Head for the Hills
Did you ever do something against your better judgment, just to appease someone and then have it blow up in your face?
The demons begged him, "If you cast us out, send us into the herd of swine." And he said to them, "Go!" So they came out and entered the swine; and suddenly, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the water. - Matthew 8:31-32
Sometimes the demons in the world can screw up our day.
In today's reading from Matthew, Jesus was having a good day, walking and talking with his followers, when two demoniacs came out to greet him. Demoniacs are people possessed by spirits, or people just plain messed up. I am sure you have encountered them at one time or another. I know I have.
According to Matthew, these were mean dudes who wouldn't let anyone pass, so Jesus couldn't do what I did yesterday while walking in Manhattan, and make a wide path around them to keep on walking. And they didn't wait for him to acknowledge them.
They encountered him.
Now this is the strange part. The way Matthew tells it, the demons in the men knew Jesus could cast them out, so they begged Jesus to cast them out into the swine herding nearby.
This is the part that I find bizarre. And I am not alone. I found a whole long discourse on why there would be herds of swine in a country that didn't eat pork. Obviously, the fact that they were swine mattered to Matthew and to his audience, which were predominantly people living on the fringe, people who lived among the Romans and Jews, people in between cultures and beliefs.
So, this is an interesting situation. When Jesus casts the demons into the swine, someone's livelihood is ruined, the swineherds. This act would have had an impact on the local economy, the Roman economy.
And the bizarre thing is that the demons wanted it to be that way.
Consider this. If you were a Jew living at the time, oppressed by Roman rule, and along comes a leader who has authority over demons and can use them to hurt Rome, how would you feel about him? Would you see him as a savior?
When the swine run into the water and drown, Jesus is begged to leave town, and at first glance, it looks to us that Jesus loses. But the people who beg him to leave are afraid of his power and what Rome might do to them if he stays.
So, they want him to head for the hills and leave them alone. They choose oppression over freedom.
One of the amazing things about Matthew's telling of the gospel is that he knows his audience and he knows that even though they might be illiterate and poor, they are very politically aware and they would have seen this story as a call to follow Jesus, not a message to abandon him or cast him aside.
Fascinating, isn't it?
I think I'll go make breakfast. Bacon anyone?
More to come...
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