Have you ever wished or prayed for something, and then when it happened it wasn’t at all what you expected? It was what you had expressed in your wish or prayer, but when you expressed the desire of your heart you hadn’t realized all that having this particular end result would entail. You hadn’t thought about all the other things that would be affected when it came true. You hadn’t looked at the affect on your relationships, your bank account, your work environment, your family. All you could see was the pain and you wanted it to go away.
Our text has just such an outcome. The demons inside this man have had a place to hang out for years. They have had the run of the place. They were in charge. But that rule is challenged in an instant when Jesus’ boat pulls up on shore. They know judgment has arrived on their sand and they want some way of wiggling out of the inevitable turn of events.
Jesus takes charge and they try to get Jesus to stop the proceedings, to go into a recess, to give them time to think. But Jesus has one thing in mind: bringing freedom to this man who has been in agony. The demons have wrecked his whole being, body, mind and soul. Jesus wants to bring freedom to his whole being. They don’t want to give up control. They are in such a hurry to keep some semblance of control that they look around and see the pigs, a whole heard of pigs. There is lots of empty space over there. We could each have a room to ourselves! No more standing in line for the bathroom. No more bossy relatives. No more having to do what someone else wants. I can be on my own. I can remain in charge.
But what they hadn’t counted on was Jesus’ full knowledge of what would happen if they entered the pigs. I am sure they didn’t count on the pigs staging a full walkout, closing down the pork chop assembly line. But of course Jesus knows the future. And Jesus has a plan.
Jesus plan includes not only deliverance for this one man filled with the demons, but a radical opportunity for that whole part of the land. He knows that when the pigs run off the cliff those tending the pigs will become a new PR firm. The public relations campaign that begins that day affects tens of thousands of people in that whole region. In places that had not heard the name of Jesus and the power of God that was demonstrated, suddenly hear of this man who has authority that only God possesses.
The shift workers run in to management and report the workplace accident. They were following all the appropriate workplace policies and procedures, but then the unprecedented happened. The whole line malfunctioned at once. They lost the whole run. And all the equipment was destroyed in the process. All the pigs ran off the cliff. This year’s crop and all the breeding stock run off the cliff together.
When those being told hear the news, they have to see it for themselves. They want to make sure the shift hasn’t perpetrated some kind of heist in the middle of the night and made off with their profit. They want to see the dead pigs for themselves. When they arrive I am sure they can see the paths through the vegetation next to the cliffs where the 2000 pigs ran. And then they look over the cliff and there are the pigs, smashed to death at the bottom.
Now I know I have used my imagination to fill in details, but doesn’t that sound like what could have happened? I know I would want to see how my 401k went belly up and hold the appropriate people accountable.
Not at all what the pigs had expected. They are suddenly without a home, just what they feared would happen when Jesus showed up. And Jesus has created a situation that guarantees news of His authority gets broadcast to thousands who haven’t heard.
The Arnold Journey 