Luke 8:26-39:
26 So they arrived in the region of the Gerasenes, Other manuscripts read Gadarenes; still others read Gergesenes; also in 8:37. See Matt 8:28; Mark 5:1.
">* across the lake from Galilee. 27 As Jesus was climbing out of the boat, a man who was possessed by demons came out to meet him. For a long time he had been homeless and naked, living in a cemetery outside the town.28 As soon as he saw Jesus, he shrieked and fell down in front of him. Then he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Please, I beg you, don’t torture me!” 29 For Jesus had already commanded the evil Greek unclean.
">* spirit to come out of him. This spirit had often taken control of the man. Even when he was placed under guard and put in chains and shackles, he simply broke them and rushed out into the wilderness, completely under the demon’s power.30 Jesus demanded, “What is your name?”
“Legion,” he replied, for he was filled with many demons. 31 The demons kept begging Jesus not to send them into the bottomless pit. Or the abyss, or the underworld.
">*32 There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside nearby, and the demons begged him to let them enter into the pigs.
So Jesus gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned.
34 When the herdsmen saw it, they fled to the nearby town and the surrounding countryside, spreading the news as they ran. 35 People rushed out to see what had happened. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus, and they saw the man who had been freed from the demons. He was sitting at Jesus’ feet, fully clothed and perfectly sane, and they were all afraid. 36 Then those who had seen what happened told the others how the demon-possessed man had been healed. 37 And all the people in the region of the Gerasenes begged Jesus to go away and leave them alone, for a great wave of fear swept over them.
So Jesus returned to the boat and left, crossing back to the other side of the lake. 38 The man who had been freed from the demons begged to go with him. But Jesus sent him home, saying, 39 “No, go back to your family, and tell them everything God has done for you.” So he went all through the town proclaiming the great things Jesus had done for him.
Evil tells you, ‘you’re not good enough, you’ll never amount to anything’ and little by little, you begin to believe it. At first you fight against the temptation to give into the lies of Satan, but you become tired and worn out until one day you find yourself asking, “how did it get this bad, how did I get here?”. You know the answer but it’s hard to accept. It’s hard to face the many sinful choices, attitudes and actions that got you here, it’s much easier to blame circumstances or others. You resign yourself, evil must have been right all along and now, there’s just too much to overcome, too many things you’ve done that need forgiving, too many wrongs that need to be right, too big a mess to clean up! I think that is how this man in Luke 8 must have felt and Praise God he was wrong!
We read about a large herd of pigs nearby on a hillside. This man is possessed by a legion of demons, so many they are no longer known by their individual names, but the collective name of Legion. We are not told what evils had stacked up in this man’s life to get him to the day that is recorded here, but we can guess: lies, gluttony, lust, pride, greed, anger, hatred . . . . It seems easy for us to guess because they are the same evils that are still around, tempting us all to give into their control. And slipping into our lives.
We know this man’s life has been a big mess, we read he has separated himself from all others and he lives off of the wilderness. If ever someone’s life seems too far gone, too complicated to be fixed it would seem it is his. But all hope is not lost and it never is, today God would provide just the right amount of hope + desire to = complete healing. It would take every ounce of desire left in this man's heart, soul and mind and every single pig in the herd!
On this day, this man decides to let go of the need to reconcile, ‘how did it get this bad’ with the desire to seek out permanent change. He seeks out Jesus and he brings evil to the one with the power to banish it. Jesus sends the legion of evil out of this man into the large herd of pigs and apparently, it takes the whole herd to carry all of the past mistakes, bad choices, wrong decisions, misplaced trust, lies, envy, greed, anger, and all of the other evils that have stacked up in this man’s life. Luke 8 tells us the ENTIRE herd,that is now possessed by the evil that this one man had been carrying around, plunges over a cliff and this man is restored to his right mind! Thank you Jesus, that there were enough pigs!
What seems so big or so overwhelming in your own life right now, that you think perhaps there are just not enough pigs to fix it? Do you realize that's a lie? There is nothing too big for Jesus.
Will you bring it to Jesus? Just lay it down in front of Him like the man.
Pray: God I admit to you it’s scary to let go of the things that have control over me, the things that are not of you. They are my excuse, my reasoning away of the sinful choices and decisions that make my life spin out of control. I need your strength to let go of them, I need your encouragement to bring them to you, I need your peace that it’s not so bad and so overwhelming that you cannot heal me from it completely. Jesus I need you. Amen
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