Jesus Sends Demons into Herd of Pigs

Take Every Passage to Prayer - Volume 2, The Gospels
^{Monday July 15, 2024}

Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39

Father, I don’t think believers fully understand the heart of rebellion. It is strong. It is determined. It is persistent. It is focused. Though You may do a good work in the life of someone who is rebelling from You, they will refuse to yield. They will refuse to surrender their hearts to You. They will refuse to be grateful. Just like the people of the Gadarenes, they will tell You to go away. Father, if I have told You to go away, I change my mind. Come back, Lord Jesus! Come and dwell with me! Teach me! Mold me! Use me! Do good works in my life. Exorcise the sinful nature out of my life. Purify me so that I may be empowered to share my testimony of transformation with the lost in my community. Amen.

Father, while the disciples were marveling at how Jesus had just calmed the storm they had encountered crossing the Sea of Galilee, two demon-possessed men approached Jesus as they disembarked from their boats in the region of the Gadarenes. One of these men became the focus of this passage.

The man was possessed by a multitude of demons. The text tells us that:

1. The man was so possessed that he lost his natural instinct for modesty. The text tells us that he did not wear clothes.
2. The demons caused the man to be extraordinarily violent, so much so that the people of the region stayed far away from him. To be described as violent, the man must have had a history of destroying property and/or injuring people.
3. Therefore, the man was banished from living in the community. He had no place to stay in the town. He made his solitary home in the cemetery, enveloped by the culture of death.
4. The demons gave this man incredible strength, so much so that no known means of hand or foot restraint worked on him. He had broken free of every iron chain that he had been bound with.
5. His demon possession was not continuous. There were times when the demons left him. However, they would always return to him.
6. In those moments when the man was not possessed, and was approachable, people could see that he had been cutting himself with stones.
7. When he was possessed, the people of the town would hear him crying out from the nearby cemetery. It must have been an eerie sound at night that sent chills down the spines of the people.

Father, I confess that I’ve often read this passage without thinking that these demons were at war with You. They weren’t possessing this man because it was something to do on a Saturday night. They possessed the man with intent, mocking that this man was created in Your image. Instead of him being a man of God walking with You, he was a naked man who was insane. Who would believe that humans are made in the image of God when such a man exemplifies madness?

There can be no doubt that the demon possession of this man served a strategic purpose of some kind for the demons. His possession was of such high priority that thousands of demons possessed him. The demons intended for the entire region to be seeded with weeds before Jesus would come into the area and sow the seeds of the gospel. The people were caught up in the cult of demonic possession.

The text tells us that the man approached Jesus as Jesus and His disciples disembarked from the boats. While I cannot determine with certainty who decided to approach Jesus, the possessed man wanting to be healed or the demons wanting to gain the upper hand over Jesus, the text seems to suggest the demons were causing this man to approach Jesus.

The demons wanted to prevent Jesus from coming ashore and seeding the gospel in the Gadarenes. Their first shot in the battle was to shout, for all the people to hear:

“What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God (NIV)?”

This is not an act of reverence. It appears to be an act of mockery and sarcasm:

1. We have already discussed in this study of the gospels that Jesus has often told demons to be silent whenever they reveal who He really is. While I cannot understand it with certainty, the act of the demons describing Jesus’ deity was somehow detrimental to the effectiveness of Jesus’ message. I theorize that the more the people believed Jesus to be God, the less likely they would crucify Him on the cross and, therefore, the human race would not be saved from sin.
2. The demons shouted this message. They were bold and confident.
3. The demons described themselves as “Legion.” In other words, “You’ve got Your hands full with us, Jesus! There are thousands of us You have to deal with.”
4. They accused Jesus of doing wrong – there is an appointed time for their judgement (Judgement Day) and now is not the time. “You can’t touch us.”
5. They begged Jesus not to send them out of the area. Their work of leading the people to rebel from God wasn’t done in the Gadarenes or in the Decapolis.

Jesus commanded the demons to come out of the man. Where could they go without going directly to hell? They asked to be sent into a herd of pigs that was on a nearby hillside. Jesus gave the demons permission to leave the man and possess the nearby pigs. As soon as the demons entered into the pigs, the pigs ran down a steep embankment and into the Sea of Galilee where they drowned. Demonic-possession kills, such as it did to the herd of pigs.
Those who took care of the pigs quickly ran to the authorities to tell them what happened. They didn’t want to be blamed for the sudden loss of 2,000 pigs. This led many from the community to come to the scene to see what had happened. Upon arrival, they saw thousands of dead pigs floating in the water, caught up in the current which most likely flowed south towards the Jordan River. They also saw this man dressed, sitting calmly, and at peace.

What would make a happy ending to this story? How would the sitcom writers end this story?

“The people were happy for this man, that his long battle with demon possession had ended. They lifted him up and carried him back to town to enjoy a feast with everyone holding hands and singing.”

The text tells us a far different ending. The people, who had been under demonic influence for a long time, pleaded with Jesus to leave the region.

Why would the people plead for Jesus to leave the region? I believe there are a number of explanations.

1. Two thousand pig carcasses in the Sea of Galilee. That’s a lot of investment money lost. That’s a lot of meals lost. That’s a lot of work to retrieve from the water and to properly dispose of the carcasses. The pigs running into the sea has brought devastation to this community. Who do they blame? They didn’t blame the demons that inhabited the pigs. They blamed Jesus. What other damage would He do if He remained in the community? He has come into the community like a bull in a china department, knocking everything over and destroying things. “Go away, Jesus, before You break anything else!”
2. They were a people terrified of demonic possession. There was a relief that thousands of demons were preoccupied with this man. That meant the rest of the people would be left alone. “Better him suffer than all of us.” The people feared that Jesus had just unleashed thousands of demons upon the land.
3. They were a godless and heartless people who had no love for their neighbor. They felt no compassion or empathy for him. They didn’t have the frame of mind to celebrate his deliverance with him.
4. They were frightened by the raw display of Jesus’ mighty power.
   
1. Nobody had been able to heal this man. No magician. No warden. No medical doctor. No psychiatrist, so to speak. Along comes this stranger who completely transforms this man in the blink of an eye. Who else has the power to do this but God Himself?
2. Who else has the power to send 2,000 pigs down a cliff and into the water but God Himself?
3. Who else has the power to instantaneously calm a storm but God Himself?

The people thought that this frighteningly powerful Jesus would have His way with them if He stayed in the region. They knew what Jesus stood for – confession, repentance, and surrender to God. No thank you! They weren’t interested in the Kingdom of God. They loved their rebellion from God (demonic influence) and had no intention of surrendering to Jesus. They soundly rejected all that Jesus stood for.

Father, I believe the response to Jesus by the people of the Gadarenes is symbolic of how billions of people throughout history have responded to the gospel:

1. They rejected having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. They don’t want to know Him, talk with Him, walk with Him, or listen to Him. They don’t want to live with Him.
2. They would prefer to dwell in a land infiltrated by the demonic. Quite frankly, no one is sent to hell who doesn’t want to go there. Those who are sent to hell always make the choice to go there by their deliberate and intentional rejection of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. Jesus, by getting back into His boat to leave, gives the people exactly what they wanted – a land where He is absent, with waters defiled by thousands of rotting carcasses, where His ministry of love and healing is not present , and where demons are in control. The Gadarenes is symbolic of hell.

Putting myself in the man’s shoes for a moment, I’m feeling two strong emotions as Jesus is about to leave by boat:

1. Gratefulness. I am so grateful for being freed from demonic possession, that I want to be with Jesus 24/7. Father, the heart that is profoundly grateful for receiving mercy and grace from You longs to be with You every second throughout the rest of eternity.
2. Fear. This man is now the only righteous man (cleansed of demonic possession) in the Gadarenes. His role has now been completely reversed. Whereas before he was the most demon possessed man in the community, he is now the least demon possessed man in the community. Before the people were afraid of him because he was more evil than everyone else. Now he is afraid of the people because he is more righteous than everyone else. The Man who healed him is hated by the people. The exorcised man most certainly faces the prospect of persecution if he remains in the Gadarenes.

Therefore, the text records that this man begged to get into the boat with Jesus.

However, Jesus did not grant his request. Instead, Jesus told him to witness among the very people that he fears. He is to share his testimony with them, focusing specifically on the mercy and goodness that he received from You.

That sitcom?

There was a happy ending to this story. The man obeyed Jesus and began to share his testimony all over the Decapolis. The text tells us that “all” the people were amazed. Amen.