Mark 5:1-31

THE TIME of the voyage across the lake is fixed by the account before us. It was the evening of the day (Mark 4:35) when the discourse in parables had been uttered. The other accounts (Matthew 8:18; Luke 8:22) can readily be harmonized on this view. The conversations with some who would follow Him (Matthew 8:19-22) seems to have taken place just before He crossed the sea. It had been a busy day; our Lord had first healed a demoniac (Matthew 12:22), then encountered the accusation of His family (Mark 3:20-21); afterwards the accusation of the Pharisees (chap. Mark 3:22-30; more fully in Matthew 12:24-45), when His mother and brethren sought Him (chap. Mark 3:31-35; Matthew 12:46-50); then after some discourses narrated by Luke only (chap. Luke 10:37 to Luke 12:59), departing to the sea-side had given the long discourse, parts of which are recorded in Mark 4 and Matthew 13, then encountered halfhearted followers (Matthew 8:19-22), and in the evening crossed the lake. After such exhausting labors, it is not strange that He fell asleep, even amid the storm. Mark's account is vivid, and in most respects more minute than that of Matthew, giving particulars omitted by both the other Evangelists.