Devils Into Swine - Matt 8:28-34; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39

The storm on the sea of Galilee calms and Jesus and his disciples land on the other side of the sea. The precise location is disputed but all writers agree that it was a rural area inhabited by gentiles. We can deduce this fact because there was a herd of 2,000 pigs being tended to by people, and because Jews are forbidden to eat pork, then we can assume that these people are gentiles. As soon as they land, one or two men appeared, depending on the account, but one was obviously more distressed than the other. This man was possessed “with an unclean spirit.” His existence had deteriorated to the point that he “had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.” It’s interesting because this unclean spirit wanted a body so badly, that he possessed this man, but he didn’t take care of the man’s body, even though it was a great gift for the spirit. The evil spirit tried to destroy the man’s body even though that would mean that the spirit wouldn’t have a body anymore either. This demonstrates that Satan and his minions only want to destroy regardless of whether or not it will hurt even themselves. It also makes me wonder what is the difference between us and them? When we were born and got a body and we were babies. We learned how to control our bodies and make them work, but when we felt pain we would move away from that pain, but clearly this spirit either didn’t feel the pain, or liked it. It makes me wonder what the difference is, why they can’t possess a body and become a functioning member of society, but we can. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as giving several lessons that can be learned from this narrative, saying, “(1) that evil spirits, actual beings from Lucifer’s realm, gain literal entrance into mortal bodies; (2) That they have such power over those bodies as to control the physical acts performed…; (3) That persons possessed by evil spirits are subjected to the severest mental and physical sufferings and to the basest sort of degradation- all symbolical of the eternal torment to be imposed upon those who fall under Satan’s control in the world to come.”

Jesus immediately recognizes what’s going on and commands the unclean spirit to come out of the man. The man falls at Jesus’ feet and worships him “and, behold, they cried out, saying, what have we to do with thee, Jesus thou Son of God? Art though come hither to torment us before the time?” This is a very loaded statement that teaches many lessons. First, we learn that these demons recognize Jesus from the pre-existence. They know who he is and what position he holds, and they know that they must obey him. I bet they could have stood in defiance instead of falling down and worshipping Him, but they did and the wording holds a bitter tone, but behind all bitterness is a longing. They accuse him of tormenting them, and that must have hurt Jesus’ feelings because he wanted to save them, he did everything that he could to keep them from making the choice to follow Satan. The second point here is the “before the time” statement which implies that there will be a time in which the devil’s angels will be tormented, and they know it. JTC comments, “The demons, by whom the man was possessed and controlled, recognized the Master, whom they knew they had to obey; but they pleased to be left alone until the decreed time of their final punishment would come.” JTC cross-references this statement with Revelation 20:3 which says, “And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shit him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.” Satan and his evil spirit army knows what’s coming for them, they know that they are not going to be exalted but only torment and suffering waits for them. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland made a comment once saying, “The future of this world has long been declared; the final outcome between good and evil is already known. There is absolutely no question as to who wins because the victory has already been posted on the scoreboard. The only really strange thing is all of this is that we are still down here on the field trying to decide which team’s jersey we want to wear!” When I heard this I thought, “Sure God knows and says it, but Satan surely still must think that there’s a chance that he might win.” But after reading this verse, we can be sure that both Satan and his followers know that their time on this earth is limited, they know what’s waiting for them, they know that the only power they have or ever will have is what they can convince us of here and now. The final score is posted and both the good and the evil sides acknowledge outcome, we are the only ones who don’t.

The evil spirits recognize Jesus, and even though I don’t think he knows who they are specifically, I do think that he recognizes them as his spiritual brothers and that his heart aches to know that they are suffering their consequences. Jesus mourns anyone’s pain, and that includes the pain of those evil spirits who followed Satan. Maybe he wants to reconnect with them spiritually, “and he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, my name is Legion: for we are many.” The evil spirit must have recognized Jesus’ inner feelings for them and decided to make a power play. A ‘Legion’ is an group of 3,000 to 6,000 Roman soldiers and I would imagine that anyone with a knowledge of what a legion is, would conjure up fear of the Romans and fear out of the sheer number of them. It was probably the most fear-invoking entity that the spirit could think of, so he used that to try and intimidate Jesus and anyone else around. The spirit continues, “Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.” These spirits were do desperate for a body that they would rather have possessed the bodies of pigs than to go back to having nothing. Jesus must have felt sorry for them, he must have had compassion on them because he granted them permission to go into the bodies of these pigs. But the desire for destruction was again so great that “the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the heard ran violently down a steep place into the sea… and were choked in the sea.” The irony here is that they wanted bodies so badly, but if they had simply stayed put and gone about the business of being pigs, they could have kept the bodies so much longer. But because they ran them into the sea and drowned they were able to have the bodies of the pigs for a fraction of the amount of time they could have. The IM continues to quote Elder McConkie as saying, “(5) That the desire to gain bodies is so great among Lucifer’s minions as to cause them, not only to steal the mortal tabernacles of men, but to enter the bodies of animals. (6) That the devils know their eventual destiny is to be cast out into an eternal hell from whence there is no return.”

The people came out of the city to see what was going on and saw Jesus standing with this guy who they knew to be frickin nuts, who was now “in his right mind” and 2,000 dead pigs in the water. That would be a very intimidating scene to walk up on, “and they were afraid… and they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.” I never could imagine why people would ever ask Jesus to leave them, but they were familiar with Judaism, they didn’t know that he was the Messiah, or even that they should have been looking for one. To come upon that scene would have caused fear, especially for a group of people who didn’t have any context as to what happened. Elder McConkie notes, “(7) That rebellious and worldly people are not converted to the truth by observing miracles.” Jesus does what we ask and went back to the ship to leave and go back across the sea. The man who had been healed recognized Jesus’ power and went to Jesus asking if he could come with him. Jesus answered, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.” Jesus wants people to know that he is compassionate, out of all the things we know about him, is that at the top? The IM says, “In many instances, the Savior commanded a person whom He had healed not to spread new of the miracle. After casting out the legion of devils, the Savior did just the opposite and told the man, ‘Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee.’ Perhaps this was because the miracle occurred in the Gentile region of Decapolis, away from the influence of Jewish leaders.” This might have also been a way of Jesus preparing this area to be opened up for the preaching of the gospel by the Apostles after he died. These people have no idea what Jesus is about or what he’s trying to do, but after this miracle, the man can spend several years telling the people that he had been healed by a man and the people could develop a desire to know this man, then when a missionary shows up, they are more aware and ready to receive the gospel.