The Gerasene Demoniac: Authority Over the Supernatural (Luke 8:26-39)

The Miracle of the Geredene Swine by Briton Riviere 1883

Jesus and the disciples arrive at the other side of the sea (likely blown off course!) for a divine appointment. They are in an area that is not precisely identified for us today. The various evangelists disagree as the name of the city/region. It is pretty clear, however, that they are somewhere in the gentile region on the southeast coast of the Sea of Galilee. As soon as they disembark, they encounter a tragic (and terrifying) character. A man who lives alone among the tombs, naked and rejected by society. He is a scarry character that people avoid. He has suber-human strength and is uncontrollable. He is, though, controlled. By demons.

As he encounters Jesus, the demons recognize the Son of God and beg Him to not cast them out into the abyss. They ask to be allowed to possess a herd of pigs. Jesus allows them and they promptly drown the herd.

Much about this story is as confusing to us as it may have been to the people of Jesus’s day. The temptation is to ask all kinds of “why” questions of the story. Unfortunately, we are not given any of those answers, and the story is not about any of them. Why pigs? Why is the man possessed? Why do the demons drown the pigs? None of that matters.

The point of the story is that Jesus is in ultimate control of the supernatural world. He is God and He is in charge. Even the forces of evil must bow to Him. When the pig herders see the encounter, they run off to tell the city. When the city arrives, they encounter the uncontrollable, demon-possessed man in his right mind, clothed, and sitting at Jesus’s feet. They are even more afraid of Jesus than they were of the possessed man! They beg Him to leave.

The man asks Jesus to take Him along. Now that he has been saved, he wants to follow Jesus and learn from Him. Instead, Jesus sends him out into the gentile region with a mission. “Share what God has done for you!” We have our first witness for Christ in the Bible, and he is sent to the Gentiles.