Longing for Rescue
There is in each of our hearts a longing for rescue, an ache for someone to come and find us, heal and help us. There’s something deeply rooted in our souls that yearns for someone to see us and then come and get us and bring us safely home. This is one reason why we love superhero movies. You could say this longing is the baseline of the best stories, explaining why those stories resonate so well with so many. We long to be rescued. From what, we’re not sure, but the longing is there.
Today we’re going to look at a story in Luke 8 where Jesus goes and rescues a man who was captive to evil. We have no idea how the man ended up as a captive, but we know he didn’t grow up dreaming of a day he would live in Satan’s torture chamber. Regardless of how he was imprisoned, he was imprisoned, but Jesus went to set him free. And when he did, everything changed for this man.
What is Luke Doing?
Before we look at Luke 8, let me remind you what Luke is doing in his Gospel. In Luke 4, when Jesus visits his hometown of Nazareth, he’s asked to preach and the text he chooses is Isaiah 61 (4:16-21). This passage is about what the Messiah will do when he comes. And Jesus says it’s happening now, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (v. 21).
From that point on in Luke’s Gospel, Luke is showing us how that’s true. In episode after episode, Luke shows us Jesus as the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah. One of the things Isaiah said the Messiah would do is to “proclaim liberty to the captives” and “to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (v. 18).
So when we come to chapter 8, that’s exactly what Jesus is doing. He’s rescuing people from chaos and destruction, in nature as we saw last week in the calming of the storm (vv. 22-25), and in human nature in the healing of the demoniac (vv. 26-39). In both instances, Luke wants us to see Jesus’s rescuing power and compassion for those who’re drowning, either in water or in evil.
As we land on the other side of the Sea with Jesus and his disciples, we’ll see the man and the demons (vv. 26-31), the rescue and the report (vv. 32-37), and the mission and the message (vv. 38-39). The main point of this passage is that Jesus is stronger than evil.
The Man and the Demons
In verses 26-31, we meet the man and the demons. Luke is careful to tell us where Jesus and his disciples are. They sailed to “the other side of the lake” (v. 22), to “the country of the Gerasene’s, which is opposite Galilee” (v. 26). This was a Gentile area. Ten Greek cities, the Decapolis, had been founded there. It wasn’t a place Jews lived or traveled to, hence the presence of pigs. This is Jesus’ first foray into a Gentile area, an unclean environment.
As soon as he steps out of the boat, he’s met by a man full of unclean spirits, or demons (v. 27). This man lives among the dead near where pigs are herded. So here’s Jewish Jesus in an unclean Gentile land, confronted by a man full of an army of unclean spirits who lives in a graveyard next to a pig farm. As one writer says, “This entire scene is soaked in impurity.”[1] The pure One unflinchingly walks into a sea of impurity. This is a picture of the grace of Jesus.
This man is a poignant picture of human brokenness. He hasn’t worn clothes for a long time so he didn’t have protection for his body. He didn’t live in a house so he didn’t have protection from the elements. He was isolated and alienated from all that he knew and loved. He was chained up and put under guard (v. 29). But even that stopped working after a while and he would end up in the wilderness. He was a public nuisance, had no claim to status, and was reduced to live like a wild animal. He’s humiliated, isolated, subjugated, fragmented and experiencing unimaginable suffering underneath the bondage of an army of demons.
But no matter what our condition, what a difference it makes when we see Jesus! In verse 28, the man falls down before Jesus, and the demons start crying out to Jesus. Only demons address Jesus this way in the New Testament. They know who he is. They know that the Messiah has arrived. But they didn’t know the whole plan. This is why Paul says that if evil powers would’ve understood what God was up to in Jesus, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor. 2:8). The powers of evil didn’t know how God would accomplish salvation because, as one writer says, “The complete messianic profile and plan of salvation was cryptically scattered and veiled throughout the Old Testament.”[2] The demons don’t perceive all that Jesus will do, but they know who he is, and they’re terrified. That’s why they plead with him not to torture them (v. 28).
Since they know Jesus’ name, Jesus asks them theirs in verse 30. It was thought that if you knew a demon’s name then you had mastery over it. But the man says, “Legion,” which is a statistic, not a name. A “legion” was a Roman military unit of several thousand soldiers.
The demons don’t give Jesus a name but they do try to intimidate him with numbers. But as we’ll see, Jesus doesn’t need to know their name to control them.
This Man is Like Us
This man full of demons is a good picture of the human condition apart from God. In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul says apart from Christ we follow darkness. And in Colossians 1:13 he says we were in “the domain of darkness” and then in verse 21 that we “were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds.” And in 2 Corinthians 4, he says that we don’t see the glory of Christ because the evil one has blinded our minds (v. 4). Apart from Christ, we’re drowning in darkness.
This doesn’t mean we’re possessed by demons, but it does mean we’re under the power of dark forces. There’s no part of our lives that isn’t touched by darkness. Our minds, wills, emotions, desires, families, schools, jobs, cities, and governments are under the shadow of evil.
This man is enslaved and we are enslaved. The difference between him and us is a matter of degree. We often think of demons being at work in the really bad people in the world. But Paul connects pride (1 Tim. 3:6) and bitterness and resentment (Eph. 4:26-27) to evil.
I’m not saying that all our sin is a result of demonic work. I am saying that in some way evil is at work in and through our sinning. Evil opens you up to sin and sin opens you up to evil. Evil aggravates and stirs up sinful things in our hearts that end up messing up our lives.
We’re only different from this man by degree. Like him, we’re trapped in evil and need someone to rescue us.
The Rescue and the Report
And that leads us to the next section, verses 32-37, where we see the rescue and the report. In verse 32, the demons make a last-ditch effort to save themselves. They’ve begged Jesus not to throw them into the “abyss,” or “bottomless pit” (v. 31), the place of final imprisonment and punishment for demons. But because it’s not yet time for that, they then beg to enter a nearby herd of pigs (v. 32). It’s fitting that unclean spirits want to enter animals deemed unclean by Jews.
Mark’s Gospel says there were 2,000 pigs, likely one for each demon. But why do they want to go into the pigs? We don’t know for sure, but Luke 11:24 gives us a clue. It seems that demons must inhabit something. They’re like parasites, they need a host through whom to carry out their evil designs.
Evil spirits work hard to destroy God’s work. The way they do this is to incarnate themselves so they can oppose the work of the incarnate God. Evil spirits need a place to inhabit so they can challenge the one who’s inhabited time, the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus, of course, isn’t a pushover. He came to take back what is rightfully Gods. This is what John means when he says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn. 3:8).
I love the phrase at the end of verse 32, “So he gave them permission.” Nothing happens without the King’s permission, even the movement of enemy troops. The Lord Jesus is sovereign over all things, including evil. These evil spirits are actively working against God, but they’re on a chain and can only do what God allows them to do.
In other religions, during an exorcism you have to call on a higher power to remove the evil spirits. What Jesus does is unique. He just says, “Come out,” and the demons obey. He doesn’t need holy oil or incantations or prayers. He doesn’t work up a sweat or roll up his sleeves. And he doesn’t need to call on a higher power because he is the higher power. A legion of demons versus Jesus isn’t even a struggle. The battle is over in a word.
A lot of people wonder why the pigs had to die. But notice that the text doesn’t say that Jesus commanded the pigs to run into the sea. The demons destroy the pigs, not Jesus. The fact that this happens to the pigs is tangible proof that the demons had come out of the man.
But I think there’s something even more profound going on here. Some complain that these pigs were valuable to their Gentile owners and so Jesus shouldn’t have sent the demons into them because he’s hurting their business and injuring them economically. But for Jesus, one man is worth more than 2,000 pigs. The restoration of this man is more important than any collateral damage that comes with the destruction of the demons. Or to put it another way, all the wealth in the world is not worth one soul.
Ironically, the demons end up in the lake over which Jesus just demonstrated his mastery. They end up drowning in the abyss of the deep waters of the Sea of Galilee. Jesus is again flexing his power over all hostile powers.
Seized by Fear
After the man is rescued from the demons the report of what happened starts circulating through the area (vv. 34-36). Because of Jesus’ power, the pigs are dead and the man is saved (v. 36). The unclean contagion of the demons doesn’t defile Jesus. Rather, the holy contagion of Jesus rescues and transforms this man.
Verse 35 pictures the total reversal that took place in the man’s life. He was “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind.” Earlier he was sitting before Jesus shouting and begging him not to torture him (v. 28). Now he’s before Jesus, listening, soaking in his goodness, with his shame covered and his mind restored.
There was a noticeable change in his life after he encountered Jesus. Has there been such a change in your life?
Instead of celebrating, the people who knew this man are afraid (vv. 35, 37). They’re alarmed by what’s happened. They sense that a power beyond their comprehension or control is present in Jesus. So just as the demons “seized” the man (v. 29), so fear “seizes” the people (v. 37). They’re so afraid that they want Jesus to leave. Like a perfect gentleman, Jesus doesn’t stay where he isn’t wanted.
Seeking for Me
Despite unambiguous evidence of God’s power and mercy in Jesus, the people have no interest in him, other than that he leaves. Why? Because people by nature do not seek God. The religions of the world say that man is seeking God. But the Bible says, no they’re not. It’s actually God who’s seeking man. As an old hymn says:
Jesus, my Savior, to Bethlehem came,
Born in a manger to sorrow and shame;
Oh, it was wonderful—blest be his name!
Seeking for me, for me![3]
Jesus came into the world to seek and to save the lost, like this man, to rescue those drowning in evil and sin. The great story of the world isn’t that man is seeking for God but that God is seeking for man.
Is it your story? As one pastor says, God seeking you is “Not a story about religious expectation, or hopes or dreams, or turning over a new leaf, or engaging with God, or finding yourself, or feeling more spiritual. No, the radical invasion of God himself, turning our lives upside down – which, since they’re by nature upside down, is (actually turning them) the right way up. And suddenly, when we’ve been found, we look at the world in a different way.”[4] Is that you?
The Mission and the Message
Finally, in verses 38-39, we see the mission and the message. The man healed by Jesus, like anyone who’s truly tasted Jesus’ mercy, longs to be with him.
But Jesus denies his request and sends him home (v. 39). The man who was homeless is sent home because Jesus’ saving work has ramifications spiritually and socially and relationally.
And he sends him home with a mission, to “declare how much God has done for you.” He wants this man to tell others what’s happened to him.
Some ask why Jesus doesn’t take us immediately to heaven after we’re saved. It’s because, as his rescued ones, we have a mission to go and rescue others. There was a book about evangelism some years ago titled One Thing You Can’t Do in Heaven. Once we’re in heaven, we won’t be able to share the gospel with the lost. But as long as we’re on earth, we have a story to tell.
This man becomes the first missionary sent by Jesus to Gentiles. He’s been rescued and now he’s sent on a rescue mission.
Jesus Can Go, but Jesus Will Stay
There’s heavy irony here. The people want Jesus to leave and he complies. The man wants to go with Jesus but is denied. But in a sense Jesus didn’t grant their request because he sends his evangelist back into their midst (v. 39b).
There’s a story about some evangelists from a tribe in Ethiopia who wanted to take the gospel to other tribes. So they moved their families to another region and started sharing the gospel. Some received the gospel and churches were established. After a while, these new Christians stopped going to the witch doctors, stopped paying the priest-tax to the Orthodox priests, and no longer paid bribes to government officials. So one of the evangelists was arrested and put in chains and paraded through the local market to show people what would happen if they converted to this new religion. He was ordered to go back to his tribe and to “take your Jesus thing with you!” The evangelist responded, saying, “O sir, please listen, I can go but the gospel will stay. By the power of God I planted Jesus here. He is planted in the hearts and souls of the people here. I can go but Jesus will stay.”[5]
This is the gracious defiance of the gospel that overrules the rulers of this age. It’s the supreme irony in missionary work: Jesus can go, but Jesus will stay because once he comes to a region and displays his mercy, like in the country of the Gerasenes, there will be evangelists who can’t stop talking about what he’s done for them. This is why Christianity exploded in China after the communists kicked all the missionaries out. What are you leaving behind should you need to go? If you have to go, if God calls you home or sends you elsewhere, will there be Jesus that stays behind?
The Message
Like the demoniac, we have a mission and a message. What’s the message? Verse 39, “Declare how much God has done for you.” What has God done for you? First, in Jesus, God became a man and purposefully traveled to an unclean region to rescue unclean men. As in this story, so also in the incarnation, the clean comes to the unclean, the righteous to the unrighteous, the sinless to the sinful, the holy to the evil.
In Jesus, God comes to an evil area and, instead of getting out his sword, he heals. Jesus, the man across the sea, came to where we are to rescue us, not punish us.
But how does he rescue us? By dying for us. By the end of his life, Jesus and the man in this story have switched places. At the end of Jesus’ life, he’s the one who’s naked, isolated, kept under guard and bound, crying out, bleeding, and driven into the tomb.
Why? To deal with evil once and for all. Jesus didn’t come with a sword to wipe out evil people. No, he came with a cross to die for evil people.
Jesus came to deal with evil by absorbing evil into himself so that one day he could wipe out evil without wiping out us. He came into an unclean world to die for unclean people, so that he could make us clean people and bring us into a clean world.
When you understand the evil that lives in your heart, and when you understand the cleansing power of Jesus’s life and death, the longings of your heart for rescue will be met and you’ll have a story to tell. And you won’t let anything stop you from “declaring how much God has done for you.”
[1]Diane G. Chen, Luke, New Covenant Commentary Series (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2017), 114.
[2]Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 243, n. 8.
[3]Seeking for Me | Hymnary.org
[4]A Man in the Tombs – Archive – Truth For Life
[5]Dale Ralph Davis, Luke 1-13: The Year of the Lord’s Favor, Focus on the Bible (Fearn, Ross-shire, UK: Christian Focus, 2021), 145-6.