NOTES for Mat 8:28-34
The episode described by the evangelists, in which the inhabitants of an entire city asked the Lord Jesus Christ to leave because His presence frightened them and interfered with their occupation—that is, their “business”—might seem exotic. Of course, this is the reaction of pagans, and it is difficult to expect anything else from them...
Yet in essence, almost everyone experiences something similar at certain moments. Fortunately, we do not always behave as the Gergesenes did, but hardly anyone escapes temptations of this kind. It must be said that history developed in such a way that, after the third century AD, almost no one, it seems, dared openly to ask the Lord Jesus to leave.
Instead, following the “pattern” described by the evangelists, “nominal” or “three-times” Christianity arises within us: this is when a person meets God three times—at his baptism, wedding, and funeral. It is important to bear in mind that nominalism is only secondarily a social and religious phenomenon that afflicts society. First and foremost, it afflicts the individual person, and the evangelists’ account helps us see this not so much in others as in ourselves.