NOTES for Mat 8:28-34

The demon-possessed men did not live in burial caves by chance, for submission to the will of dark powers is already a path toward spiritual death. Therefore the casting out of demons from the two unfortunate Gergesenes meant not only the healing of specific people, and not even only the triumph of God's power over the powers of darkness. It was another foreshadowing of Christ's coming victory over death.

It would be too simple to see in the fear of the local residents, shaken by the circumstances that accompanied the casting out of the demons, only displeasure at the death of the pigs and therefore at material loss. No, the people of the Gergesene region sense that the One standing before them is able to change their whole life. But this is exactly what they do not want, because familiar life is so understandable.

So often we too, indignant at evil that has become familiar, do not want to notice that we ourselves have grown together with it so completely that if someone tries to free us from it, we become uneasy. But if we choose Christ, we must be ready to accept what he brings us. Even if, as a result, we lose something like a herd of pigs.