Matthew 8:28-34
They landed in the country of the Gadarenes and were met by two madmen, victims of demons, coming out of the cemetery. The men had terrorized the region for so long that no one considered it safe to walk down that stretch of road anymore. Seeing Jesus, the madmen screamed out, “What business do you have giving us a hard time? You’re the Son of God! You weren’t supposed to show up here yet!” Off in the distance a herd of pigs was browsing and rooting. The evil spirits begged Jesus, “If you kick us out of these men, let us live in the pigs.”
Jesus said, “Go ahead, but get out of here!” Crazed, the pigs stampeded over a cliff into the sea and drowned. Scared to death, the swineherds bolted. They told everyone back in town what had happened to the madmen and the pigs. Those who heard about it were angry about the drowned pigs. A mob formed and demanded that Jesus get out and not come back.
January 19th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
For some reason (the mood I’m in?) I couldn’t help seeing a humorous side to this. Wonder if this is where the saying “Yer can’t do right fer doin’ wrong” came from? You can imagine it can’t you….. the first ever NIMBY’S!! “He can go and do his miracles somewhere ELSE, look at the effect it’s gonna have around here …. we’ve already lost some pigs ….. let’s get a petition up against it!”
Seriously though, whatever reasons we give to excuse or explain bad behaviour today ….. this reminds us that the root of it will always boil down to some sort of evil…. whether that’s something passed down from past generations, or learned behaviour from a peer group. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong ….. we are to hate it. But love the perpetrator … the sinner….. just as Jesus did - and help them if you can - out of that behaviour and into the light. Jesus loved the “madmen” enough to cast the demons out of them despite the fact that they had terrorized the neighbourhood. Shame that, although this was loving the community enough to rid them of that terror, all they could do was whinge about the pigs… That’s me sometimes …. instead of thanking the Lord for my blessings, I whinge about the pigs in my life…..
January 19th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
that’s exactly the aspect of the story that struck me - tho not quite so eloquently!
I wonder how the townspeople treated the guys who had been delivered of the demons? Whether they welcomed them back into society or continued to ostracise them?
January 21st, 2007 at 4:18 pm
“A mob formed and demanded that Jesus get out and not come back.”
I had very similar thoughts as Pam and Alison about this passage.
A great act of power had just happened - these men had been “terrorising the region” and yet rather than embracing Jesus the townspeople wanted him to go away. Did the people of the territory of the Gadarenes realise who they had turned away? Do we?