Luke 8:26-39
We continue our study through the Book of Luke, continuing this week in the middle of the 8th chapter. What happened last week? We learned about the incredible storm that suddenly swept across the lake of Galilee and fiercely attacked the disciples in their puny, flat-bottomed sailboat and capsized it, sending them to their deaths. Well, not quite. But that is what the disciples thought was about to happen! Recall that while they were panicking, Jesus was sleeping soundly. The disciples woke him and basically accused Him of not caring about them. With basically no effort, Jesus suddenly and completely stilled the storm, asked them how they could have so little faith (as to think He didn’t care about them, after all they had gone through together and seen of Him), and they sat there, still not getting it, amazed that He could stop a storm like that.
Our passage today picks up right where this left off. Still reeling from this episode, the disciples and Jesus continued to sail…
They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. – Luke 8:26-27
This is not the first demon-possessed man we have seen in the Book of Luke. In Capernaum, from Luke 4, we have this:
In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" "Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. – Luke 4:33-35
And just a little later, we have this:
When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ. – Luke 4:40-41
And then, at the beginning of our current chapter, Luke 8, it is mentioned in passing that some of Jesus’ traveling companions were women Jesus had delivered from demons:
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. – Luke 8:1-3
An inescapable conclusion from these passages is that Jesus often made demons come out of people, just as He often healed people. I believe our western biases are revealed by the fact that we tend to ignore or forget about this.
How do we respond to this? One response is to say that the people of that culture 2000 years ago were obsessed with thoughts of demons, and people called things demons that today we would call addiction, or mental illness, or things like this. I do not believe that someone who truly believes the Bible is the inerrant Word of God can take this view. If the people were wrong about demons, then Jesus was wrong about demons, but Jesus as God could not be wrong about anything.
Furthermore, although there are some signs that there were a few others who were trying to cast out demons, this was not an everyday occurrence, any more than a miraculous healing was an everyday occurrence. Immediately after the Jesus cast out the first demon in Luke 4, the people responded with amazement.
All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power He gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" And the news about Him spread throughout the surrounding area. – Luke 4:36-37
So how do we respond to this? A second response is to say that, for whatever reason, demons often inhabited people back then, but they never do it today. I believe this is an unproven and unprovable position, and in fact it can be proven false with a single modern example. I have been told one unmistakable first-person account by the missionaries I visited several years ago when I went to Mongolia, by a person who, if you knew him, would be the last person who would exaggerate or make things up. This person witnessed firsthand a person shouting hatred against Christians using a voice entirely different than their own voice.
Furthermore, there is evidence of people displaying remarkably similar signs of demon inhabitation in primitive cultures in every corner of the earth! This includes cultures that have never heard of the Bible, and so, could not be influenced by the power of suggestion. In culture after culture after culture there are people who become what we often call witch doctors, who have the characteristics of people described as demon-possessed in the Bible. They often can do certain miraculous things themselves, such as telling the future. Note that back when we did our series on the Book of Acts, we read of such a person, who, once delivered, was no longer able to tell the future. Today, especially in primitive cultures, there are many accounts of such people, often one in each village. This person is feared, and can often hold sway on decisions of the entire village. Often when attempts are made to reach such villages for Christ, this person leads the opposition and can cause so much fear that the entire village refuses to listen to the gospel. (By the way, I am not saying that all who call themselves witch doctors are people inhabited by demons – many are just charlatans who use fear and their position to amass wealth and wield power.)
And so I believe that the proper response to these passages is to acknowledge the fact that demons are real, that they could control people back then, and that they can control people today. We need to acknowledge this even if it makes us uncomfortable.
A fourth response, by the way, is to make the mistake of assuming that every weakness, every illness, and every addiction is actually demon inhabitation. Although it may be true that demonic activity may have a part in our being tempted to sin, I think there is a difference between temptation and inhabitation.
On the other hand, I do believe that demon inhabitation is often a result of willful exposure to demonic activity through engagement in occult or other sinful practices. This is similar to how, except for newborn babies, nobody becomes addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs without first deliberately choosing to use these substances. Just as with these substances, the more you let yourself be exposed, the greater the risk it turns into something you cannot control. I believe there is a continuous spectrum of demon involvement, just as there generally are degrees of behaviors from casual substance use to emotional dependence to emotional and physical dependence to full-blown addiction. The Apostle Paul warns us about something like this when he writes:
In your anger do not sin; do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. – Eph. 4:26-27
James also warns about a spectrum of behaviors from temptation to sin to death. The idea of giving the devil a foothold is that the devil gets a small place in your life and is hard to shake from there, just as if you are climbing a mountain and get a good foothold, it is unlikely you will fall off.
One additional reason I believe that demonic inhabitation is usually a result of willful exposure to demonic activity and sin is that people in the Bible, even when they are under the influence of Satan, are held morally responsible for their actions. It is never held up as a valid excuse for sin. For example, Judas was tempted by money and other reasons (Luke 22:3-6) and was held morally responsible for betraying Jesus. “Woe to that man by whom He is betrayed…” – Luke 22:22. As another example, In the Book of Acts, Ananias and Sapphira are held morally responsible for their actions of lying about how much they were giving to the early church and they were punished by death for giving into Satan (Acts 5:1-11).
In addition to willful exposure, however, tragically people can be brought into demonic influence through the trauma of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. However, even in these cases, people often compound the problem by making willful, sinful decisions. We are all sinful beings. None of us has the right to say “The devil made me do it.”
Returning to our passage:
They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. – Luke 8:26-27
It’s funny, but this is one scene that Bible storybooks never seem to illustrate. This guy made John the Baptist look like a regular-looking guy. This guy runs around naked and lives in the caves where all the dead people are! This is a lot worse than living in a cemetery; it is more like living under a cemetery!
Think of the poor disciples! Still recovering from their near-death-by-drowning experience, they pull ashore and within moments are met by this, well, crazy person.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, don't torture me!" For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. – Luke 8:28-29
Why do demons so like to shout? I don’t know, but it seems they don’t know how to use an “inside voice.” All joking aside, though, I want you to try to imagine what it was like to be this man.
Notice that it says “Many times it [the spirit] had seized him.” This means this man alternated between periods of being himself and being repossessed by the evil spirit. It reminds me of some famous fantasy and horror stories. Like a prince cursed by fairies, or like the wolf-man, when this man was himself he knew that it was just a matter of time until he went “wild” again. It would almost be better if instead he was continually possessed so that he wasn’t tortured with the knowledge of what was to come during his “sane” moments. It says that when possessed, he developed supernatural strength. I find it interesting that certain kinds of illegal drugs can have the same effect.
What was this man’s “treatment” plan? Chain him up and guard him. But even this was ineffective. After breaking away and escaping, “driven” by the demon – a term that implies something like a slave being “driven” with the whip by his master – he was forced to go to the tombs to live with the dead and decomposing people.
As in other cases, the demon immediately recognizes Jesus, not just as the son of Joseph and Mary, but as the true Son of God. And as much as the demon may have hated Jesus, he was powerless to disobey His absolute authority over him. In desperation he pleads to not be tortured. This picture of a demon begging for mercy from Jesus is rather shocking. If the tables were turned we have no doubt that the demon would show no mercy to Jesus.
Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. – Luke 8:30-31
A legion (a transliteration of the Greek word) was a body of soldiers whose number varied somewhat at different times, but at the time of the New Testament numbered just shy of 7,000 men. This is a huge number! Did these demons mean that there were literally a bit less than 7,000 of them? Probably not, but they did mean that there were a huge number, almost beyond counting. (Try to count a thousand of anything, and you will see what I mean.)
How did it come about that so many demons came to live in this man? From one statement of Jesus, it seems that perhaps they simply invited each other to join in the party!
When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first." – Luke 11:24-26
About a year ago there were several stories in the news about teenagers advertising parties on MySpace and similar websites for times when their parents were away. Being open advertisements, hundreds of total strangers came, bringing tons of alcohol and other substances, and coming with the intent of not only having an extremely wild time but also with trashing the house. In some cases the houses were unlivable after the party and the damage came to 40,000 dollars or even more! Perhaps these demons considered this man a “wide open invitation.” And by this point, apparently, the man is completely unable to do anything about it.
Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. – Luke 8:30-31
Returning to our passage, I am struck again how now an entire legion of demons is begging for mercy from Jesus. They appear to be terrified of the place called the Abyss, another word that is almost exactly the same as the Greek. The Abyss is described as a smoky, bottomless pit, a prison for the antichrist, for evil spirits, and for scorpions, whatever they are. It also appears to be the place that Satan will be sent for a thousand years before being released for a short time and then thrown into the lake of fire. (See Rev. 9, 11, and 20.)
A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and He gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. – Luke 8:32-33
From the Jewish perspective, pigs certainly seem like an appropriate destination for “unclean” spirits. Apparently the spirits made the pigs go crazy, and in their crazed state, they basically stampeded like cattle and followed the path of gravity and drowned. The physical result of the dead pigs makes it impossible to argue that the man’s problem was actually psychiatric and not demonic.
When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. – Luke 8:34-35
Why were they afraid? Why not happy, overjoyed, to see this formerly crazy, scary, fear-inducing man now become a clothed, normal, happy person? These people are not Jewish, but Gentile (the fact that they raise pigs should give you a big hint of this). Perhaps they cannot understand what has happened at all, except to know that something extremely powerful has caused this miracle.
Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So He got into the boat and left. – Luke 8:36-37
The passage in Mark says that there were about 2000 pigs that died. No question, the sudden loss of all these pigs was a huge economic loss to these people. But there is no sign that the people were angry about this – it says they all asked Jesus to leave because they all were overcome with fear. I picture Jesus walking back towards the boat and asking them, “Are you sure you want Me to leave? I can help you!” “No, leave!” the crowd shouts back.
Note that these people saw Jesus. They saw the incredible miracle He had done – from the pigs to the fact that this lunatic was now back in his right mind, they had seen Jesus’ work – to bring freedom to the prisoners, to quote an Old Testament passage. But even after seeing this, they didn’t want anything to do with Jesus. Jesus had “rocked their boat,” just as the storm had rocked the disciples’ boat, and they just wanted to go back to “normal.” And this is the problem, isn’t it? Jesus doesn’t let you stay with “normal.”
There is a children’s book called “The Neverending Story.” They made a movie out of it, but the movie doesn’t compare with the book. The book is about a boy reading a book called “The Neverending Story,” if you can follow that, and the boy soon learns that, impossible though it should be, his actions affect the story he is reading. When he shouts out “No!” in response to something he reads, on the next page the characters here the word “No!” shouted out from somewhere. They don’t know where it came from, but they try to figure out what it means. As the events in the book turn more and more desperate, the boy struggles with the fact that it seems he is meant to save them, but he doesn’t know what to do. He also struggles because the book, in a sense, won’t leave him alone. He suddenly has this awesome responsibility to the book he is reading. He too just wants to go back to “normal.”
This is the nature of a relationship with Jesus. Jesus does not want to just leave you where you are. If you refuse the invitation of a relationship with Him and tell Him to leave, He will. But if you invite Him in, He will begin to “clean house” in your life and you will no longer be able to go back to “normal.” He loves you too much to do nothing.
The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. – Luke 8:38-39
This is for me the most fascinating part of this passage. Let’s talk about this man. We don’t know what led him to end up with thousands of demons living in him, controlling him, but perhaps the man listened to the demons telling him that he could be free, free from all the rules and requirements of normal society. This is often the nature of the enticement of sin. It goes back even to the story of Adam and Eve and the Serpent. Satan’s ultimate lie to Adam and Eve was that they didn’t have to live such a confined life. They didn’t have to play by the rules. They could be free from their rule and do what they wanted!
Ultimately, this is what sin is always about. Don’t do what they say, be free and do what you want! But it is all a lie! Freedom from God’s rules always leads not to real freedom, but to bondage. What could be a greater bondage than to be a literal slave to thousands of demons?
Now, this man knows he is free, thanks to Jesus. He knows next to nothing about Him except that he wants to go with Him because Jesus has saved him! He wants to serve his deliverer. Isn’t it interesting how when he (and us) are presented with real freedom, his (and our) natural desire is to put ourselves at Jesus’ feet? Satan can only get people to serve him through deception and imprisonment; Jesus gives people genuine freedom, and in response they want to serve Him voluntarily with their whole lives.
I can imagine the man saying, “Thank you! I will serve You for the rest of my life! Please take me with You, and I will wait on You and do whatever You ask!” And to this I can imagine Jesus’ response: “If you truly want to serve Me, then here is what I would have you do: Return home and tell all you meet what God has done for you.”
Did this disappoint the man? I suspect so. His heart is to be with the One who loved him while he was so unlovable and set him free. But his love for Jesus is deep, so deep that he obeys, despite his heart’s desire. Even more than being with Jesus, he desires to serve Him. If serving Him means watching Him leave with the disciples on their boat, so be it. He will do exactly as Jesus has said. He will tell the entire town about what Jesus has done. And when he finishes, he will go to the next town and the next and the next… The parallel passage says he went throughout the decapolis (literally, “ten cities”) to tell what Jesus had done.
If you are one of Jesus’ disciples on that boat as it leaves the shore, with the man joyfully and exuberantly, but also tearfully, waving goodbye to the One he now loves, what do you learn from it all? What is there for us to understand from this adventure?
1. Jesus is not merely human. No human being could have complete authority not over the wind and the waves, but over thousands of evil spirits. Jesus is beyond a doubt the most powerful man on earth, more powerful than any king, and because of this, He cannot be just a man.
2. Nothing is impossible with God. There is no situation He cannot choose to overcome; no evil He cannot conquer. After reading this, do you think God cannot help you overcome your personal area of habitual sin? Do you think He cannot help you overcome your character flaws? Do you think He cannot help you overcome your addiction?
3. There is no person Jesus cannot save. Who could possibly be more far gone, more hopeless than a man inhabited by thousands of demons? As we share the gospel with those around us, let us never think that anyone is unreachable or impossible to save.
4. Jesus will not force Himself on anyone. Isn’t it striking that although thousands of demons could not even begin to stop Jesus, one fearful man who doesn’t want change can keep Him at bay? (Pun not intended.) Although there is no person Jesus cannot save, He will not come in uninvited. Are there areas of your life closed off to Him? Sins that are too dear to give up? Are you afraid to give them up – afraid of such a radical change in our life? Trust Him! Freedom is always better than bondage.
5. God’s economy is not our economy. In modern terms, some would call this “missionary trip” a failure. Only one convert! And then, kicked off the island without so much as a chance to share anything! But the reality is that Jesus made this long trip expressly for this one man. We would be foolish to suggest that this was a failure, that anything happened other than what Jesus desired would happen. And ultimately, through this one man, who knows how many hundreds or thousands learned of Jesus? From the “man formerly known as Legion” comes a legion of new followers of Jesus Christ. Do you think most modern missionary boards would accept this man if he applied to their agencies? “What are you qualifications?” “Well, I used to be demon-possessed by thousands of demons, but Jesus set me free.” “Is that it?” “Uh, yeah.” “What about your educational training? Have you been to seminary?” “Seminary? What’s that? I don’t really have much education – in fact I know hardly anything about Jesus – that’s His name, right? All I know is that He told me to stay here and tell others what God has done for me. So that is what I am going to do.”
6. We remain so we can serve Him. From the moment we are saved, wouldn’t it be nice to just die in our body so we can go to be with Him forever? Not living here apart from Him (yes, He is with us, His Holy Spirit indwells us, but it is not the same as sitting at Jesus’ feet, at feeling His embrace), but truly with Him? But just as with the man at the shore, this call is not ours to make. To us, just as it was to him, Jesus says, “Stay here. Tell everyone about Me.” Will we follow this man’s example and obey?
Our passage today picks up right where this left off. Still reeling from this episode, the disciples and Jesus continued to sail…
They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. – Luke 8:26-27
This is not the first demon-possessed man we have seen in the Book of Luke. In Capernaum, from Luke 4, we have this:
In the synagogue there was a man possessed by a demon, an evil spirit. He cried out at the top of his voice, "Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!" "Be quiet!" Jesus said sternly. "Come out of him!" Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him. – Luke 4:33-35
And just a little later, we have this:
When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ. – Luke 4:40-41
And then, at the beginning of our current chapter, Luke 8, it is mentioned in passing that some of Jesus’ traveling companions were women Jesus had delivered from demons:
After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with Him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod's household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. – Luke 8:1-3
An inescapable conclusion from these passages is that Jesus often made demons come out of people, just as He often healed people. I believe our western biases are revealed by the fact that we tend to ignore or forget about this.
How do we respond to this? One response is to say that the people of that culture 2000 years ago were obsessed with thoughts of demons, and people called things demons that today we would call addiction, or mental illness, or things like this. I do not believe that someone who truly believes the Bible is the inerrant Word of God can take this view. If the people were wrong about demons, then Jesus was wrong about demons, but Jesus as God could not be wrong about anything.
Furthermore, although there are some signs that there were a few others who were trying to cast out demons, this was not an everyday occurrence, any more than a miraculous healing was an everyday occurrence. Immediately after the Jesus cast out the first demon in Luke 4, the people responded with amazement.
All the people were amazed and said to each other, "What is this teaching? With authority and power He gives orders to evil spirits and they come out!" And the news about Him spread throughout the surrounding area. – Luke 4:36-37
So how do we respond to this? A second response is to say that, for whatever reason, demons often inhabited people back then, but they never do it today. I believe this is an unproven and unprovable position, and in fact it can be proven false with a single modern example. I have been told one unmistakable first-person account by the missionaries I visited several years ago when I went to Mongolia, by a person who, if you knew him, would be the last person who would exaggerate or make things up. This person witnessed firsthand a person shouting hatred against Christians using a voice entirely different than their own voice.
Furthermore, there is evidence of people displaying remarkably similar signs of demon inhabitation in primitive cultures in every corner of the earth! This includes cultures that have never heard of the Bible, and so, could not be influenced by the power of suggestion. In culture after culture after culture there are people who become what we often call witch doctors, who have the characteristics of people described as demon-possessed in the Bible. They often can do certain miraculous things themselves, such as telling the future. Note that back when we did our series on the Book of Acts, we read of such a person, who, once delivered, was no longer able to tell the future. Today, especially in primitive cultures, there are many accounts of such people, often one in each village. This person is feared, and can often hold sway on decisions of the entire village. Often when attempts are made to reach such villages for Christ, this person leads the opposition and can cause so much fear that the entire village refuses to listen to the gospel. (By the way, I am not saying that all who call themselves witch doctors are people inhabited by demons – many are just charlatans who use fear and their position to amass wealth and wield power.)
And so I believe that the proper response to these passages is to acknowledge the fact that demons are real, that they could control people back then, and that they can control people today. We need to acknowledge this even if it makes us uncomfortable.
A fourth response, by the way, is to make the mistake of assuming that every weakness, every illness, and every addiction is actually demon inhabitation. Although it may be true that demonic activity may have a part in our being tempted to sin, I think there is a difference between temptation and inhabitation.
On the other hand, I do believe that demon inhabitation is often a result of willful exposure to demonic activity through engagement in occult or other sinful practices. This is similar to how, except for newborn babies, nobody becomes addicted to cigarettes, alcohol, or drugs without first deliberately choosing to use these substances. Just as with these substances, the more you let yourself be exposed, the greater the risk it turns into something you cannot control. I believe there is a continuous spectrum of demon involvement, just as there generally are degrees of behaviors from casual substance use to emotional dependence to emotional and physical dependence to full-blown addiction. The Apostle Paul warns us about something like this when he writes:
In your anger do not sin; do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. – Eph. 4:26-27
James also warns about a spectrum of behaviors from temptation to sin to death. The idea of giving the devil a foothold is that the devil gets a small place in your life and is hard to shake from there, just as if you are climbing a mountain and get a good foothold, it is unlikely you will fall off.
One additional reason I believe that demonic inhabitation is usually a result of willful exposure to demonic activity and sin is that people in the Bible, even when they are under the influence of Satan, are held morally responsible for their actions. It is never held up as a valid excuse for sin. For example, Judas was tempted by money and other reasons (Luke 22:3-6) and was held morally responsible for betraying Jesus. “Woe to that man by whom He is betrayed…” – Luke 22:22. As another example, In the Book of Acts, Ananias and Sapphira are held morally responsible for their actions of lying about how much they were giving to the early church and they were punished by death for giving into Satan (Acts 5:1-11).
In addition to willful exposure, however, tragically people can be brought into demonic influence through the trauma of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. However, even in these cases, people often compound the problem by making willful, sinful decisions. We are all sinful beings. None of us has the right to say “The devil made me do it.”
Returning to our passage:
They sailed to the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. For a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. – Luke 8:26-27
It’s funny, but this is one scene that Bible storybooks never seem to illustrate. This guy made John the Baptist look like a regular-looking guy. This guy runs around naked and lives in the caves where all the dead people are! This is a lot worse than living in a cemetery; it is more like living under a cemetery!
Think of the poor disciples! Still recovering from their near-death-by-drowning experience, they pull ashore and within moments are met by this, well, crazy person.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, don't torture me!" For Jesus had commanded the evil spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places. – Luke 8:28-29
Why do demons so like to shout? I don’t know, but it seems they don’t know how to use an “inside voice.” All joking aside, though, I want you to try to imagine what it was like to be this man.
Notice that it says “Many times it [the spirit] had seized him.” This means this man alternated between periods of being himself and being repossessed by the evil spirit. It reminds me of some famous fantasy and horror stories. Like a prince cursed by fairies, or like the wolf-man, when this man was himself he knew that it was just a matter of time until he went “wild” again. It would almost be better if instead he was continually possessed so that he wasn’t tortured with the knowledge of what was to come during his “sane” moments. It says that when possessed, he developed supernatural strength. I find it interesting that certain kinds of illegal drugs can have the same effect.
What was this man’s “treatment” plan? Chain him up and guard him. But even this was ineffective. After breaking away and escaping, “driven” by the demon – a term that implies something like a slave being “driven” with the whip by his master – he was forced to go to the tombs to live with the dead and decomposing people.
As in other cases, the demon immediately recognizes Jesus, not just as the son of Joseph and Mary, but as the true Son of God. And as much as the demon may have hated Jesus, he was powerless to disobey His absolute authority over him. In desperation he pleads to not be tortured. This picture of a demon begging for mercy from Jesus is rather shocking. If the tables were turned we have no doubt that the demon would show no mercy to Jesus.
Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged Him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. – Luke 8:30-31
A legion (a transliteration of the Greek word) was a body of soldiers whose number varied somewhat at different times, but at the time of the New Testament numbered just shy of 7,000 men. This is a huge number! Did these demons mean that there were literally a bit less than 7,000 of them? Probably not, but they did mean that there were a huge number, almost beyond counting. (Try to count a thousand of anything, and you will see what I mean.)
How did it come about that so many demons came to live in this man? From one statement of Jesus, it seems that perhaps they simply invited each other to join in the party!
When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first." – Luke 11:24-26
About a year ago there were several stories in the news about teenagers advertising parties on MySpace and similar websites for times when their parents were away. Being open advertisements, hundreds of total strangers came, bringing tons of alcohol and other substances, and coming with the intent of not only having an extremely wild time but also with trashing the house. In some cases the houses were unlivable after the party and the damage came to 40,000 dollars or even more! Perhaps these demons considered this man a “wide open invitation.” And by this point, apparently, the man is completely unable to do anything about it.
Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" "Legion," he replied, because many demons had gone into him. And they begged him repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. – Luke 8:30-31
Returning to our passage, I am struck again how now an entire legion of demons is begging for mercy from Jesus. They appear to be terrified of the place called the Abyss, another word that is almost exactly the same as the Greek. The Abyss is described as a smoky, bottomless pit, a prison for the antichrist, for evil spirits, and for scorpions, whatever they are. It also appears to be the place that Satan will be sent for a thousand years before being released for a short time and then thrown into the lake of fire. (See Rev. 9, 11, and 20.)
A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside. The demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and He gave them permission. When the demons came out of the man, they went into the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. – Luke 8:32-33
From the Jewish perspective, pigs certainly seem like an appropriate destination for “unclean” spirits. Apparently the spirits made the pigs go crazy, and in their crazed state, they basically stampeded like cattle and followed the path of gravity and drowned. The physical result of the dead pigs makes it impossible to argue that the man’s problem was actually psychiatric and not demonic.
When those tending the pigs saw what had happened, they ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus' feet, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. – Luke 8:34-35
Why were they afraid? Why not happy, overjoyed, to see this formerly crazy, scary, fear-inducing man now become a clothed, normal, happy person? These people are not Jewish, but Gentile (the fact that they raise pigs should give you a big hint of this). Perhaps they cannot understand what has happened at all, except to know that something extremely powerful has caused this miracle.
Those who had seen it told the people how the demon-possessed man had been cured. Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So He got into the boat and left. – Luke 8:36-37
The passage in Mark says that there were about 2000 pigs that died. No question, the sudden loss of all these pigs was a huge economic loss to these people. But there is no sign that the people were angry about this – it says they all asked Jesus to leave because they all were overcome with fear. I picture Jesus walking back towards the boat and asking them, “Are you sure you want Me to leave? I can help you!” “No, leave!” the crowd shouts back.
Note that these people saw Jesus. They saw the incredible miracle He had done – from the pigs to the fact that this lunatic was now back in his right mind, they had seen Jesus’ work – to bring freedom to the prisoners, to quote an Old Testament passage. But even after seeing this, they didn’t want anything to do with Jesus. Jesus had “rocked their boat,” just as the storm had rocked the disciples’ boat, and they just wanted to go back to “normal.” And this is the problem, isn’t it? Jesus doesn’t let you stay with “normal.”
There is a children’s book called “The Neverending Story.” They made a movie out of it, but the movie doesn’t compare with the book. The book is about a boy reading a book called “The Neverending Story,” if you can follow that, and the boy soon learns that, impossible though it should be, his actions affect the story he is reading. When he shouts out “No!” in response to something he reads, on the next page the characters here the word “No!” shouted out from somewhere. They don’t know where it came from, but they try to figure out what it means. As the events in the book turn more and more desperate, the boy struggles with the fact that it seems he is meant to save them, but he doesn’t know what to do. He also struggles because the book, in a sense, won’t leave him alone. He suddenly has this awesome responsibility to the book he is reading. He too just wants to go back to “normal.”
This is the nature of a relationship with Jesus. Jesus does not want to just leave you where you are. If you refuse the invitation of a relationship with Him and tell Him to leave, He will. But if you invite Him in, He will begin to “clean house” in your life and you will no longer be able to go back to “normal.” He loves you too much to do nothing.
The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return home and tell how much God has done for you." So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. – Luke 8:38-39
This is for me the most fascinating part of this passage. Let’s talk about this man. We don’t know what led him to end up with thousands of demons living in him, controlling him, but perhaps the man listened to the demons telling him that he could be free, free from all the rules and requirements of normal society. This is often the nature of the enticement of sin. It goes back even to the story of Adam and Eve and the Serpent. Satan’s ultimate lie to Adam and Eve was that they didn’t have to live such a confined life. They didn’t have to play by the rules. They could be free from their rule and do what they wanted!
Ultimately, this is what sin is always about. Don’t do what they say, be free and do what you want! But it is all a lie! Freedom from God’s rules always leads not to real freedom, but to bondage. What could be a greater bondage than to be a literal slave to thousands of demons?
Now, this man knows he is free, thanks to Jesus. He knows next to nothing about Him except that he wants to go with Him because Jesus has saved him! He wants to serve his deliverer. Isn’t it interesting how when he (and us) are presented with real freedom, his (and our) natural desire is to put ourselves at Jesus’ feet? Satan can only get people to serve him through deception and imprisonment; Jesus gives people genuine freedom, and in response they want to serve Him voluntarily with their whole lives.
I can imagine the man saying, “Thank you! I will serve You for the rest of my life! Please take me with You, and I will wait on You and do whatever You ask!” And to this I can imagine Jesus’ response: “If you truly want to serve Me, then here is what I would have you do: Return home and tell all you meet what God has done for you.”
Did this disappoint the man? I suspect so. His heart is to be with the One who loved him while he was so unlovable and set him free. But his love for Jesus is deep, so deep that he obeys, despite his heart’s desire. Even more than being with Jesus, he desires to serve Him. If serving Him means watching Him leave with the disciples on their boat, so be it. He will do exactly as Jesus has said. He will tell the entire town about what Jesus has done. And when he finishes, he will go to the next town and the next and the next… The parallel passage says he went throughout the decapolis (literally, “ten cities”) to tell what Jesus had done.
If you are one of Jesus’ disciples on that boat as it leaves the shore, with the man joyfully and exuberantly, but also tearfully, waving goodbye to the One he now loves, what do you learn from it all? What is there for us to understand from this adventure?
1. Jesus is not merely human. No human being could have complete authority not over the wind and the waves, but over thousands of evil spirits. Jesus is beyond a doubt the most powerful man on earth, more powerful than any king, and because of this, He cannot be just a man.
2. Nothing is impossible with God. There is no situation He cannot choose to overcome; no evil He cannot conquer. After reading this, do you think God cannot help you overcome your personal area of habitual sin? Do you think He cannot help you overcome your character flaws? Do you think He cannot help you overcome your addiction?
3. There is no person Jesus cannot save. Who could possibly be more far gone, more hopeless than a man inhabited by thousands of demons? As we share the gospel with those around us, let us never think that anyone is unreachable or impossible to save.
4. Jesus will not force Himself on anyone. Isn’t it striking that although thousands of demons could not even begin to stop Jesus, one fearful man who doesn’t want change can keep Him at bay? (Pun not intended.) Although there is no person Jesus cannot save, He will not come in uninvited. Are there areas of your life closed off to Him? Sins that are too dear to give up? Are you afraid to give them up – afraid of such a radical change in our life? Trust Him! Freedom is always better than bondage.
5. God’s economy is not our economy. In modern terms, some would call this “missionary trip” a failure. Only one convert! And then, kicked off the island without so much as a chance to share anything! But the reality is that Jesus made this long trip expressly for this one man. We would be foolish to suggest that this was a failure, that anything happened other than what Jesus desired would happen. And ultimately, through this one man, who knows how many hundreds or thousands learned of Jesus? From the “man formerly known as Legion” comes a legion of new followers of Jesus Christ. Do you think most modern missionary boards would accept this man if he applied to their agencies? “What are you qualifications?” “Well, I used to be demon-possessed by thousands of demons, but Jesus set me free.” “Is that it?” “Uh, yeah.” “What about your educational training? Have you been to seminary?” “Seminary? What’s that? I don’t really have much education – in fact I know hardly anything about Jesus – that’s His name, right? All I know is that He told me to stay here and tell others what God has done for me. So that is what I am going to do.”
6. We remain so we can serve Him. From the moment we are saved, wouldn’t it be nice to just die in our body so we can go to be with Him forever? Not living here apart from Him (yes, He is with us, His Holy Spirit indwells us, but it is not the same as sitting at Jesus’ feet, at feeling His embrace), but truly with Him? But just as with the man at the shore, this call is not ours to make. To us, just as it was to him, Jesus says, “Stay here. Tell everyone about Me.” Will we follow this man’s example and obey?
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