And there met him, when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, two possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs, exceeding dangerous, so that no one was able to pass by that way.
The storm is over, and the boat lands on the far shore. There a road stands closed, held by two men no one could restrain.
The place has more than one name. Old Greek manuscripts spell it three different ways.
These are also called GERGESENES and GERASENES in the different Greek manuscripts. The Sea of Galilee had various names, and so did the people who lived around it, depending on which nearby district they belonged to. The Gadarenes lived on the east side of the Sea of Galilee. There the Lord cured the two demon-possessed men, though Mark and Luke mention only one.
That eastern shore was not foreign soil. It belonged to the land God had given Israel — which makes what was living there all the more striking.
Gadara was a portion of the Jewish, or set-apart, earth. It lay inside the land where the eyes of the God of heaven and earth rested all year long (Deuteronomy 11:12). But the unclean had long since entered that land and defiled it. By this time we find them there in herds, along with the full display of the enemy's unchecked strength. Legion and the swine were in Gadara, to tell us what the place of Jehovah's choice had now become. It was the very palace of the strong man, but the Son of God now enters as the stronger.
Mark and Luke describe one man in detail. Matthew names two here, and elsewhere he names two blind men.
Two blind men are named there: a fact well suited to the writer inspired to testify of Jehovah-Messiah to the Jewish people. For the law had a well-established rule that they should look for at least two witnesses. So Matthew mentions the two demon-possessed men in the last event of Matthew 8. For Mark and Luke it was enough to dwell on the more striking of the two.
Where they lived is part of the horror. They came out of the burial caves — living men camped among the dead.
They come to the other side of the sea, only to find the enemy's power running wild there. Two men possessed by demons, coming out of the tombs, block the way against all comers. Matthew does not go into detail here, as Mark and Luke do. His aim is to show the Lord's power at work in these various deliverances… These living men dwelling among the dead were a dreadful horror, and their insane fury made men shrink back. Both details throw into contrast what happens when the Lord appears: those who held them captive give up their prey completely.
One of the two carried a name that told how many demons held him.
These two men were far indeed from the Messiah, for they were among the tombs, possessed with demons — just the picture of the most desperate power of Satan in the world. One of them, as we are told elsewhere, went by the name of Legion, because many demons had entered into him. You could not have worse than this.
What failed then still fails now, and the failure is not for lack of trying.
This malignant power of Satan is beyond man's power to subdue. People had often bound one of these men with shackles and chains, but "no one had the strength to subdue him." All Acts of Parliament and all the societies of men will fail to tame him. Only One can.
Read in order, the chapter builds. This is the third power the Lord meets in a row.
When He arrives at the other side, two demon-possessed men meet Him. Mark speaks only of one man, and supplies many more details. Matthew cares less about the details of these men's condition than about the Lord's authority over demons. Still, he confirms how fierce they were, so fierce that men could not pass that way. The Lord has shown His authority over the flesh in verses 18 to 22, and His authority over the world in verses 23 to 27. Now He shows no less authority over Satan's power.
The scene also looks forward, tying these two men to Israel's future.
I have no doubt that our writer gives the casting out of the demons as a witness of Christ's power to deliver the Jewish remnant. That is why the Holy Spirit names the two men here, and only here. On the other hand, the possessed herd of swine seems to picture something else. It stands for the destruction of the unclean mass of Israel in the last days.
- Place — The far shore was Israel's own God-given land. Yet the ground of God's choice had become the strong man's palace.
- Prey — Two living men camped among the dead, so fierce that the road was closed: the enemy's power running wild.
- Powerlessness — Men tried chains, and the chains broke. No law and no society can tame this power. Only One can.
- Proof — Matthew names two because the law required two witnesses. His interest is the Lord's authority: over the flesh, over the world, and now over Satan.
- Preview — The two men delivered picture a remnant saved. The herd destroyed pictures an unclean mass judged when the stronger One acts in full.
And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Son of God? hast thou come here before the time to torment us?
Two men under the power of demons meet Jesus as He comes ashore, and they greet Him with a title most people around Him refused to give Him. Their cry raises two questions: how do enemies of God know exactly who He is, and what is "the time" they fear?
The enemies of Christ get His identity right, while men are still arguing about it.
Men, blinded by Satan, may dispute His right; they do not. It is striking that they give Him at once the title that men deny Him, Son of God, and recognise Him as their future Judge. But they plead that the day of judgment has not come — can He have come to torment them before the time?
The phrase assumes a calendar. They are not asking whether judgment will fall, but whether it has arrived early.
Every knee will certainly bow to Him: the godly, the earthly, and the powers of darkness. Angels, rulers, powers — all will acknowledge Him when He appears. This was exactly the witness the devil gave to His power when He came on earth: "Have you come here to torment us before the time?" So there is clearly a time set apart, and they know it — a time when full judgment falls on them.
Another writer says what that set time will bring.
They begged Him not to command them to depart into the abyss, because their sure doom was in front of their eyes. They knew that when He reigns He will cast them there, and they dreaded it even now.
Two men speak, but the confession is not theirs. The words carry a despair that belongs to someone else.
Terrible words indeed — the confession of hopeless despair. No future to think about but one of torment — what a wicked creature rightly deserves. But who spoke those words? The demoniacs. Whose words, though, were they really speaking? Those of the demons.
Was this just mental illness described in old language? The herd of pigs answers that.
It is pointless here, as everywhere, to confuse possession by demons with insanity or disease. Insanity or disease might also be present, or neither of them, and the possession by evil spirits still be real. The reality was plain. The effect on the pigs made the fact undeniable, and left no excuse for calling it a physical or mental disorder.
Their creed is flawless. It saves nobody.
"The demons believe and shudder." Sadly, that is more than we can say of man in his hardness. Man's believing does not make a thing true, nor does his unbelief make it false. "The demons believe." "What have you to do with us, O Son of God?" ... There is no Saviour for demons. "It is not angels that He helps" (Heb. 2:16). A perfect man, and perfectly a man, He passed the angels by.
Knowing about a person is not the same as knowing the person.
Some people only believe things about Christ. Their mind bows to the truth that such a Person existed. They agree that He was divine. They admit that He died to save sinners on a cross of shame. But they have no personal link with Him. For all their knowledge, they are only on a level with the demons and with those who have believed too late. The one difference is this: the great gulf is not yet fixed for them.
Fear is how these spirits hold people. In front of Christ, they have nothing left.
If man, to whom the Lord had come in grace, did not know Him, the demons knew their Judge in the Person of the Son of God. Demons possessed the man. The fear they have of torment at the judgment of the last day now attaches, in his mind, to the immediate presence of the Lord: "Have you come here to torment us before the time?" Wicked spirits act on men through dread of their power; they have none unless men fear them. But only faith can take that fear from a man... They have to acknowledge this power, and they appeal to it. There is no idea of resistance.
- Knowledge, confessed. The demons name Jesus "Son of God" — the very title men around Him denied — and own Him as their coming Judge.
- Knowledge of a date. "Before the time" shows they know a fixed day of judgment is still ahead. They beg only that it not start early.
- Knowledge borrowed. The words come from two men's mouths, but they belong to the demons. The drowned herd proved possession, not illness.
- Knowledge without a Saviour. They believe and shudder, but there is no Saviour for demons. He passed the angels by.
- Knowledge is not faith. Facts about Christ with no personal link to Him put a person on a level with demons. The one difference: for the living, the door is still open.