NOTES for Luk 8:26-39
The evangelist notes an interesting feature of human perception: those who came to look at the man freed from the power of the dark forces are horrified that he is now free. It would seem that everything should have been the other way around: the condition in which the possessed man had lived before his healing should have horrified them. But, as can be seen, they had already grown used to that condition, while the sudden change in him frightened them very strongly.
Why does this happen? Why does it turn out that the norm of fallen humanity often frightens people, while an anomaly is perceived as the norm, especially when spiritual life is involved? One can, of course, say that such is the condition of fallen humanity: if the world "lies in evil," then a person, living in such a world, gradually grows used to this evil and begins to perceive it as normal.
But in this case the matter concerned something extraordinary even against the background of all the evil characteristic of the fallen world. Possession still remains an anomaly even in the consciousness of a fallen person. Then what is it? The very manifestation of the Kingdom? Was it this that so frightened the people who saw an obvious miracle that they asked the One who had performed it to leave?
At first glance, the situation is strange: He had brought one of their fellow citizens freedom from the power of the force considered one of the most terrible threats to a person. But they perceived the healing of the possessed man only as the triumph of one force over another. Judging by the evangelist's account, none of them except the healed man himself understood Whom and what they were dealing with; no one sensed the breath of the Kingdom brought into the world by the Savior.
The one who sensed it was ready to remain with Jesus forever. The rest asked Him to leave. For power is a dangerous thing; who knows what it will turn into for them tomorrow? Fallen people react this way to the power of the Kingdom if they do not sense its love. A love that cannot be seen from the outside: for in order to sense it, one must come closer and feel the breath of God that permeates this Kingdom. Only then is fear replaced by trust and love.