There is a story in the New Testament about Jesus delivering a demon-possessed man and then sending the demons into a herd of pigs, which led to the whole herd running off into a lake and drowning. It is probably one of the strangest stories in the New Testament, and it raises a number of questions. Can animals be possessed by demons? Why did Jesus allow the demons to enter into the pigs? Why would the demons want to possess pigs? Can’t they just float around without possessing anyone? What happened to the demons after the pigs died?[1] And what is the point of this story? Does it have any relevance to us today?

 

Some of these questions we might not ever get to know the answer to, but I might be able to answer some of them. (Mainly what the point of the story is. I have no idea what happened to the demons after the pigs drowned or why they would want to possess pigs).

 

First, it might be helpful to know some of the context. This story is mentioned in all three synoptic gospels, which suggests that the story is pretty important. Here, I will focus on the account in Luke. The Gospel according to Luke is most likely written by Luke, a physician mentioned a couple of times in Paul’s letters. One notable detail about Luke is that he is widely believed to be a Gentile, even though some recent scholars have noted that the evidence for his Gentile heritage has been exaggerated.[2] Whatever the case, a major theme in the Gospel of Luke and in his second volume, Acts, is how Gentiles are also included in God’s plan of redemption. Most likely, the original audience was also Gentile, as Luke avoids certain Jewish terms and customs.[3] Why this is important will be clear further on.

 

The story we are looking at occurs in a section of the book mainly focused on Jesus’ miracles performed in Galilee. Jesus and his disciples crossed over the Sea of Galilee, and they came ashore at “the country of the Gerasenes” (Luke 8:26).[4] There is some dispute as to where this is, as Matthew’s account of the story takes place in “Gadarenes” (Matt 8:28), and there are three different places this could be referring to.[5] However, we do know that Jesus crossed over from a Jewish territory to a predominantly Gentile territory.

 

As Jesus and his disciples stepped ashore, a demon-possessed man met them. This man had no clothes and lived among tombs. People had tried to chain him down, but he would break out of whatever bonds were holding him. After Jesus tried to cast out the demon, the man cried out, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” (Luke 8:28). This is somewhat ironic, as “tormenting” is exactly what the demons have been doing to this poor man all along.[6] After being asked for his name, the man (or the demons possessing the man) said that his name was Legion. A Roman legion was between 5000 to 6000 men, suggesting that this naked man was occupied by an astonishing number of demons.[7]

 

They then begged Jesus not to send them to the “abyss”, most likely being afraid that the final judgment had come. The demons clearly recognised Jesus, and they seemed to know what their ultimate destiny would be. However, the final judgment was not on them yet, and instead, Jesus allowed them to enter into a herd of pigs. The pigs then ran into the lake and drowned. Ironically, the demons ended up in the “abyss” anyway.[8]

 

The townspeople and the owners of the herd of pigs weren’t too pleased with this porcine mass suicide and requested that Jesus would leave, even after seeing that the demon-possessed man was no longer naked or ripping apart chains. The man wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus told him to return to his home and declare what God had done for him.

 

Now, if you look at the next page in your bible, you will find another story where Jesus performs a miracle when he raises a child from the dead. This time, Jesus tells the people to do the complete opposite of what he told the demon-possessed man to do. “He charged them to tell no one what had happened.” (Luke 8:56). Why such a different command from Jesus? Does he want people to know about what he is capable of or not?

 

Here is where the importance of the difference between Jews and Gentiles comes in. Jesus crossed over the sea into Gentile territory. This is clearly the case, as no law-abiding Jew would have been keeping pigs. Jews don’t eat pigs. In the Gentile area, Jesus is happy for the man to run around and tell everyone about what he had done. He even allowed the spirits to possess a whole herd of pigs, making it pretty much impossible not to notice that a miracle had just been performed. But when they crossed back into a Jewish area, and Jesus performed a miracle, he told them all to be quiet. Why is that?

 

For a Jewish audience, who would have a preconceived idea about what their Messiah would be like, having the word spread about what Jesus was doing would have done more harm than good. They would have made him up to be a nationalist hero, there to liberate the nation of Israel from the oppression of the Roman Empire. Jesus is trying to avoid this because this preconceived idea of who they thought he should be would have made it harder for them to understand who he truly was. It’s not like Jesus didn’t want to be known; he just wanted them to truly know who he was. And it turns out that he had to die before even his closest friends, the disciples, realised who that was.

 

To a Gentile audience, who most likely wouldn’t have any association with the Jewish Messiah, Jesus is more than happy to reveal his authority.  In fact, he goes out of his way, crossing a stormy sea, just to get to this Gentile area. Just their mere presence in this town might have been turning heads. Then he performs a miracle that undoubtedly the whole town, and most likely the surrounding towns as well, would hear about. And on top of that, he also encourages the formerly demon-possessed man to tell people about what happened. Jesus is clearly trying to make himself known! That seems to be the point of this story. (Sorry that I can’t tell you what happened to the demons after the pigs drowned. I hope there’s a special place reserved for this herd of pigs in heaven).

 

The Christian mission to the Gentiles didn’t start with Peter and Paul in Acts. Jesus had a desire to reach all people from the start. And his methods for reaching different people varied depending on who they were.  This was true for Paul as well. He writes in 1 Corinthians 9:20-22:

“To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”

There is no “one size fits all” approach to sharing the gospel. Different people will have different backgrounds and experiences, and they will respond differently when we try to share the gospel. What works for some people might turn others away. That is why our first response to people in need of the good news is to listen and to try to understand. And no matter who the person is, they should be met with the same love and respect Jesus would have shown them. Only then can we share the gospel in a way that sounds like good news to them.

 

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[1] Darrell L. Bock, Luke: 2 Volumes (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1996), 387.

[2] James R. Edwards, The Gospel According to Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015), 47.

[3] Craig A. Evans, Luke (Ada, MI: Baker, 2011), 15.

[4] Unless otherwise noted, all biblical quotations use the English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008).

[5] Diane G. Chen, Luke: A New Covenant Commentary (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2017), 67.

[6] F. Scott Spencer, Luke (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2019), 176.

[7] Chen, Luke, 68.

[8] David Lyle Jeffrey, Luke (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2012), 123.