Author: Rod Reasen II
I grew up in an average American household. My dad chugged along as a machine repairman at the local factory, and my mom, raised in foster care, carried a tenacious spirit that kept her striving to give us the best she could. I would never have called us poor, though the kids at school did plenty of that reminding. We lived well enough, and when you are young, you don’t know what you don’t know.
One summer, we drove out to the Grant County fair for the rides, the tractor pull, and the fair food. Somewhere in the crowd, a man shouted “Hot Rod!” at my dad. It startled me. Then another voice did it, and another, all night, everywhere we went, men calling out to him like he was somebody. On the drive home, I could not shake the feeling that my dad was the mayor of the whole town. His influence ran further than my small world had ever let me see.
That is where the disciples were standing in today’s passage. For eight chapters, they had watched a King whose authority kept reaching further than they could grasp. Matthew put that authority on record in Jesus’ own words through the Sermon on the Mount, and then he put it to the test. A leper cleansed with a single touch. A centurion’s servant healed from a distance with one command. A fever broken in Peter’s mother-in-law the moment He took her hand. A storm silenced when He rebuked the wind and the sea. The jurisdiction widened with every scene. Now He crosses the water to prove it reaches into the one realm every one of us most needs to know He commands. He has authority over the demonic.
“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. 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?’ Now, a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, saying, ‘If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.’ 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. The herdsmen fled, and going into the city, they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 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)
This same miracle appears in Mark 5:1-20 and Luke 8:26-39. The accounts read much alike, though Matthew records two men, whereas Mark and Luke follow just one, the man whose story we will pick up when we reach those fuller accounts.
The country of the Gadarenes sat inside the Decapolis, a loose federation of ten Greek cities east and southeast of the Sea of Galilee. This was Gentile ground. Greek language, pagan temples, Roman garrisons, and the empire’s frontier facing the desert. Every populous, welcoming, Jewish town sat back on the far shore, and Jesus sailed past all of them to land here. When the King steps off the boat onto this ground, He stands in the heart of Gentile paganism, and the reach of the gospel to the nations is already being written into the geography.
Watch what happens the moment He arrives. The powers that had held these two men in a bondage no chain could break, that had made the road past the tombs impossible to walk, are reduced to begging. They no longer command. They no longer negotiate as equals. They petition the One they cannot resist. In the presence of the King, the strongest force in that country becomes a supplicant asking permission.
There are three truths here to carry with you today.
First, the demons understood authority and bent to it at once. They had shown no mercy to the men they occupied, yet the moment Jesus drew near, they were the ones trembling. Charles Spurgeon said it as plainly as it can be said: “You are often afraid of Satan, but he is never afraid of you. If you turn your back in the day of battle, it is not likely that he will turn his.” The enemy knows exactly who Jesus is, and he bows without argument. The question is whether you will. How do you respond to the name of Jesus? Do you honor His authority, or hold it at a distance?
Second, their theology was sound, and their future was settled. They knew their fallen state. They knew the rightful King in front of them. They knew a day of torment had been fixed for them. You hear it in their question, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” They were not asking whether judgment was coming. They were asking whether it had come early. The demons believed the verdict, dreaded the sentence, and knew the Judge on sight. Their dread presses a simpler question on you. Are you ready for the day they were counting on being far off?
Lastly, watch the crowd. “And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.” Two men, no chain could hold, were sitting free, and the city’s concern was the herd of pigs floating in the water. The profit was too big for them to see the miracle in front of their faces. They weighed the Deliverer against the drowned swine and asked Him to leave. J.C. Ryle saw them clearly: “They cared for nothing but that their swine were drowned… they only wished to be rid of Him. There are only too many like these Gergesenes.” We hold thousands of years of fulfilled prophecy, an archaeological record that keeps confirming the Book, and more evidence of Jesus’ power than any generation before us. Yet many still call Him mysterious, a prophet, even Lord, and never surrender.
When we reach the fuller accounts in Mark and Luke, we will follow what became of the man He set free. For today, the question lands in your hands. The demons obeyed Him on sight. The city asked Him to leave. One of those two responses will be yours.
What will you do with this Jesus?
How will you respond to Him?
Stay on Mission
FAQ’s
They were two men living among the tombs on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, in Gentile territory, so violent that no one could pass that way. Matthew records both of them. Mark and Luke follow just one of the two, the man who was later found clothed and in his right mind and sent home to tell what the Lord had done for him.
That His authority is total and immediate. The demons recognized Him as the Son of God on sight, they knew a day of judgment had already been fixed for them, and they could not so much as enter a herd of pigs without His permission. He freed both men with a single word. The strongest force in that region did not fight Him. It begged.
The demons themselves begged to be sent into the herd rather than cast out, and Jesus permitted it with one word. The result made the deliverance visible and undeniable. Whatever had held the two men was now gone, gone into a herd that destroyed itself in the water, proving the men were completely free. The presence of the pigs also marks the ground as Gentile, since Jewish law counted swine unclean.
It lay on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, inside the Decapolis, a federation of ten Greek cities under Roman oversight. Gadara was the leading city of the district, and its ruins sit today at Umm Qais in northern Jordan. The traditional site of the miracle is Kursi on the northeastern shore, the one place with a steep bank running down into the water.
There is no contradiction. Matthew reports both sufferers, which fits his pattern of noting two figures elsewhere in his Gospel. Mark and Luke follow the one man who became the story, the man who begged to follow Jesus and was sent instead to proclaim Him throughout the Decapolis. Together the three accounts complete one another.
That the enemy is real, organized, and powerful, and also completely outmatched. Charles Spurgeon put it plainly that the believer is often afraid of Satan, but Satan is never afraid of the believer. A leader is called to know the opposition without fearing it, because the same King who commanded a legion with one word now lives in every believer. Study the enemy. Do not worship him.
That Jesus holds absolute authority over the demonic, and that authority demands a response. The demons obeyed Him on sight. The townspeople valued their drowned pigs over the Deliverer standing in front of them and asked Him to leave. Every reader lands in one of those two responses. The question the passage presses is what you will do with this Jesus.
Footnotes
[1] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles). The passage quoted here is Matthew 8:28-34.
[2] Gadara was one of the ten cities of the Decapolis named by Pliny the Elder, Natural History 5.74, and its territory reached the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, as noted by Josephus, Life 42. The city’s ruins lie today at Umm Qais in northern Jordan, and the traditional site of the miracle is Kursi, ancient Gergesa, on the northeastern shore, the one location with a steep bank descending to the water.
[3] Charles H. Spurgeon, “Satan, Self, Sin and the Savior,” sermon no. 3306, preached at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, April 19, 1866, in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 58 (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1912). Public domain.
[4] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: St. Matthew (London: William Hunt, 1856), on Matthew 8:28-34. Public domain.
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