28 And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29 And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” 30 Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. 31 And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” 32 And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. 33 The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. Matthew 8: 28-34 ESV
Matthew 8: 28-34
To the country of the Gadarenes - This is the name of the area, the district extending to this eastern side of the Sea of Galilee. Mark calls the area the country of the Gerasenes, probably the modern town of Kursi, opposite of Tiberius. Matthew's gospel incorporates what was probably the main inland city, Gadara, and Mark and Luke name off suburbs on the lake.
Two demon-possessed men meet him - In the other gospels only the one, or dominant of the two is mentioned, the one who begs to follow afterwards. It says that they are coming out of the tombs, which would be an odd place for a Jew, since these sites and contact with the dead are deemed unclean. There is a lot of shear, rock face going down to the shore, and carved into the rocks are the hollows for the tombs.
1On the other side of the sea, they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes. 2As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, He was met by a man with an unclean spirit, who was coming from the tombs. 3This man had been living in the tombs and could no longer be restrained, even with chains.… Mark 5: 1-3
26Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, across the lake from Galilee. 27When Jesus stepped ashore, He was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothing or lived in a house, but he stayed in the tombs. 28When the man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before Him, shouting in a loud voice, “What do You want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You not to torture me!”… Luke 8: 26-28
So fierce that no one could pass that way - These are the scary people, the sociopaths, the Hannibal Lectors, but powerful as well, in Mark's gospel it says he couldn't be restrained with chains. They were also naked, and it is in Mark we also learn that they were given to screaming and cutting themselves. This is like the troll that lives under the bridge, and the disciples and everyone in that region has plenty of reason to turn around and walk away. I don't want to get into it with someone that breaks chains, and if a naked man is running towards me that is enough reason to go somewhere else or grab a spear. Now keep in mind, there were superstitious people in that time, people involved with the occult, but there were also among the Jews those that did not believe the spiritual existed. They didn't believe in angels, so they didn't believe in demons or demon possession, but here are these crazy nudist, and we can speculate all sorts of things about the condition, but between the three gospels I believe it answers any skeptics that were present. On their unusual strength:
In Mark 5, it says they tried to bind them with chains, and no matter how strong the chains were, they broke the chains. They had a tremendous amount of strength. I’ll never forget; the girl we were dealing with, with two fingers, flipped the steel desk right over in the office on top of one of the men there. Tremendous strength. - J Mac
O Son of God - They know Who Jesus is, and in Luke 8:28 he falls down before Him, a sign of worship, not because demons love Jesus, but because they know that there is coming a time when He will return to judge them. They bow as every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
…18But someone will say, “You have faith and I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. 19You believe that God is one. Good for you! Even the demons believe that— and shudder. 20O foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is worthless?… James 2: 18-20
To torment us before the time - The demons know better than the people around Jesus, Who He is, and they also have a better grasp on eschatology, much better than my Amillennial and Preterist friends.
If You cast us out - They know that He has the power to do this, and it seems quite likely that He will. Christ has shown His power over the results of sin, like disease, over the elements by calming the storm on the way here. He turned water into wine, and He knows the word of God like no one else. He has cast out demons before, but watch this.
Send us away into the herd of pigs - Well, pigs were unclean animals, so maybe the demons thought this wouldn't bother Jesus, since pork isn't Kosher, or maybe they thought this would get Jesus arrested, because of the aftermath, loss of property, but Jesus says, "Go", and just like the wind on the sea they obey Him. The herd rushed down into the sea after this, some 2,000 pigs, and they all drown. Now many are confounded at the loss of bacon, but look at this from the point of a Sadducee, the liberal Jews, who don't believe in all of this, what made the pigs go into the water? People can fake stuff like this on stage, casting out demons, someone writhing and talking funny, but He says, "Go", and now look at it cause and effect, had they ever seen anything like this?
30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. Luke 8: 30-33
10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. Mark 5: 10-13
Especially what had happened to the demon possessed men - The herders left and told the people in the town, and herders were usually not owners, but hired hands. So what happened to the men?
34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Luke 8: 34-36
This is the third part of this encounter with the spiritual. These were men that had long been known of, wandering about the tombs, unclean men, crazy. Jesus had a conversation with the head demon in them, when He told them to go into the pigs where they asked to go, this was evidenced by the pigs running off a cliff. Now, the naked are clothed and sitting in their right minds, learning at the feet of Jesus. These men were changed. Jesus is demonstrating His power over darkness, and the existence of the spiritual. You don't see the wind, but you don't deny it based on that, because you can see what it does, you can feel it. I have never physically seen a molecule, it's too small for my physical, naked eyes, or a virus, yet I have seen a virus and bacteria with the aid of a microscope. It spoke and said it's name was legion, meaning many, that was the first indicator, but that could be faked. Legion killed 2,000 pigs, seemingly of their own volition, running off a cliff, hard to stage. These men were as those that are born again, come back from the dead, people try to fake this, but they had been this way for some time, so why clean up now, and how?
When they saw Him, they begged Him to leave their region - I don't think they could deny what they saw, and I believe they understood what the herders told them. It doesn't say they were mad about the loss of the pigs, but Luke 8:37 says, "they were seized with great fear". This is coming into the presence of holiness, this is a display of power against the things that they feared, this is otherliness, and He does it with a word. He just removed their ability to see the demon possessed men as so different from themselves, as beneath themselves. The Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world have collided, and the demoniacs are now as calm as the sea. This overturns everything, and they are use to walking in darkness, so they want to return to where they felt safe. The disciple Peter has a similar moment.
…7So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. 8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees. “Go away from me, Lord,” he said, “for I am a sinful man.” 9For he and his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,… Luke 5: 7-9
By the way, this is the first recorded instance of open opposition to the Messiah. And it all just mounts from here on. He exposed them. They despised Him. He was getter than they, greater than they, purer than they, more powerful than they, more holy than they. And they resented that. And they felt dirty and inadequate in His presence because He was so holy. And they felt impotent.
In a simplistic human sense, R. C. Sproul makes an interesting comparison in this kind of thinking. He says, “It’s like the book The Peter Principle.” You remember the book The Peter Principle? It says that in industry, basically everyone reaches the level of their incompetence. In other words, you do good at level A, so they promote you to B. And you do good at B, so they promote you to C. And pretty soon you’re at the level where you can’t function at all. And so, everybody just rises to the level of incompetence so that basically all industry and all hierarchies are run by a bunch of incompetent people.
But he also illustrates in that same book another dimension. He talks about the people who are incompetent. And he says, “There are some people who are just incompetent. They don’t rise to the level of incompetence because they’re incompetent to start with.” And he says, “They just fit into organizations, and they last a long time because they threaten nobody. They’re just basically incompetent anyway.” So – “And the first principle,” he says, “of the hierarchy is the hierarchy must stand. And if everybody in the hierarchy says, ‘The hierarchy must stand,’ then it’s wonderful to have incompetence because it’s not threat to the hierarchy. But then,” he says, “you get the guy who is the super competent guy. The guy who’s super competent nobody likes because everybody’s threatened. And he can’t rise in industry management because he threatens everybody above him. The only way he ever rises is laterally. He has to go from one organization to another because he can’t rise in his own organization because he’s a threat to everybody.” People don’t like super competence.
Like the kid who – you know, when everybody in the class got 32 and below, and one little girl got 100. And you knew the test was fair; you were all just dumb. She messed up the curve, and you resented it. Well, if you want to put it that way, Jesus ruined the curve. They couldn’t tolerate Jesus because of His perfection. They couldn’t tolerate Him because of His absolute holiness. He was so far beyond them that He unmasked them, that He showed the stupidity of their own lives. That’s why they had to kill Him.
And here it all just begins to build. They saw Him. They saw the power. They were absolutely panicked in awe of God. And instead of falling at His feet in worship, they said, “Get out; go away; we don’t want you.” - J Mac on Matthew 8
