“On the other side of the lake”

Read Luke 8:26-39

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Luke has already told of Jesus’s authority over evil spirits (Lk.4:33-37,41) and this next miracle, in a Gentile region, underlines that. The man was afflicted by many demons (27,29-30; the only other references to having multiple demons are Lk.8:2 and Mt.12:43-45). They immediately recognised who Jesus was and that he was their enemy (28; Jas.2:19).

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Though the spirit spoke to Jesus through the man (12), Jesus addressed the man and not the spirit (9.). There is no suggestion in the Bible of needing to know a demon’s name in order to deal with it, and Matthew skips that detail, going straight to the main point i.e. Jesus cast out the demons from the man and gave them permission to enter the herd of pigs who then stampeded to their destruction (31-33; Mt.8:30-32). 

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The outcome showed clearly that the demons had been many and that they had been dealt with decisively. For Jesus the deliverance of this man, along with the resulting benefit to the whole community, was more important than the consequences for the pigs and their owners. The miracle shows that Jesus has power to save people from the greatest evil (1 Jn.3:8). But people don’t always want his salvation (37).