Vastly Superior (Again)

Meditations in the Season of Epiphany 

February 17, 2022

Vastly Superior (Again)

21 Jesus replied, “My mother and my brothers are all those who hear God’s word and obey it.”

Luke 8:21

Read: Luke 8:16-25

I’ll comment on two of the three sections in today’s reading. First, I go back to a phrase I have used twice this week: vastly superior. Jesus’ response, when he was told, his family had come to see him, (“My mother and my brothers are all those who hear God’s word and obey it” (v.21)), was not a put down of his family. It was a reference to the vastly superior new covenant Kingdom he was announcing. In first-century Israel, one’s personal family was vastly superior to all other relationships. In the Kingdom of God, all believers are brothers and sisters; we are all family.

As I think of the fierce storm Jesus and his disciples encountered on the lake, I recall that many times in the Bible, God is revealed as mightier than the sea and the forces of nature. Here are just four examples from the Book of Psalms:

 

65:7 You quieted the raging oceans with their pounding waves

 

89:9 You rule the oceans. You subdue their storm-tossed waves.

 

93:3-4 The floods have risen up, O Lord. The floods have roared like thunder; the floods have lifted their pounding waves. But mightier than the violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore—the Lord above is mightier than these!

 

107:28-29 “Lord, help!” they cried in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves.

Jesus had just concluded teaching two parables about the Kingdom of God. Luke just tells us Jesus rebuked the storm. However, Mark tells us in just three words Jesus rebuked the storm and revealed he is God: “Silence! Be still!” If I had been in the boat with God, I too would have been terrified.

My Takeaway: Lord, I invite you to speak to my anxieties, my fears. Silence them. Still them. You are Master of the wind and waves. Nothing is impossible for you. Amen.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.