Key Verse: Matthew 8:34 “And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.”
The driving out of the demons from the two demon possessed men in the region of the Gadarenes has always received a lot of comment, because it’s so spectacular. You know the story well. Jesus casts the demons into a local herd of pigs who then rush down into the Sea of Galilee and drown. But there are two things which stand out in this account.
First, the response of the demoniacs was, “What do you want with us, Son of God?” You wouldn’t expect Jewish people to be confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. Much less would you expect demonic spirits to be confessing that Jesus is the Son of God. And yes they knew exactly what was going on. They knew who Jesus was and that something remarkable had happened in history, in God becoming flesh and dwelling among men. They don’t pull any punches. They know exactly who Jesus is and they tell it like it is. Jesus is the the Son of God. This is not the last instance where demonic spirits refer to Jesus as He really is. They live in the spirit realm and they have eyes to see what we here in space and time do not see. So we should take note of their insight, even though they tremble at the very thought of who Jesus is.
The second thing about the story is that the whole town, when they found out what had happened, went out to meet Jesus. You’d expect that they’d be so impressed with what He’d done that they would call on Him for salvation. No, rather surprisingly, they said ‘get out of here, please’. They pleaded with Him to leave their region. We have no account here of great evangelism or a turning to God. They just wanted to get Jesus out of there, fast. So here you demonic spirits confessing that Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus getting rid of them. And you have human spirits trying to get rid of Jesus.
Figure that one out!
