Wednesday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 1, 2020

Matthew 8:28-34

When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, “What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?” Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.” And he said to them, “Go then!” They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.

The journey of the Lord Jesus into the region of the Gadarenes, on the far side of the Sea of Galilee is wrapped in mystery.  St. Matthew tells us, in 8, 23, that “when he entered into the boat, his disciples followed him.”  Matthew tells us nothing about where Jesus intends to go or even if he tells them their destination until they are underway.  It is all very abrupt.  If we were early Jewish Christians, we would be astonished and perhaps dismayed to find that Jesus had decided to leave the land of the Jews in Galilee for the land of the Gadarenes, where the Gentiles dwelt.  The Apostles do not seem to ask him why he wanted to go there, and he offers no explanation.  To hear Matthew tell the story, Jesus seems to have gone into this pagan land specifically in order to deal with the two demoniacs.  The Evangelists Mark and Luke recount that there was a single possessed man, not the two whom Matthew describes.  Now, Matthew was present for this encounter so either Jesus did meet up with two, or the ferocity of the one possessed man so impressed itself on Matthew’s memory that later he thought there must have been two men.  It may be worth noting that he does not distinguish between them as to behavior, origin, dress, or speech.

“Two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him.”  They seem to have lived outside the cities and towns.  The demons ever seek the destruction of humans and so it would make perfect sense for them to drive these men into a graveyard.  Matthew tells us that they met Jesus as they came from the tombs.  They sought him, in other words, and possibly covered some distance to reach him.  In imagining the scene for ourselves we ought to keep in mind that it is still daylight.

“They were so savage that no one could travel by that road.”  Matthew tells us that Jesus and his Apostles were walking along a road, not across a field.  He still does not tell us where they were heading.  Was it a town on the coast or one further inland?  We do not know.  The demoniacs evidently threatened the people of the area because “no one could travel by that road.”  Now, this is very intriguing because normally a demon possessing a person does not manifest his presence with wild displays.  Doing so risks a visit from an exorcist and being cast back into hell.  The possessing entities here do not fear such a thing.  For some time the demoniacs have terrified the local inhabitants without any fear of interference.  

“What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?”  Matthew does not tell us what Mark and Luke tell us, that the demons were a collective calling themselves “Legion”, because of their large number.   They address Jesus as “Son of God” not because they suspect his divinity but because they know he has performed mighty works in the name of God.  They may also be attempting to stunt him into providing more details as to his identity.  They speak of an “appointed time”.  The demons are well aware of the fact that a day of judgment will come and at that time they shall begin to suffer their punishment most fully.  

“If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine.”  The demons feel his power and know that their time within the men is over.  But they are desperate not to return to hell, where they would be subject to the derision of their fellow demons for their failure.  They know they would not be permitted to enter any other humans so they beg to be allowed to possess the far-off swine.  But the swine, so detested by the Jews, would rather end their existences then live as the shelter of demons.  That is to say, the filthy pigs, unclean for the Jews to eat and defiling to touch, are a higher level creature than the demons.

“The whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned.”  They stampeded.  My father and I raised pigs on a small farm for some years before I entered seminary.  Every so often a pig would become injured or scared and it would scream.  No words can adequately describe the pitch and the volume of the scream of a single pig.  It is deafening and extremely unnerving.  This sound multiplied by a hundred or more such screams of the pigs as they rushed down to their doom must have severely affected not only their herders but also the inhabitants of the local town.

“Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.”  The townspeople came out of their houses and shops to find the cause of this horror, and the herders told them what they knew of it.  Since these men had stood off at some distance, it is not easy to understand how Jesus could have been blamed for it.  Was he blamed because he was a foreigner to these parts, or because of the testimony of the two men whom he had freed from their demonic captivity?  At any rate, the people beg him to go.  We should consider this.  The people are essentially saying that they preferred for the devil to reign in their midst than for him to be driven away from them.  Yes, the demons had closed off an important road to the town, but the townsfolk had accommodated themselves to this.  They had gotten used to it.  They wanted no part in Jesus who had so disturbed their complacency by driving out the evil.  And Jesus, who forced himself on no one, accepted their choice and departed without a word.