If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it. [Matthew 10:38-39 NLT]
There’s probably no end of sermons and commentary on the swine that went plunging into the lake after Jesus saved the demoniac. “Why pigs?” some ask while others focus on the death of the animals rather than the salvation of a man. Non-believers criticize Jesus for his “wanton destruction” of other people’s property without realizing their criticism implies their belief in the miracle. Theologians respond that since Jesus is God, those pigs actually belonged to Him. I don’t know what the demons wanted when they asked to be sent into the pigs, why they plunged down the hillside to their death, or what happened to the demons after that. What I do know is that the value of 2,000 pigs does not exceed the value of one human soul.
Rather than the pigs, I’d rather consider the townspeople and their reaction to the demoniac’s miraculous healing. A crowd soon gathered around Jesus and the now obviously sane man. Rather than joy over his miraculous restoration, the people only saw their loss and they told Jesus to go away. Since much of their wealth had just perished in the lake, their initial reaction is understandable. Moreover, with the Gerasenes being a Gentile region, the people had no messianic expectations. Understandably, encountering a man so powerful that he could banish demons and send pigs over a cliff frightened them. Yet, there is no record of anyone asking Jesus who He was, why He’d come, what He wanted, or from where His power came. They just pled with Him to leave them alone!
Unfortunately, the people closed their minds and chose wealth and fear over the miraculous healing brought by Jesus. What Jesus could have given them far outweighed the loss of a herd of pigs. Surely, the demoniac wasn’t the only one in the region needing healing and yet no one else approached this amazing healer who’d arrived on their shores. Sadly, the people were so afraid of how Jesus would impact their lives that they rejected Him. I wonder if we, like the people of the Gerasenes, allow fear and materialism to keep us from welcoming Jesus into our lives. As theologian D.A. Carson says of the Gerasenes’ people, “They preferred pigs to persons, swine to Savior.” We must never do the same!
When Jesus steps into our lives, He radically changes us. He will restore us as He did for the demoniac but it will come at a cost, as it did for the townspeople. Jesus doesn’t want just a portion of us and what’s ours—He wants all of us and everything we possess. That means giving up a whole lot more than a herd of pigs. Rather than being afraid of Him and His power, as were the townspeople, we must trust Him and welcome Him with open arms. After all, is anything worth more than a soul?
Mark and Luke tell of Jesus and the disciples crossing the Sea of Galilee to the region of the Gerasenes where they encountered a demon-possessed man. He’d been banished to live in the tombs and was so violent and strong that even shackles couldn’t restrain him. The demoniac would cut himself with sharp stones and his shrieks could be heard night and day. When Jesus restored the man, He sent the demons into a herd of swine that plunged down the steep hillside and drowned in the lake.
Once upon a time, when an acorn fell on Chicken Licken’s head, he thought the sky was falling. In a panic, he ran across the barnyard to tell Henny Penny. After the alarmed twosome told Turkey Lurkey the frightening news, the three sped off to warn the rest of the barnyard. Shocked at the scary news, Ducky Lucky and Goosey Loosey joined them in their panic. When the five distraught birds encountered Foxy Loxy, the sly fellow invited them into the safety of his den. Sadly, that was the end of Chicken Licken and the rest of the barnyard birds—all because they didn’t understand that acorns falling from oak trees are an inevitable part of life.
Several years ago, my husband came upon a wonderful opportunity to buy a business in another state. He also knew a talented young man capable of running it there. Rather than simply buying the business and hiring the fellow as CEO, my husband loaned him money so that he could buy a share in the business. A firm believer in having what he calls, “skin in the game,” my husband found that partners in a business care about its success far more than any employee ever will. When he and his partner retired, they sold the business to the employees through an ESOP program—now everyone working there is a partner and has “skin in the game.”
But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the Lord your God and disobey his commands, regulations, and decrees that I am giving you today. [Deuteronomy 8:11 (NLT)]
In Ezekiel 34, the Lord commanded Ezekiel to prophesy against the shepherds of Israel—not the caretakers of sheep but the prophets, priests, and leaders who were supposed to protect their people in the same way a shepherd does his sheep. He accused them of not searching for lost sheep and abandoning their flock to be attacked by wild animals.
Devotions of the Heart 