What does Luke 8:40 mean?

Jesus' goal for His ministry in Galilee is to preach (Mark 1:38). He performs miracles of healing and provision to validate that His words come from God and because He has compassion for abandoned and abused people. Miracles are not His primary ministry, but they are what He is known for.

In Galilee, especially on the shores of the sea, people often swarm Jesus. The crowds are so much that to teach, He must get into a boat and float away from the crowd (Mark 4:1). After one such exhausting time of teaching, He told the disciples to set sail to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He got a nap in a violent storm, which He calmed, on the way and then healed a demon-possessed man on shore before yet another crowd arrived—this time to ask Him to leave (Luke 8:22–39). Jesus got back in the boat to return to Galilee. This verse (Luke 8:40) describes His arrival there.

It seems that some in the crowd He'd previously left in Galilee had tried to follow (Mark 4:36). They might have turned back in the storm. Now, when Jesus lands back in Galilee, He's quickly enveloped by a crowd that had been awaiting His arrival. They are quite eager, even aggressive. "Pressed around" in Luke 8:42 is Greek for "choked," vaguely echoing the thorns that choked the seeds in an earlier parable (Luke 8:14).