Holy Boldness

2. That many demons were controlling the men. (Mark’s version of the same story says that they were a “Legion”, 6000!) 3. It reveals that they acknowledged that Jesus had authority over them and that they were threatened by His presence. Their words were “ tinged with fear” . (Carson) 4. It suggests that they were anticipating a judgment at some time. 5. It reveals that the demons’ timing was off and that Jesus showed up earlier than expected! Don’t you love that?!!! The devil always thinks he has more time than he does. Casualties of Kingdom Come Jesus had not traveled there to do ministry to get away from the crowds, but the presence of two demonized men demanded a response even on vacation. The evil spirits petitioned Jesus to allow them to enter into a herd of pigs grazing nearby. According to Jewish law, pigs were considered unclean, therefore Jews did not own them. But Jesus was not in a Jewish community. Jesus granted the request but the presence of evil entities apparently panicked the swine who immediately plunged themselves over a cliff, into the sea, and drowned. The important point is that Jesus was not going to allow the men to remain in their wretched condition. He came to change things, to set the captives free, to preach the gospel to the poor, and proclaim the favorable year of the Lord so He brought the word and He dealt with the situation at hand. Jesus had authority over the realms of demonic darkness. The demonic appeal to Jesus did not turn out the way they were anticipating. Hoping to find something to inhabit they ended up in the sea. After knowledge of the incident reached the local townspeople they came out to Jesus and pleaded with him to leave their territory. They were either frightened by Jesus’ presence or they were afraid of the contin ued economic losses. Either way, the presence of Jesus not only proved to be a threat to the demonic presence but to the status quo of the Gentile city. So what about that? Didn’t Jesus care about the disruption of the local economy? One must assume that Jesus did not consider the loss of the herd of pigs very significant. It also says that the life of men trumps

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