So they ran off the cliff

The herdsman stood helpless, fear surging through their bodies as their fight-or-flight response reacted to the sight before them with painful intensity. Charging at full speed towards the cliff’s edge were 2000 of their prized pigs, with squeals of agony and torment as were driven by some unholy force of nature. Not far to their left, stood a small group of Jewish men, and with them was the most terrifying sight of all… the man from the tombs.

What would you have done if you were one of these herdsmen?

How would you respond to seeing your entire livelihood, indeed your very life, surging off the cliff into the depths like lemmings possessed, one after the other, to their destruction?

This was the scene John-Mark records for us in his Gospel, scribing the first hand experience of the Apostle Peter. But what led to this wild scene? Who was this man from the tombs? Who were these Jews standing there while the pigs hurled themselves off a cliff? And why did the Holy Spirit preserve this story for us 2000 years later?

The Gerasenes in the decapolis

Across the pond, across the Jordan; on the other side were pagan people who lived pagan lives. Jesus and his disciples get in a boat, cross over the sea of Galilee and arrive in the Gerasenes. Here they discover a man, tormented by unclean spirits, living among the tombs. It really is an amazing story, raising all kinds of questions, so it’s worth reading the account in full, from Mark 5:1-17:

[Jesus and his disciples] came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. ² And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. ³ He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, ⁴ for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 

⁶ And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. ⁷ And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” ⁸ For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. ¹¹ Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, ¹² and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” ¹³ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

¹⁴ The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. ¹⁶ And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. ¹⁷ And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. 

But why?

Are you, like me, and I suspect many others, wondering why Jesus sent the unclean spirit into the pigs? Do you read that story and wonder why, if the pigs were going to run into the water and drown, why would the unclean spirits even want to be allowed to go the the pigs? Doesn’t that make them disembodied again? Isn’t that what they don’t want? Why did they ask for that? Why did Jesus give them permission? Why? Why? Why?

I can only imagine what the herdsman were thinking as they watched this unfold before their eyes. A bunch of Jews, who they believe ‘hate them’ (because Jews pretty much hated anybody that wasn’t a Jew at that time) arrive by boat, greet the psycho-demon-possessed super strong scary guy from the tombs, and within a minute the violent raging lunatic appears to be calm and sane, and the pigs are charging for the cliff. What the?

As I read Mark’s Gospel, I’ve already seen Jesus heal and do miracles; It’s what he does. And since I am familiar, as you probably are, with Jesus casting out unclean spirit or not letting them speak, I am not surprised that Jesus delivers this poor man from torment. It’s what he does. He sets captives free. Where I get stuck though, is why did Jesus let the demonic ‘Legion’ go into the pigs, destroying the livelihoods of those herdsman?

Was it Option A, B, or F?

The first explanation some might suggest, is that since pigs were unclean and used in pagan sacrifices to pagan gods (demons) that Jesus was happy to disrupt the supply chain and judge the herdsman, and the pigs, for their wickedness. And while it is almost certainly true that those pigs would have been used in animal sacrifices on the altars of idols, and it is true that pigs were ‘unclean’ and that Jesus would not approve, we also know that the mission of Jesus was to seek and save the lost, and to give his life as a ransom for the saving of many souls.

Jesus didn’t come to disrupt ineffective and misdirected pagan worship, he came to rescue us from it by going to the cross.

He wasn’t making a statement about pigs, but about a person.

Jesus was less interested in where the unclean spirit went, as long as it came out of the man in whom it had been tormenting.

The reality is, scripture is silent on why the unclean spirits requested to go into the pigs, and equally silent as to why Jesus said yes. We are simply not told why. It could be option A, disrupting the pagan worship, it could be option B, judging the unclean pigs the same way he judged the unfruitful fig tree (Mark 11), or it could be option F… which is who knows what!

But here’s what we do know:

1. Jesus was immediately recognised by the unclean spirit, they knew his name, his title and his power. They were completely convinced that Jesus, as the Son of God, had absolute power over them, so they begged him not to send them to their final destruction.
2. Unclean spirits are not gods, they do not have omniscience, and cannot see the future. They would have had no idea the pigs would run off a cliff, and as much as it pained them to beg King Jesus, they do so, for to be disembodied is clearly worse.
3. Unclean spirits hate being disembodied, so even the pigs were a better option to them than wandering without a host body.
4. The unclean spirits knew their time was coming and will soon come. They know they’ve lost and that the abyss or torment awaits them, so they beg; their time will come, and soon.
5. Perhaps the most thing interesting we know is that Jesus did not have to be there, but chose to be.

Jesus didn’t need to be there

Jesus once told a Syrophoenician woman who asked him to heal her daughter that he came only for the children of Israel, and that he couldn’t take the children’s bread and give it to dogs (Mark 7:24-29). Her reply was one of great faith, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table, she said. Jesus was amazed and immediately granted her request.

My point here though, is that Jesus was not primarily concerned with the Gentiles prior to the cross, his mission was Israel, it would be the Church’s mission that would extend to the Gentile world (Matthew 28). In short, Jesus didn’t need to be in the Gerasenes, Jesus didn’t need to cross the lake or meet the man from the tombs or confront the demon or let it go into the pigs! This wasn’t his mission and these weren’t the children of Israel.

This is a bigger deal than we think.

We often focus on the wrong thing, don’t we? I know I certainly do from time to time! The herdsman and the people from that town certainly did. They were upset and afraid because their pigs went sailing off the cliff, so much so they begged Jesus to leave! They actually begged the miracle working, sickness healing, demon evicting, wisdom dispensing, Son of God to leave their town! That’s wild! Talk about being on the wrong page!

As I said before, when I read this story I often wonder why Jesus allowed the unclean spirit to go into the pigs, instead of being in wonder that Jesus went where he didn’t need to be, to free a man demonised by a Legion of unclean spirit.

We can wonder why, or we can be in wonder.

Where is your wonder?

Think about it. Jesus literally crossed the sea to rescue one man, then he left again to continue the mission! Oh the mercy and kindness of God!

One man was worth the entire expedition!

A herd of 2000 pigs is worth nothing in the eyes of God when compared to one lost Gentile son.

Where is you wonder!? Where is my wonder!?

What’s more, this poor man was suffering under the most intense torment, so much so that his super-strength was not only literal, but was also symbolic of the strength of the demons oppressing him.

He was regularly chained and shackled, and with the demons power he still broke free from his bindings. He was a man with the strongest demon(s) tormenting him, a man that no person could help.

This man was a living symbol; a man as far from God as any person could possibly be, and a man imprisoned by the strongest forces of darkness on the earth.

A man that Jesus was willing to cross the sea for, a man that Jesus, with a simple command, was able to set free.

You are that man

At the end of John’s Gospel he points out that Jesus said and did so many things that to write them all down would fill every library in the world (John 21:25 – my paraphrase).

So, why did the Holy Spirit choose to preserve this story for us?

Firstly, I believe we are meant to recognise the immense power of Jesus the Son of God, before whom the strongest demons tremble and beg. None can resist him. He has full power and authority over all creation, seen and unseen, and before him every knee will bow, and every tongue confess, that Jesus alone is God Most High. The strongest demons don’t even try to resist, they simply beg.

Secondly, we are to see the immense value that Jesus places on one human life. The God who multiplies bread and fish is not concerned with the economy of provision. Pigs are of no concern compared to the life of one man. In a world where people are disposable, treated as possessions, enslaved and easily discarded, or aborted, Jesus steps onto the stage and raises the bar on just how precious even the most “worthless” members of society are in the eyes of the Father. This demon possessed man at the tombs had nothing to offer anyone except his pain. He was of no use or value to society, in fact, he was a drain on the economy, an inconvenience and a nuisance, so they tied him up and threw him away. Cast out among the gravestones he was told, you may as well be dead. Jesus, however, came to give life and life to the full, and not one single person on the planet is deemed unlovable or unwanted by God.

Consider Jesus’ parable of the banquet:

“So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’””
‭‭Luke‬ ‭14‬:‭21‬-‭24‬ ‭ESV‬‬

In the economy of Heaven, it is the least among us who have the most value, and it is the poor and destitute that God desires to show kindness to. Every life matters, young and old, weak and strong, black, white, brown, born and unborn, sane or ill; every person is loved by God and invited to the banquet.

Thirdly, I believe we are meant to somehow see ourselves in this man who once lived among the tombs. We are to see our state, our condition, without Jesus as no different to this man’s. We may not have had physical chains and actual demons, but we were certainly bound by sin and enslaved to the spirit of the world, dead in our trespasses and sins, without hope and without peace (Ephesians 2:1).

We, like this man, should be overwhelmed at the kindness and merciful power of God who has liberated us from darkness, and transplanted us into his Kingdom. We should be in wonder!

Jesus did not need to cross the sea for that man living among the tombs any more than he needed to cross the cosmic chasm between the Holiness of Heaven and the dust of the earth for you and me; but he did. He traversed the sea for a man, but he left Heaven for all of humanity; and he did not have to.

We earned nothing. Deserved nothing. Worked for nothing. Should have been given nothing.

Instead we received salvation, redemption, forgiveness, freedom, liberty, hope and life everlasting! Oh the mercy and riches of the goodness of God!

Bystanders have a choice

The herdsman ran off to tell a story to the town. But, what story?

They told the story of the pigs running off the cliff because some Jewish guy, who befriended the psycho who lived in the tombs, apparently cast a demon out of the man and sent it into the pigs. They told the kind of story the 10 spies told when they came from Canaan, stirring up unbelief and cynicism among their listeners. They told a story that focused on the loss of some animals instead of the gain of a man’s soul and sanity. They told a story of financial ruin instead of a story about the demonstration of the Kingdom of God. They told a story that stimulated fear instead of triggering celebration and rejoicing.

Each of us has a story to tell, and it’s not just our own stories but the story of the work of God taking place all around us. The story of Jesus turning up in peoples lives. The story of the one who crosses land and sea, heaven and earth, to seek and save that which is lost. The story of the one who calms storms and restores minds, souls and bodies; the ongoing story of Jesus.

When I read this story of Jesus casting demons out of a man and into pigs, what I should really be reading is not a story of loss, asking why Jesus why? But I should instead be reading the story of Jesus rescuing a man from the clutches of evil, the story of Jesus who values a single human life over thousands of animals, the story of salvation and redemption; I should be reading my story, full of wonder.