain has to connect with their savior and the redeemer to figure out maybe we should follow him. Maybe we should learn what he said so that we can begin to do what he wants to repent and receive remission of our sins. So what does he do? He stops the funeral procession. I don't know if they just saw the crowd behind him and felt like he had authority. Maybe they'd heard about this prophet who was healing people. But they allow him to stop the procession. And not only that, but he touches where the body is, where they're holding up and laying the body. Nobody says anything. This was taboo. You weren't supposed to get near dead bodies. And the mother never says anything. I don't know if it's humility. I don't know if it's expectation or if it's just faith. But it's amazing that everyone just lets him do this. And he calls this young man back to life. And he comes back to life and I assume embraces the mom. And if this young man was old enough to have a wife, he also probably reached out to his young wife too. If he wasn't married yet, now he has a chance to get married. And then this woman will be surrounded by children and grandchildren. And it will impact generations as they all remember and recount the experience where the Savior healed and brought back to life their father, their grandfather, their great-grandfather. Think about everybody else in the whole town. This one miracle, how many people could it bless? How many people could it reach out to in the end as the Savior moves on and apparently never goes back to the city again? All right, now, up next, let's look at the Savior and his disciples' journey across the Sea of Galilee. There's a lot that happens on the Sea of Galilee and this one, this moment is interesting. They're crossing and there's a storm that hits. There are these mountains on one side of the Sea of Galilee and when the wind flows down, it's like a roller coaster and it causes wild, crazy storms. At least a good chunk of these people, a handful of these people are seasoned veteran fishermen and yet everyone seems to be afraid. The ship is filling up with water, the boat is, and the Savior is asleep. Just consider that, a storm rocking back and forth, rain on your face probably, water filling up in the boat and the Savior is asleep. What does that tell us about how tired or flat out exhausted he might have been in this moment? Now, if we stop and just use this as a metaphor for our lives, when we're in storms and when problems are going on and it seems like God's asleep or he's not there, how do we react? Well, it might be the same way that one of his disciples does. In apparent frustration or even anger, shakes the master awake and says, Master, carest thou not that we perish? He approaches him in this attitude of, what are you doing? The Savior doesn't seem to respond to that. He's very patient, it seems, and he stands up and rebukes the storm and instead he turns around and gently rebukes the entire group for their lack of faith. It just makes you wonder, what did he want them to do? And we can't read his mind, but perhaps he wanted them to call out to their Heavenly Father and to pray for help, maybe gently wake him up and plead for his help rather than this accusatory tone, I'm not sure. But there's also something else to consider and we're going to talk about who the Savior was before he was born. Please don't use this as you talk about his character and attributes. What do you learn about him for your life right now? That's the thing I'd like you to comment on. But here in this boat with them, he's in the storm with them, is the God who created this world under the direction of Heavenly Father. He created water. He commanded the waters to divide and had dry land appear out of that water. Later on in history, when the Israelites are escaping from Egypt, he commanded the Red Sea to split open divided waters and commanded them to walk through and they went through on dry ground. Later on, he had the River Jordan stand up as a heap, it says, and they walked through on dry ground. Clearly, if they could stop and consider the power of God, they could have played with him in a different way. And regardless of it, he still calms the storm and he still helps them. And there's something to be said about that for us as well. So now the storm's been calmed. Let's talk about what happens when they arrive at their location. Let's finish today with the Savior's brief stop by some tombs on the shores of Galilee. Their location is this place called the Gadarenes. The Gadarenes may have been a Gentile city because they're tending pigs there and pigs were against the law of Moses. That might be the case that these were Gentiles. And if that is the case, it's interesting that they would be going there. Something else that's interesting is this is also a one stop the Savior makes and he moves on. So this might be the only impact they had to receive a connection with the Savior to begin their journey of discipleship. Well it starts out with a man who has been possessed and he's hurt himself because of his possession and they've tried to chain him up and he's actually broken the chains and he's still, I imagine, dragging chains along with him and he's living near tombs wailing and calling out. And it seems like a haunted house, you know, like a horrible life to be experiencing. And if there's anything that defines someone being captive, this might be it, you know. And if we think about a metaphor of this, walking among the symbolically dead, being symbolically chained, trying to control appetites or urges and they're out of control. In some way, in some measure, it describes all of us in some part of our life at different times in different ways. So what does the Savior do? He gets off the ship, the boat, and the man runs and begins to worship him. I don't know if it's the man or the demons that do this. If it's the man, he recognizes the power of God and begins to worship. If it's the devils, it shows how much authority he has over them. They have to come down and bow down before him. They recognize he can stop them in an instant. And so this man is bowing before them. He asks the man his name and the devils reply, Legion. Legion was a number of a military force of Roman soldiers who that was the military force at the time in that place. And it was somewhere between five and six thousand. Now we don't have to take that literally, but clearly there were a lot of devils in this poor fellow because later on he's going to cast them out and they're going to enter the bodies of two thousand pigs. So there's a lot of demons in there. And the Savior has cast out Satan before. This is the first and perhaps I think the only time where he does it in such a dramatic way with so many to show his authority over evil. Two thousand devils, they don't stand a chance against the Savior. Now, here's the thing. When they go to cast him out, when he goes to cast them out, they beg and plead to be put into pigs. And there's a quote by Joseph Smith, and I can't quote it right now. Maybe I'll put it in the lesson. But he talks about how they would rather be in the body of a pig than have nobody at all. Just think about that. Satan could get us to look in the mirror and to think poorly about the body we have when they would rather be in the body of a pig than not have anybody at all. And think of this, think of the blessing it is to have a body, that they can see how wonderful and amazing it is that all of us, the Heavenly Father has had the Savior and work with and given us bodies. And what a blessing and a miracle that is. Well, he cast them out. They go into the bodies of the pigs and the pigs don't like it. They run off a cliff into the ocean and drown. And the pig herdsmen, I guess, run into town and the people come out. And they see that this man who has been possessed is now healed. And they have two options. One, be freaked out about the loss of the pigs. Or two, wonder in awe, stand there and be like, what happened here? And try to learn more about the situation. And they chose fear over faith. And I don't know that I blame them, but there's a powerful principle there in our lives as well. And they ask him to leave. They plead with him to leave. And he does leave their shores. But this man who's been healed knows, no, no, we need to faithfully follow this man. We need to faithfully follow the Savior. And so he begs to go with him. And the Savior does this. He says, no. He wants him to stay and bear testimony. Go begin planting seeds. These people aren't ready yet, but you just stay and you bear testimony. Now, with all that's been said about these three accounts, just think about what do we learn about him? What, just a bunch of things that we can say. What do you learn about him that can help you better have faith in him and come to him? And I'll just end with this thought. Let us be doers of the word and not hearers only. What actions are you going to do because of what you learn? That way you can build on the rock of our Redeemer. All right. Take care, guys.