January 24, 2025 | Be God's Family
Jesus Heals Undesirables
Scripture: Matthew 8:28-34(NIV)
28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. 29 “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?”
30 Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding. 31 The demons begged Jesus, “If you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
32 He said to them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and died in the water. 33 Those tending the pigs ran off, went into the town and reported all this, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 Then the whole town went out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.
Devotional
To Jews in Jesus’ day, there was nothing worse than a herd of pigs. When Jesus told the story of the Prodigal Son, the listener knew the wayward boy had hit rock bottom when he took a job slopping pigs (Luke 15:15). When Jesus was teaching His disciples how to minister to others, he told them to not throw their pearls to pigs (Matthew 7:6).
Perhaps it was no surprise to the Jewish disciples that the proper place for a legion of demons is in a herd of pigs. They were in Gentile territory. Everything about this encounter would have seemed spiritually unclean to the Twelve.
But here’s something worth noticing. The violent, demon-possessed, tomb-dwelling, Gentile men were of great value to Jesus. Their lives and well-being were worth more than a herd of pigs, a flock of sheep, or any other non-human thing in all of creation. Jesus didn’t care that they weren’t Jews. He wasn’t bothered that they were homeless. He didn’t back away because of their social impurities. He simply interceded for them. Their lives mattered.
That’s the way it is for followers of Jesus, too. We are called to minister to others, regardless of how they look, smell, think, act, or speak. The Lord wants everyone to be free from their former way of life to live into a new future.
In Mark’s account of this episode, one of these men was the focal point of the story. When the townspeople came to the scene, they found the violent, naked, crazy man restored by Jesus, “sitting there, dressed and in his right mind” (Mark 5:15). This freaked out the folks from the community. It’s one thing when they could keep him at arm’s length. It’s another thing when Jesus told the guy, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19).
Angry that their pigs were now floating in the lake and afraid that cemetery dwellers were coming home, the people simply pleaded with Jesus to leave their region. They would rather have Jesus gone from them than Jesus healing their undesirables. How sad.
Poem
Cry
Psalm 130
Thrown in a pit of hopelessness
Where demons, fears, assail me
Out of these depths I cry to You
For You will never fail me
Among the dead, in sin I live
Bound, chained, despair my diet
I wait for You, all of me waits
May You my demons quiet
My mutilated flesh exposed
My life blood constant draining
My hope’s in You, in You alone
Grant me Your love unfailing
