Seeking material prosperity at the expense of true life, these men implore Jesus to leave (vv. The region’s citizens should be grateful for this miracle, but the people only see a loss of income from the death of their animals. Such measures are unnecessary for the Lord of heaven and earth. Unlike the other “exorcists” of His day, Christ dispatches the evil spirits with His word and not with some type of magical ritual.

Per their request, Jesus sends them into a herd of swine, a sign of His authority over the Devil and a confirmation that the possessed men have been delivered (Matt. Apparently, these demons know their time is short and that a day of judgment is coming (see Rev. Ironically, these spirits reveal Jesus’ identity to the disciples when they beg the “Son of God” not to torment them before their time (v. 11:7–8).ĭemons are driving the two men to violence (Matt.

30), and no old covenant Israelite would ever be so closely associated with these animals (Lev. We know this to be the case because pigs are being raised nearby (v. This is an area inhabited primarily by Gentiles, and the two possessed men Jesus and His followers meet are foreigners to God’s covenant with Israel (Matt. After landing on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, the small band of men find themselves in “the country of the Gadarenes,” a region controlled by the town of Gadara, one of the ten cities of the Decapolis. Some of the disciples’ questions begin to be answered in today’s passage. Having been absent when these things happened, it is understandable that these disciples are not yet fully aware of Christ’s divinity and have been left to wonder about the identity of this Nazarene (8:23–27). Likewise, they were probably not present at His baptism, the occasion on which the Father declared Jesus His “beloved Son” (3:13–17). They were not there when Joseph was told that his adopted Son would be of the Holy Spirit (Matt.

Most, if not all, of the disciples have thus far not been privy to much of God’s great revelation about Jesus.

Gadarene by Unpossible