Jesus Can Deliver: A Collage of Rescue

Luke puts together a collage of four pictures; four miracles; four portraits of people in need. These people are hurting, in trouble, and in need of rescue. The disciples are rescued from the storm, the man from demons, the woman from an illness, Jairus from agonizing grief, and his daughter from death itself.This collage of rescue, the context of each involving desperation and danger, helps answer the question, “Who is Jesus?” That’s exactly what the first miracle presses upon us — “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?” (8:25). The demons answer with a precise Christology — “Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” (8:28). Jesus exercises authority over four different realms: nature, the unseen spiritual realm, disease, and death to reveal that he truly is the Son of God and Creator, the Light of the World, the Great Physician, and the Resurrection and the Life.