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DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

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Matt 8:28-34

28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29 "What do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?" 30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged Jesus, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs." 32 He said to them, "Go!" So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.

NIV

Our scholars of old had a heyday with this narrative, making the most out of the fact that Mark and Luke recorded it was one man who came out from the tombs while Matthew says two. In addition they were all involved with the idea that Jews were keeping forbidden animals, pigs were unclean. With many words, paragraphs filled with them, they expounded on these concepts. In addition the idea that Jesus destroyed personal property by sending the demons into the pigs and they ran over the cliff into the water and died. That would have been a violation of the law, which we know he never ever did. Yet there has to be some lesson in this narrative for our lives instead of just a history of what occurred. It would seem the reaction of the town’s people regarding this miracle has some meaning. First we are never told what happened to the demon possessed man or men. One or two matters not, although it just might have been one was far more demonstrative then the other and that is who Mark and Luke were referring to. He was the one who caught their attention. Nevertheless we do not know who they were. Could they have been prominent men in the town before being possessed by the demons? Could they have been mean landlords who dealt harshly with their tenants or merchants who used uneven scales? We just do not know, however the people were not happy about these demons being casts out of them and wanted Jesus to leave the area. Why did they plead Jesus to leave their area? What was going on they did not want Jesus to stay around? Seeing his power over the forces of evil might give us a clue. Perhaps the people were engaged in activities which they did not want to be either, healed, or cast out from doing. We know that Jesus is the Light of the world, but that men rather love the darkness. Evil does not want the presence of Jesus. This seems to be the only logical explanation to why they wanted him to leave. They were hiding in the darkness and did not want the light to shine into their lives. We know this is the case today for some people. But what about we believers, do we have some dark area within that we do not want Jesus to expose? Do we keep this one small area of our heart, our life locked away and ask him to leave that area alone? We know men look at us on the outside, they can only see what we allow them to see. That would be our personality. But God sees our heart, he sees our character. King David asked for God to search his heart to see if there was any iniquity within. This would indicate we might not know or be aware of that area within our being that is still lurking in the dark. In some cases we might well know and prefer to keep it in the dark. But in some cases we may not be aware and we need to seek God so he can reveal that area to us, to shine the light upon it. We know being indwelled by the Spirit we cannot have any evil spirit within, so there is no casting out needed, but some light would be helpful so we can be enlightened by it to our sin. Will this make us perfect, no, we will fail again, and again, unfortunately. But we will not be hiding something in the darkness. God does not force his way with us, it has to be on a voluntary basis. The people of that area were not willing to allow Jesus access to their lives, they pleaded with him to let them live without his intervention. So he left, as we will see in the rest of the story. We too can keep things from him. Although he knows our heart, it may be only that which we allow  him  access to that he can heal. We need that attitude of David, search me, O Lord, and see. We need to open every part of our being to him hiding nothing, keeping no area closed off to his forgiveness, his grace, his miraculous healing power and his authority.  We should be able to let Jesus simply see that area in our lives, if we have closed it off and he can tell it, “Go!” If we have already done all that, then we are good. But in case we might be missing something, unaware, unintentionally having some area that needs his light, then we need to ask him to search it out. Then he can tell it to go.