Evil Spirits are afraid!
Jesus is the Son of God. Evil spirits oppose him and his people. He has authority over them all.
The storm ended. Jesus and his disciples reached the other side of the lake. Matthew 8:28 described what happened next. There were some caves. There, local people buried those who had died. Two men were living in these caves. They were very dangerous. People were afraid to come near them. (Read Luke 8:27–29 and Mark 5:3–5.) The state of these men was awful. It reminds us of the power of the devil and of his forces. It also shows that their power ruins lives. Their power spoils people.
The men met Jesus. Now the disciples got an answer to their question in Matthew 8:27. They had asked: ‘Who is this?’ about Jesus. The demons (evil spirits) in the men shouted the answer. He is ‘the Son of God’ (Matthew 8:29). (Read ‘Important Truths’ in the section for Matthew 3:11–17.) The evil spirits knew that they were with their great enemy. (Compare James 2:19. It might be a reference to this event.) They knew their terrible end too. (Read Matthew 8:29. Compare Revelation 20:3.)
It is hard to understand Matthew 8:30–32. The demons (evil spirits) could not do anything unless Jesus let them. They asked to go into the large group of pigs. As a result, all the pigs died. We do not know why Jesus agreed to the evil spirits’ request. Maybe the time of their final punishment had not come. Maybe Jesus wanted to teach the local people something. This was a more likely reason. Jesus had saved two men from the devil’s control. This fact was more important than anything else.
The owners of the pigs were not pleased, of course. They forced Jesus to leave the area (Matthew 8:34). They did not bring their sick people to Jesus. They did not ask him to forgive their sins. (Compare Matthew 9:1–8.) They only cared about their pigs.
Note: It was against the law for Jews to keep pigs. But most of the people of this area were Gentiles (people who are not Jews). So, they could keep pigs.
Here, Matthew reached an important part of his Gospel. He had been telling about people’s reactions to Jesus. Matthew 8:18–22 told about people who were ‘almost’ disciples. They thought that they would like to follow Jesus. Matthew 8:23–27 told about weak disciples. Here we read about people who understood who Jesus was. Jesus showed who he was by his words. He performed a great miracle too.
This made them think about a question. It was: ‘What is the most important thing in life?’ But, they did not ask Jesus to forgive them. Then they could be God’s children. They were more interested in things instead. Possessions and selfish ambition came first. This was not a matter of religious laws. It was about what is important in life. It was about what was the most important thing in life.
Questions
- Demons (evil spirits) could cause trouble in your life. Do you have confidence in Jesus? Are you sure that he can help you? Can you describe a time when this happened? How would you recognise the activity of Satan (the devil)?
- How do you think that the devil tries to spoil church life today? Does he work better when he hides himself? Or is he more successful when everyone can see his work?
- In what way is the devil active in the world today? He hides the real nature of his work. How does he do this?
- Someone may behave in a strange way. He may need a doctor. He may need someone to discuss things with him. Or, he may need a special type of prayer. (It is the prayer when someone else orders an evil spirit to leave him. That person can only give this command in the name of Jesus.) How can we know what sort of help the person needs? (Note: ‘He’ refers to he or she.)
More explanation
Where the story happened. The number of men.
There are two difficulties with this story.
First, there is the name of the place. Our NT is a translation from the Greek language. In the book of Matthew, the place is called ‘Gadara’. This is the most likely place. It was not far from the Sea of Galilee. ‘Gergesa’ is another possible name. But this may have been a village in the Gadara district. In the books of Mark and Luke, the place is called ‘Gerasa’. This was 30 miles from the Lake of Galilee. So, it is not likely to be the right place.
There is a reason for this confusion. At first, people copied the Gospels by hand. The names are very similar. So, someone could easily make a mistake. (Note: the Gospels are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.)
Second, the books of Mark and Luke mention only one mad man. Matthew mentions two mad men. There is a possible reason for this. Mark wanted to emphasise two things. There were the words of the demons (evil spirits). Also, there was Jesus’ command to one of the men. (Read Mark 5:7, 18–20.) Luke does the same thing. But Matthew records the full facts.
Important truths
The activity of demons (evil spirits)
We can be sure that demons (evil spirits) are real. We can learn about what they do. This passage emphasised these things. We read most about them during Jesus’ time on earth. The devil and his forces were meeting their great enemy.
Certain illnesses do not prove that a person has a demon (evil spirit). Some people say this about mental illness. But there is no idea of that, here. It is important to remember this. This passage shows that Jesus is ruler over all the powers of Satan (the devil). They are under his control.
