The person of Jesus is at the core of the next episode of his healing miracles. The demons immediately understand the true identity of Jesus and address him as the Son of God.
When he came to the other side, to the region of the Gadarenes, two men possessed by demons came out of the tombs and met him. They were so fierce that no one could pass that way.
Suddenly they shouted, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8.28-29).
As Matthew narrates the story of Jesus, there are several instances in his gospel where people discover Jesus’ true nature – that he is the Son of God.
After seeing Jesus walk on water his disciples worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33).
At the Transfiguration, God the Father declared, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (Matthew 17.5).
The Roman centurion who witnessed the crucifixion confessed, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” (Matthew 27.54).
C. S. Lewis has a famous quote about the ramifications of our belief about Jesus’ true nature. I have quoted Lewis in full because his words are crucial to understanding our relationship to him.
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say.
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.
“He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice.
“Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.
“He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to” (C. S. Lewis, “Mere Christianity).
The demons knew the reality of Jesus’s nature. They recognize that, at the end of time, they will experience God’s judgment and the end of their power. They believed Jesus had arrived too early and threatened their realm prematurely.
The demons knew that their rule over these two men was over, and they asked Jesus to send them into a herd of pigs. The question is: why did they ask Jesus to do that, and why did Jesus agree with their request?
Now a large herd of swine was feeding at some distance from them. The demons begged him, “If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.”
And he said to them, “Go!” So they came out and entered the swine, and suddenly, the whole herd stampeded down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the water (Matthew 8.30-32).
Apparently, demons prefer to exist in a body, even the body of a pig. That was behind their request.
Jesus’ willingness to agree with their request probably came from his desire to teach. His teaching makes the point that not even unclean pigs were prepared to contain the demons. The demons end up destroying the pigs.
When tempted to indulge in evil, we must realize that even pigs understand the nature of evil and react with revulsion toward it. This should give us pause when tempted to turn our backs on God’s guidance.
Jesus set two men, who had been plagued by demons, free with one two-letter word. All he said to the demons was, “Go.”
I have been present during one very significant time of deliverance. The minister who served the person in question told the demons very simply and quietly, “You are no longer needed here. In the name of Jesus, you must go.”
The authority of Jesus is more powerful than that of the demons, and when we are in alignment with God’s will, His power is released, and the demons must flee.
A Sad Response
There are a couple of very sad points to the ending of this episode in Jesus’ ministry.
Instead of rejoicing that two men who had been plagued with demons were healed, the swine herders ran into town and the whole city came and asked Jesus to leave.
The swineherds ran off, and, going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the men possessed by demons.
Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their region (Matthew 8.33-34).
The Gospel tells us that Jesus was rejected by this community, though the exact reasons remain unclear. Fear may have been a factor.
In our current age, many people suffer. Society often prioritizes profits and maintaining the existing social order over helping those who are hurting.
However, Jesus’ message of compassion and healing is a powerful force for good in our world when we embrace it.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 