“And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.” Luke 8:56 ESV
Reflection: why does the Lord seem inconsistent in his instructions at times?
We have just studied three major miracles described by Luke, and before we move on to chapter 9, I want to draw your attention to a comparison between the first and the last miracle. In the first one, the man who was freed from a legion of demons, Jesus instructs him ““Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.” Luke 8:39 ESV.
But then we read his instruction to the family where he raised their daughter from the dead, “And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.” Luke 8:56 ESV. Why would Jesus instruct one person to tell about a miracle, and another not to tell? syn
Why such polar opposite instruction?
Let’s consider one difference between the two – the first one had no training, no knowledge in the scriptures. He had no learned context for describing what happened to him, nor explaining God from an educated perspective. However, the second one had deep training in and knowledge of the scriptures, was a leader of a synagogue, clearly very religious. We clearly don’t know as it is not revealed to us in the text, but could Jesus instruction be related to this?
If you think about it, if we try to explain a spiritual experience, our encounters with God based on our intellect, our knowledge and reasoning, we might focus more on ourselves, our understanding, as opposed to just giving glory to God. However, if we have no other explanation than God, we point to Him alone. The most authentic eyewitness is the one not trying to explain what happened; they just tell what happened. Just think about the woman at the well! She was just filled with joy, sharing ““Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?””John 4:29 ESV
A simple, but powerful witness.
If God has done something for you (which He has for all of us), think about your own testimony, how do you explain what happened? Do you point to Him alone, giving God all the glory, or are you tempted to explain it out of your own intellect? Out of deep biblical knowledge?
We can so easily mess it up
by our smarts. It gives me such great comfort knowing that the person Jesus instructed to “declare how much God has done for you” had no formal training, no deep biblical knowledge or even background in the church. He only had his experience with the Lord to tell about. Jesus picked him to return to his home and tell what God had done for him.