Begging Him to Depart

"And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And they saw Him they begged Him to depart from their region." -Matthew 8:34

The story is a familiar one: Jesus casting demons out of two demon possessed men in the country of the Gergasenes (or Gadarenes, depending on the translation). The demons (who were so many in the man that the referred to themselves as "Legion") begged to be sent into a herd of swine rather than cast into their final destination, the Lake of Fire. Jesus does so, at which they take the herd of swine over a cliff into the Sea of Galilee.

The locals arrive. They see the demon possessed men (Matthew says one man, but commentators think that the explanation for two is that one man was the primary speaker) clothed, sitting calmly in their right mind. Here is the Son of God in the midst, the great teacher Jesus, giving a demonstration of His power to back up His claim that He is the Son of God and can forgive sins.

Their response? They "begged Him to depart from their region."

Why? It could have been that they were frightened by the disruption of their ordinary lives, or that they rued the economic loss of a herd of swine, or that simply as ungodly people they did not want the presence of a power Higher than they in their midst. In any event, they bid the Son of God to leave them.

"Fools" we snort and then continue on to Matthew 9. But are we truly any better? When God reveals His power or His authority to us, how do we respond? Do we stop to listen to Him, to amend our lives, to seek His forgiveness? Or do we, like them, because it is inconvenient or economically disruptive (more true than we care to admit) or emphasizes the sin we do not want to part with, beg Jesus to depart from us as well?

There is a post script here as well. The main speaker of the two (at least) who Jesus cured wanted to follow Him (Mark 5:19) but Christ denied Him, saying "Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you." Even after rejection Christ's compassion for the lost still showed through.

He is still moving in our lives, still having compassion on us. Do we hear Him as well, or are we too busy watching the swine herds of our lives plunge over the cliff and being more concerned for the loss it represents to us than His power and forgiveness of our sins?