Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear Luke 8: 37
This verse forms a small but significant part of the account of the amazing and powerful transformation of a man who was, for many years, possessed by destructive and malignant spirits and how the community responded to Jesus. Luke tells us that the citizens in the surrounding towns heard about the amazing case of 2000 pigs committing mass suicide and that the man who was so demonically controlled that he had superhuman strength, spoke in strange voices, and seemed to personify evil was now in his right mind. They rushed to the scene, confirmed the report and urged Jesus to leave.
It was not a small group or a delegation that went out the “to meet Jesus” (Matt. 8:34) but the whole town. They went to see the Saviour not the swine or the saved. However, when they saw that he had been saved, recognized that they had lost their swine the unanimous verdict was that the Saviour must leave town. I am amazed! Instead of celebrating the man’s deliverance and salvation and inviting Jesus to stay a little longer and help to clean up all the problems and unacceptable situations in their communities they told Jesus to leave their community. They did not want Jesus around them. Why were they so bent on getting Jesus to go away? Luke said they were afraid.
They were afraid due to the miraculous drowning of the swine and the miraculous change in “Legion,” the delivered demoniac. From their actions and words it is reasonable to conclude that they would rather have had Legion as he was, dangerous, destructive, and uncontrollable, than to be whole, healed, clothed, and a constructive member of society. These people cared more for swine than for a man’s soul.
The famous 20th Century British Philosopher Sir Bertrand Russell in a lecture at Battersea Town Hall on Sunday March 6, 1927, under the auspices of the South London Branch of the National Secular Society entitled “Why I am not a Christian” said Jesus was wrong to put the devils into the pigs and make them rush down the hill to the sea.
William Arthur Dunkerley (Nov. 12, 1852 – Jan. 23, 1941) who often wrote as John Oxenham has put it nicely when he wrote:
GADARA,
Rabbi, begone! Thy powers
Bring loss to us and ours.
Our ways are not as Thine.
Thou lovest men, we–swine.
Oh, get you hence, Omnipotence,
And take this fool of Thine!
His soul? What care we for his soul?
What good to us that Thou hast made him whole,
Since we have lost our swine?
And Christ went sadly.
He had wrought for them a sign
Of Love, and Hope, and Tenderness divine;
They wanted–swine.
Christ stands without _your_ door and gently knocks;
But if your gold, or swine, the entrance blocks,
He forces no man’s hold–he will depart,
And leave you to the treasures of your heart.
Seeking the grace to value the souls ... I receive and value this meds, Rev. Pres.
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