1 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. 2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an evil spirit came from the tombs to meet him. 3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
6 When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. 7 He shouted at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!" 8 For Jesus had said to him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"
9 Then Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"
"My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many." 10 And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. 12 The demons begged Jesus, "Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them." 13 He gave them permission, and the evil spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.
In our amazingly powerful verses today, we discover Jesus and His guy’s heading for a region on the lake’s eastern shore inhabited primarily by Gentiles. To be sure, Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost – He still does. It was at this place darkest evil - embodied in flesh and residing among the dead in cave like tombs cut into the rocks - approaches the Lord Jesus just as the Master was disembarking His boat. Driven by demons to abide in a desolate and defiled by death area, this plagued person was kept in his own horrific prison type experience - demonic possession being the worst form of human suffering produced by Satan’s agency. This poor oppressed soul could not be subdued even by fetters for his feet or by chains for his hands. He was as an untamed wild animal – both night and day shrieking wildly in an inhuman howl and cutting himself with sharp stones. The devil is a cruel master indeed.
“What is man, when reason is dethroned and Satan enthroned?” Matthew Henry
“No one overcomes the corruptions of his heart except by the enabling strength of the Spirit of God.” Jerry Bridges
His pathetic condition demonstrated this was not a mere sickness or insanity rather a desperate satanic attempt to destroy and distort one made in God’s own image. Praise God, Jesus is the One who saves the living from among the dead as we are about to discover. Jesus tells us in Matthew:
31 “But about the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, 32 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.” Matt 22:31-32 (NIV)
Seeing Jesus from a distance the demoniac runs and falls on his knees in front of Him – not out of worship rather homage. The demons were fully aware of Who Jesus was. Using the fleshly vessel vocal chords of the man they were housed in to scream at the top of his voice, they shout out: "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't torture me!" By this statement the indwelling demons thus indicate they were fully aware of our Lord’s divine origin and superior power. Jesus had already demanded the demon to depart his host. After his outburst our Lord immediately asks him his name and he responds “Legion” for there were many indwelling this pathetic creature – a myriad of evil powers controlling this host subjecting him to intense oppression. “Legion” was a commonly known term in Palestine denoting a regiment of about six thousand soldiers – suggesting this man was under the power of great strength and oppression.
Desirous to remain hosted in this desolate area these demons begged Jesus over and over to allow them to stay. Jesus has official right and power – all authority in heaven and on earth given to Him. These demons were fully aware of His power over them. We are not matches in our own strength against these powers of darkness but in the Lord and in His power and might we are able to stand against them. Remember His departing Words to His disciples in the Great Commission:
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matt 28:18-20 (NIV)
Not wanting to be left without a host and in a desperate attempt to avoid being consigned to a disembodied state until the final judgment they beg Jesus to allow them to enter into a herd of pigs feeding on the nearby hillside. Those like the pigs who wallow in the mire of worldly lusts are fit inhabitants for Satan’s minions. Jesus gave them permission and the immediate destruction of the pigs ensued - all two thousand rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
“It is His love for man, His compassion for the human race, that prompts God to hate sin with such a vengeance. He gave Heaven’s finest that we might have the best; and He loathes with a holy abhorrence anything that would hinder our being reconciled to Him.” Billy Graham