“Scared off”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Wednesday, June 1, 2022

Matthew 8:28-34 (Forward, p. 34) CEV p. 991

I have often wondered what the motivation of those townspeople was when they heard of the deliverance of the demoniacs. They begged Jesus to leave their part of the country, but why? I can only put it down to two reasons.

Firstly, they were possibly spooked, frightened, by the works of power seen in Jesus. The demoniacs had been a ‘terrible mess’ and a danger to both themselves and others, and yet, seemingly beyond any help or relief. And yet, here, Jesus, with nary of word, had set them free. That was pretty awesome, and not a little frightening. Obviously they were in the presence of someone with untold powers! Who knows what else He could ‘pull off’ and so that alone made the townspeople rather nervous and uncomfortable.

But then there may well have been another motive. The loss of all those pigs (Mark tells us there were about two thousand pigs—Mark 5:13) would have been a very serious financial blow, both to those who owned and raised those swine, but possibly to the entire community! So, perhaps what the community was actually concerned about was their financial livelihood. I reminds me of the silversmith, Demetrius in Ephesus, who got so upset with Paul’s preaching when it resulted in the bottom falling out of his trade in statues of the goddess (see Acts 19:24-27) or the owners of the slave girl in Philippi when Paul freed her from the demon that enabled her to tell fortunes. Interestingly, in this latter case, they accused Paul and Silas of ‘telling us to do things we Romans are not allowed to do” (like lose money?) (see Acts 16:19-21).

All of this poses a question, a question for me at least, and that is how I react to things that seem uncomfortable or unexpected or threatening. Yes, with things of God but also other things. The authorities in Palestine in Jesus’ day were clearly uncomfortable and threatened with what Jesus said and did, for it disrupted their comfort level and threatened their power base, and yes, perhaps their finances as well. Well, what of us? What do we see as threats, and how do we deal with them? And what of various developments in our communities and the world at large, and yes, even of developments within the church: how do we react? Are we any better or wiser than the people of Gadara in embracing what God was doing? A great question for all of us to ponder. Amen.

Forward notes: “The swineherds ran off, and on going into the town, they told the whole story about what had happened to the demoniacs. Then the whole town came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their neighbourhood” (verses 33-34).

“What if we have received a miracle but don’t know it? By expelling the demons possessing the two Gadarenes, Jesus restored to the townspeople two of their own—but at the price of a herd of swine. While the demoniacs lived in the graveyard at the edge of town, the rest of the town adjusted. Evil was contained at what seemed to be a safe remove. The swineherds kept their distance; the townspeople knew to stay away from the tombs; life went on.

“The loss of the pigs was no doubt a hardship for the swineherds and those depending on them; what else might Jesus disrupt if he stuck around? Matthew doesn’t tell us what happened in the town after Jesus left. Still, we can hope that as the community became reacquainted with the two people who had returned to wholeness, the town eventually understood that the kingdom of God had indeed come near.”

Moving Forward: “When have you experienced a miracle?