They came to the other side of the lake, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when he had stepped out of the boat, immediately a man out of the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. He lived among the tombs; and no one could restrain him any more, even with a chain; for he had often been restrained with shackles and chains, but the chains he wrenched apart, and the shackles he broke in pieces; and no one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always howling and bruising himself with stones. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before him; and he shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.’ For he had said to him, ‘Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!’ Then Jesus asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He replied, ‘My name is Legion; for we are many.’ He begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, ‘Send us into the swine; let us enter them.’ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the lake, and were drowned in the lake.
The swineherds ran off and told it in the city and in the country. Then people came to see what it was that had happened. They came to Jesus and saw the man infected with demons sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the legion; and they were afraid. Those who had seen what had happened to the man with demons and to the swine reported it. Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their neighbourhood. As he was climbing into the boat, the man who had been infected demons begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus refused, and said to him, ‘Go home to your friends, and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and what mercy he has shown you.’ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.
Mark 5:1-20
People who first read the Gospels are often shocked by Jesus slaughtering 2000 pigs. Experienced Christians also find it hard to answer why Jesus did this. The livelihood of many families was ruined. Why?
Was this to show that one man is worth more than 2000 pigs? Jesus said that people are worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10:31) Was he applying this in a different way to non-Jewish pig keepers? But he could have said it rather than done it.
Was Jesus showing his human, Jewish, side? Jewish people understand that eating pork is forbidden by God. Rearing pigs is a forbidden occupation.
Having been taught to have two way conversations with Jesus, I tried asking him. To find out about this practice see How to have two way conversations with Jesus – Fresh Bible Answers
I thought Jesus responded with 2 answers:
1 The pigs in the sea were good publicity.
Everyone heard about Jesus, the anti-pig man – or was he the pro-person man? The man who had had demons, or unclean spirits as Jesus preferred to call them, went and told many people. The people who heard of the healing were amazed – hearing an unforgettable story. This wide publicity was both good, for the healed man, and bad, for the pig owners. The accepted truth is that all publicity is good publicity.
2 The demons were taken out. The area was cleaner, more prosperous. A plague of flies had been removed from the atmosphere.
Jesus was happy to talk of Satan as Beelzebul, which means Lord of Flies. (Luke 11:14-23) Demons, under the authority of Satan, are like flies. Flies are dirty, unclean, and live on dirt. They go where they should not go, spreading uncleanness. Unclean spirits are like flies.
The unclean spirits called themselves a Legion. A Roman Legion of soldiers typically numbered about 5,000. The unclean spirits could well have been exaggerating, to make people more afraid of them than needed. This is their common behaviour. But it seems there were enough unclean spirits for at least one to go into each of 2,000 pigs. The distressed man had between 2,000 and 5,000 unclean spirits, in his head and heart.
We can also think of unclean spirits as germs, which cause an infection. Germs penetrate where they should not penetrate bringing, spreading, disease. The man had no peace, no ease. He had been dis-eased by the demons / unclean spirts. This was evident in his behaviour and speech and general attitude to others. The spirits also affected him physically, giving him the ability to pull chains apart. This man was suffering from a major infection.
In the quotation from Luke, I have used the translation ‘infected with demons’ for Luke’s Greek word which is literally ‘demonized.’ This word has often been translated ‘possessed by demons,’ which makes the demons seem more powerful than they are. We do not call someone ‘possessed by germs’ but infected by germs.
This poor man was attracting more and more unclean spirits. As flies cluster around dirt and rotting flesh, in and around the primary site, so demons / unclean spirits clustered around this man, spreading disease and rot through the area. The man had been pushed out to the margin, to the edge of the sea. People may not have understood how his unclean spirits were spoiling the area, but they knew he was a bad influence and had to push him away.
The demons / unclean spirits wanted to go to the pigs so that they could continue to cause disease and mayhem far around. Jesus agreed, knowing that the pigs would respond by rushing to their death in the sea. The man had been pushed by the unclean spirits to harm himself. The same spirits had the same effect on the pigs.
Once in the sea, the unclean spirits could not return to land. Without a living creature to host them, the spirits went to the abyss. Luke records that the demons had begged Jesus not to order them to go back into the abyss. (Luke 8:31) The abyss is probably a spiritual prison for such spirits. The irony, as Luke was aware, is that sending the unclean spirits into the pigs was a way of sending them to the abyss, a very visual way, remembered and recounted by people.
Once the demons were taken out the whole area became cleaner, healthier, more harmonious. People and crops were less diseased, harvests were fuller. Without the demons, over time, the local people prospered.
Those with eyes to see, to understood, the connection between the cleansing of the man infected with demons and less disease in the surrounding area, were grateful. Those trapped in bitterness and resentment about the loss of the pigs did not see the connection. But Jesus, his Father and his Spirit, made sure that, in the end, non-one was worse off for the loss of their pigs.