Luke 8:22-25 meaning

The parallel Gospel accounts for Luke 8:22-25 are Matthew 8:18, 23-27 and Mark 4:35-41.

Luke 8:22-25 and the passage that follows (Luke 8:26-39) highlight an important aspect of Jesus’s ministry and one that would have been of particular interest to Luke’s primary audience (the Greeks).

It tells of Jesus leaving the predominantly Jewish district of Galilee in the province of Judea and taking His ministry into a predominately Gentile region—near the Greek Decapolis. On their way to the Decapolis, something incredible happens.

Luke introduces this excursion:

Now on one of those days Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake” (v 22a).

The expression: Now on one of those days indicates that Luke is not being exact as to when this excursion to the other side of the lake occurred. It occurred around the time—one of those days—while He was teaching in the district of Galilee.

Similar to Luke, the Gospel of Mark says it was on the evening of a day when He taught many parables to a crowd by the sea of Galilee (Mark 4:1-34):

“On that day, when evening came, He said to them, ‘Let us go over to the other side.’”
(Mark 4:35)

As alluded to above, Jesus’s instruction Let us go over to the other side of the lake signifies more than just a physical relocation. It carries the meaning of going to another country where the Gentiles live. The lake was the Sea of Galilee, which was shaped like a diamond. The lake functionally served as a border between the Jewish district of Galilee located along the northern and western shores and the Greek district of the Decapolis located along the south-eastern shoreline.

The Decapolis was a Roman province. It was comprised of ten Greek cities established after Alexander the Great's conquests. The Decapolis city of Hippos sat atop a hill on the eastern shore of the lake. Despite being only a few miles away, this area was culturally distinct from the Jews. Thus, Jesus and His disciples were moving from a Jewish world to a Gentile one.

The instruction to go over to the other side seems like a surprising change of direction and an unusual course for a Jewish Rabbi. It is one thing for Gentiles to travel miles seeking healing from Him, but now the Rabbi is going to them.

Luke does not provide a clear reason for Jesus's decision to go to the Gentiles. Matthew indicates that it was to get away from the crowds (Matthew 8:18). Likewise, Mark says that when they departed, they were “leaving the crowd” (Mark 4:36). This might suggest that Jesus was trying to avoid attracting greater attention to His person that could distract from His mission.

Perhaps Jesus is seeking rest from the masses. (A few hours later, He is so exhausted that He falls fast asleep on a boat during a terrifying storm—Luke 8:23). It is also possible that Jesus decides to leave because He perceives the selfish motives or hard-heartedness of those He has been preaching to. He later rebukes the Jewish northern shore of Galilee for their lack of faith (Luke 10:13-15, Matthew 11:21-24).

Whatever the motive, Jesus's trip to the other side was always part of God’s much larger divine plan (Isaiah 49:6, 12). Although Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, the good news of the Gospel is meant for all people, both Jews and Gentiles. By traveling to the other side where the Greeks and Romans live, Jesus was bringing the light of the Gospel to them in a very tangible and powerful way. This “mission trip” provides a preview of the final orders He will give His disciples, known as "the Great Commission.”

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”
(Matthew 28:19-20)

In less than three years, these same disciples whom Jesus instructs to go over to the other side to minister to the Gentile world will be doing this on a much larger scale. They will be a mobilizing force initiating the spread of the gospel to the entire world. Jesus was training them through His actions and inviting them to follow His example. By issuing this order, Jesus is also demanding a greater level of commitment from His disciples.

Luke, who may have been a Greek himself, played a significant role in spreading the Gospel to the Gentiles. He was a companion of Paul on his missionary journeys among the Greek peoples and cities. And Luke wrote the Book of Acts which told of the Gospel’s rapid spread and remarkable success among the Greeks and Romans. Luke’s Gospel account of Jesus’s life was also written to accurately present Jesus as the answer to their most important philosophical questions.

• Question: “What is the ideal human?
  Answer: Jesus is the perfect man.
• Question: “How does one live the good life?”
  Answer: By following Jesus’s humble example and His teachings to serve others for God’s sake and live by faith, trusting God’s instructions, and depending on God’s strength to accomplish His will.

Jesus and His disciples got into a boat, and they launched out (v 22b) from the northern (Jewish shoreline) of the Sea of Galilee.

A typical boat on the Sea of Galilee was relatively small. In 1986, a first-century A.D. fishing boat was discovered on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee. It measured 27 feet in length and 7.5 feet in width. It could accommodate up to 15 men. The boat that Jesus used to cross the lake was likely of similar size and would have been powered by a sail. As this freshwater lake is approximately 13 miles long and 8 miles across, the journey to the other side would have likely taken a couple of hours.

But as they were sailing along, Jesus fell asleep (v 23a).

He was likely exhausted from long days of preaching, dealing with crowds, healing, and casting out demons (Matthew 8:16, Mark 4:1-35). Even though Jesus had remarkable powers, He was also human. His body needed rest and sleep to function.

While Jesus was asleep in the boat, Luke tells his readers that a fierce gale of wind descended on the lake they began to be swamped and to be in danger (v 23b).

A fierce gale is a powerful storm with strong winds. The storm was so fierce that the boat began to be swamped with water pouring into it. Matthew reports how “the boat was being covered with the waves” (Matthew 8:24). Mark adds: “the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up” (Mark 4:37). The disciples, several of whom were professional fishermen, recognized the danger that had come upon them.

They were caught in a ferocious storm in a small boat on the middle of a huge lake during the middle of the night—and the boat was now beginning to fill up with water. The disciples, including those who were experienced fishermen, could not bring the boat safely to shore and grew fearful for their lives.

Remarkably, through this life-threatening storm with surging waves and water filling the hull, Jesus was asleep. Mark adds the details: “Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion” (Mark 4:38a).

Despite being tired, He also had faith in His Father's protection even amidst a violent storm.

Jesus’s faith and restfulness was contrasted with the terror and straining of His disciples.

With nowhere else to turn, they came to Jesus and woke Him up, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” (v 24).

There is an urgency in the disciples’ plea. They refer to Jesus as “Master, Master.”

Interestingly, all three Gospels that record this event each use a different title when the disciples call upon Jesus.

Matthew uses “Lord” (Matthew 8:25) (Greek: κύριε—pronounced: “ku-rié”—G2962). In this context, it refers to Jesus’s Messianic authority as “Lord.” The Messiahship of Jesus was one of Matthew’s main concerns and was of particular interest to his primary audience of Jews.

Mark uses “Teacher” (Mark 4:38) (Greek: διδάσκαλε—pronounced: “di-das-ka-lé”—G1320). “Teacher” refers to Jesus’s authority over them as their religious teacher. The Jewish term that was commonly used for “teacher” is “rabbi”—see John 1:38. In his Gospel to the Romans, Mark was likely Hellenizing “Rabbi” into something more immediately understandable, i.e. “teacher” for his primary audience.

Luke uses: “Master” (Greek: ἐπιστάτα—pronounced: “è-pi-sta-tá”—G1988). This term is rarely used in the Greek New Testament. “Èpistatá” means “overseer” or “the one who is in charge.” More literally, it means “the one with standing or the authority.” The English term Master broadly, but bluntly, covers these meanings. However, the translation as Master effectively captures the disciples’ urgency and desperation.

In choosing “èpistatá” to convey what the disciples meant in this terrifying moment, Luke emphasizes the powerful authority of Jesus.

The use of three different Greek terms by these three Gospel writers is another indicator that the Gospels are a Greek record of what Jesus and His disciples, etc. originally spoke in Aramaic and/or Hebrew. To learn more about this, see The Bible Says article: “The Four Languages of Jesus’s Judea.”

Moreover, the Gospel writers all express the disciples’ plea a little differently—again stressing different points of emphasis.

Luke, the most concise of the writers on this point, records the disciples’ fear: Master, Master, we are perishing!

Matthew records a more complete sense of the disciples’ desperation and hope: “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!” (Matthew 8:25b).

Mark records the disciples’ astonishment that Jesus is not terrified at the peril of their predicament, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” (Mark 4:38b). The disciples’ rhetorical question as recorded by Mark reveals their fear and lack of faith as the disciples seem to rebuke Jesus.

The difference of these expressions—especially between Luke and Matthew on the one hand and Mark on the other, could suggest that different disciples said somewhat different things to Jesus as they feared for the lives amidst the fierce storm.

Luke writes that after the disciples’ plead with Jesus:

And He got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm (v 24b).

Jesus spoke directly to the natural elements, and when He did, they stopped, and it became calm. It seems that more than the disciples imagined, Jesus really was the “Èpistatá”—the Master—of the wind and waves. The creation obeyed the voice of its Creator, its Master who had spoken it into existence (Genesis 1, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16).

After Jesus rebuked the weather, He turned His attention to His disciples.

And He said to them, “Where is your faith?” (v 25a).

Jesus's rebuke of His disciples lack of faith serves as an admonishment for the disciples.

Interestingly, in Matthew’s Gospel, the order of Jesus’s two rebukes (His rebuke of the wind and waves, and His rebuke of the disciples) are reversed.

According to Matthew:

“He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea…”
(Matthew 8:26)

It is likely that after Jesus was awakened:

• He first asked the disciples about their fear and called them men of little faith.
  (Matthew 8:26a)
• Then He rebuked the wind and the waves, and everything calmed down.
  (Matthew 8:26b, Luke 8:24b),
• And then He asked them after it was all over—“Where is your faith?”
  (Luke 8:25a).

Luke reports that after the winds stopped and the waves became calm, that the disciples were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?” (v 25b).

The men in the boat, who had already seen Jesus heal lepers, cure various diseases, and cast out demons, were fearful and amazed when they witnessed how Jesus rebuked the winds to stillness.

They asked themselves: "Who then is this, that He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him?”

The only Person Who had this kind of authority was the Master of the universe who created the wind and waters. As their Creator, Jesus had authority to command the winds and the water.

The disciples’ question in Matthew’s Gospel is perhaps even more poignant:

“What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
(Matthew 8:27b)

The Gospels demonstrate that this Man is God—the Creator of the wind, the water, and all things. He is the Messiah, the King of Heaven and Earth. Even being witness to this miracle and many others, the disciples in the boat were only beginning to grasp Jesus's true identity as the LORD God.

In the next section of scripture, Luke describes the remarkable thing that happened when Jesus and His disciples arrived on the other side of the lake.