It’s not the shadows in the daylight that frighten us (Luke 8 )
When we look at the world now, there are some things that we all now can only see dimly (1 Cor 13:12; Lit. in a riddle). When God has chosen to reveal things to us, we have better understanding of the spiritual activity that is happening around us; however, when things are hidden from us, that spiritual activity can be frightening. As Jesus was preparing to head to Jerusalem to encounter the powers that be and to encounter his great suffering, he was allowing his identity and his power to become more visible. People reacted differently to that display of power depending how much light they were seeing.
On one side, Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables so that “though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.” On the other side, Jesus spent time explaining the parables to the disciples because they had been given the “knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God.” Though even in this case, the disciples did not comprehend everything that Jesus said because things were still hidden from them (Luke 10:21; 18:34). In this short passage in chapter 8, there are a few different responses to the power of Jesus:
- When the disciples witnessed Jesus calming the storm they asked, “Who is this?”
- When Jesus cast the demons from the man in the Gerasenes, the people in the town became fearful at what they saw.
- When Jairus’ daughter was brought back to life, Jairus and his wife were astonished
- When a women touched the edge of the cloak, her faith healed her
When we see the power of Jesus, what is our response?
Transcendent Touched 
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