PR. DENIS KALUNGI

KIREKA CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

SAT/3/7/2021 SERMON

DEEP UNDERSTANDING OF MATHEW 8:28-34

Why did the demons ask Jesus’s permission to be sent into the pigs, when those pigs would be immediately drowned? Where else would they have gone? And where did they go after ‘the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters’? This has always perplexed or puzzled me!” 

Not everybody knows this story, so we should probably read that section from Matthew 8. This is starting at verse 28: 

And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. “In other words, it was a danger zone”

And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. ”The demons know who Jesus is. They call him the “Son of God” Mathew 8:29 but there are some Christians who have failed to acknowledge Jesus.” 

They know that in the future there is an appointed time for final torment. They wonder if Jesus has come to start that final judgment. They say, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” {Matthew 8:29}. We know there’s a time coming where we’re going to get final torment, but not yet, Jesus. Or is it?

And the demons begged him, saying, “If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.” And he said to them, “Go.” So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters. “They know that he has absolute power over them and can choose either to cast them out or not or decide where they go. There’s no negotiation here as if they were equal partners at the negotiating table; Jesus is superior, and they know it.”

The fact that there was a herd of pigs nearby shows that we are in the Gentile territory “where we have unclean people, since the Jews regarded pigs as unclean, and did not raise them for food or anything {Deuteronomy 14:8}. In other words, this is one of those rare moments when Jesus is reaching out into the Gentile world as a pointer to the fact that his ministry is going to result in a global mission to all the peoples of the world {Matthew 28:19–20}.

The fact that the demons pleaded to be sent into the pigs shows how much they hated roaming about in the world without any habitation. This seems to point to how evil they are, and how the maximizing of their evil comes from entering into any kind of being they can get their hands on to ruin their lives.“Because they would ask to go into the sea without going into the pigs.”

The number of pigs isn’t mentioned in Matthew like it was mentioned in {Mark 5:13} “about two thousand”), but the herd is called large so that when the demons go out from the two demonized men into the herd and they all perish, we get the very clear sense of how big, how large, how serious these men’s bondage was, and how even this was no problem for Jesus. “This brings to our attention to us that Christ is conqueror”

The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. {Matthew 8:28–34}, “there could be people who love it when you’re in that condition.”

Another thing, these demons did not know what they were doing yet they were trying to get a new place to live in and do damage, not a place to be destroyed in the sea. “That’s why whenever in such places you have to put on a full armor and do not be like the pigs” the demons did not have it in mind that their new habitation could run to the (church) and they all perish for them they thought of relief.

This way  the word of God tells us In righteousness you will be established:
Oppression will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear. Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you “the pig was used to represent someone unclean, unrighteous and remember whenever demons are cased out of a man, it roams through waterless (dry, arid) places in search of rest, so unclean people are only used as a resting place for demons { Mathew 12:43-44}.

And from what we know of Jesus in the Gospels, they knew what was about to happen, so they feared — because he was here ahead of time to begin their final judgment — “he is here ahead of time to pass judgment to demons, “He had not let them escape into some lesser or smaller punishment on what they had brought on this two men, but he had appointed them to depart, without any habitation. But what you must know about demons or Satan does not what to face it alone that’s why he suggested going into the swine,” swine or pigs” by then represented unclean people.

Humanity Restored. Now, all that seems more or less clear, but is there more that can be said as to why Jesus would bring about the destruction of the pigs? The last two verses are very surprising, and I think they encourage us to go further in our thinking: 

“The herdsmen fled, and going into the city they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men” {Matthew 8:33}. It doesn’t say, “Especially about the pigs.” It says, “Especially about what had happened to the demon-possessed men.” In other words, they mentioned deliverance, and liberation, and freedom, and healing. “Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region” {Matthew 8:34}. “So some people are benefiting in that situation you’re going through.”

“Jesus demands a choice: love him and his salvation, or love your prosperity and your wealth.” 

See this man, One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. This man had people who were carrying him every day to the gate and they were benefiting from him someone is benefiting from your situation, from your habit that’s why he cannot tell you to stop adultery {Acts 3:1-12}

Two amazing things have happened in this Gentile region suddenly and by the power of Jesus. The first amazing thing that happened is two demon-possessed men were now free, and their humanity was restored. Their relationships were restored

Deliverance 

The second amazing thing that happened was a large herd of pigs was destroyed. Now, this causes me to ponder another situation in the Bible where Satan attempted to negotiate with God — namely, in the first chapters of Job verses 9-10. Satan asks permission to afflict Job, and God gave Satan permission, which proved to be a test of Job’s faithfulness to God. 

Job would face the choice: you can love God and trust him, or you can love your possessions and your family and your health more, and curse God for taking them away. In other words, God used Satan to test Job.

Now, it seems to me that’s more or less what’s going on here: Jesus comes into this Gentile world. He conquers the devil. He sets the prisoner free. He presents himself as a great deliverer, able to restore life and hope. But he also takes away a herd of pigs — “the livelihood, the wealth, from some in the community.” 

He forces a choice: prosperity over love, money over Jesus, human resources over divine power — that is, the power and grace of Jesus to give life and hope, or the love of possessions and wealth to be had from these pigs. And to our utter amazement, they beg Jesus — the life-giver, the devil-defeater, the hope-maker, and hope-giver — to leave their region.” In other words, it was also a test which most failed.”

It seems to me that the story has several levels of meaning. Jesus is the Son of God. , Jesus is triumphant over unclean spirits. Jesus liberates the captive, and gives hope to hopeless people — even Gentile people.  But Jesus demands a choice: love him and his salvation, or love your prosperity and your wealth — namely, your pigs. They failed; they failed the test. Matthew reports it, I think, in the hopes that we will not fail that test.