Text:
28 And when he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesites, there met him two demon-possessed men coming out of the tombs, exceedingly agitated, so that no man was able He passes that way. 29 And behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Did you come here before the time to torment us? 30 And far away from them was a herd of many swine feeding. 31 Then the demons begged him, saying, “If you will cast us out, allow us to go into the herd of swine.” 32 Then he said to them, “Go.” So they went out and went to the herd of swine, and behold, the whole herd of swine ran down the cliff into the sea, and died in the waters. 33 But the shepherds fled and went into the city, and they told everything about the matter with the demoniacs. 34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they asked him to leave their borders.

Explanation of my parish bulletin:

 The area of the Gergesites is located southeast of Lake Tiberias in Galilee. Its inhabitants were non-Jews, as is clear from the text, as they raised pigs. Jewish law forbade raising pigs as it considered them unclean animals.

“Two madmen coming out of the graves, very ferocious.” The Greek original says “possessed” and not “crazy,” meaning two people who are under the power of evil spirits. Graves are caves that are either natural or dug into the rock. Popular superstitions considered graves unclean, which is why they made them a suitable refuge for the possessed. Both the Evangelists Mark and Luke tell us that restricting the possessed with chains did not succeed in controlling them, as they would break them and free themselves from them (Mark 5:3-4 and Luke 8:29).

“What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God?” These are words that the Gospel put on the lips of demons to show the total clash between the authority of Christ and the authority of evil spirits.

“Before time” or “before time,” meaning before the last day, the time of judgment. The demons did not expect Jesus' personal presence among humans and in the flesh, so they were amazed at Jesus' coming before the time when only divine authority remained. The devils’ request to Jesus to cast them out into the pigs means, according to Matthew, that the filthiest of animals, in the view of the Jews, is the appropriate place for Satan.

“And he said to them, ‘Go.’” Jesus says just one word. Just a simple matter is enough to change things, and this is evidence of Jesus' absolute authority. The Evangelist Matthew repeats this idea in more than one place, as he mentions that Jesus “cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick” (Matthew 8:16). This behavior must show the vast distance between the authority of Jesus and the authority of sorcerers and sorcerers who used drugs, spells, and incantations to expel evil spirits.

As soon as the demons went to the pigs, the herd jumped and died in the water. No one regretted this, because no one should own a pig.

The shepherds fled in fear, and it is not clear from the text what they feared. Perhaps they thought that Jesus “cast out demons by the prince of demons” (Matthew 9:34), as the Pharisees accused him. The shepherds' fear extended to their listeners from the city's people, so they asked Jesus to leave their land. There is no doubt that this is due to the popular belief that the stronger Satan overcomes those who are weaker than him.

We note that this text includes elements of popular imagination dating back to that period, such as talk about spirits residing in graves and wildernesses and attributing insanity to evil spirits.

The ancient Jewish and pagan world attributed mental possession to Satan. Based on this popular belief, possession in the Bible is attributed to an evil spirit. Is this spirit possessing all the possessed people whom Jesus healed, or is this a popular expression used by the Gospel to speak the language of the people at that time? What the Gospel wanted in all these incidents was that Christ liberated humanity from the fear of spirits and from the control of spirits over minds. The power now belongs to Jesus.

My parish bulletin
Sunday, July 11, 1993
Issue 28

Explanation of the bulletin of the Diocese of Latakia

Questions about the Gospel passage

1. The Evangelist Matthew mentions that they were crazy, while the Evangelists Mark and Luke mention one person. Why?
   Some believe that the two evangelists were satisfied with mentioning the famous person, for whom the region was in pain, while Saint John Chrysostom believes that they mentioned one person who suffers more than the other, and that whoever heals one person also heals another. Some believe that the two evangelists were satisfied with the person who established the dialogue with the Lord. Their goal is not to tell the story as a historical event, but rather to announce the possibility of healing.
2. Who is this crazy person?
   He represents humanity that has been enslaved to the enemy of good for a long time, bound by the chains of sin and the shackles of evil. She became outside the city, outside the paradise that was established for her, without a home, as she deprived herself of dwelling with God, stripped of the garment of divine grace, harmed herself, and fled toward the wilderness because she could not bear the life of love and fellowship with God and people!
3. What does it mean when the madman says to the master, “You came here before the time to torment us?”
   A phrase that explains that all people looked at Christ as a human being, but the demons preached him as a god. A clear acknowledgment by the demons of the power and divinity of Christ. The Bible tells us that at the end of the world, Satan and his angels will be cast into the lake of fire (Matthew 25:41 and Revelation 20:14). By saying this, they proved that they knew their final fate and that the presence of Christ opened hell before them, so they feared that the hour of punishment had arrived.
4. Why did Christ respond to the devils' request and allow them to enter the herd of pigs? What is the fault of this creation? What is the fault of their owners?
   He did not do this in response to their benefit, but through his work he wants to teach us many things:
   Firstly - He wanted to teach those liberated from evil tyrants the greatness of the devastation caused by the devils that afflict people.
   secondly - So that everyone knows that demons do not dare to enter even pigs if the Lord does not allow them to do so.
   Third - The devils can cause these people worse evils than what happened to pigs if they do not preserve their souls.
   A great degree in the midst of their misery with God's care. Because it is clear to everyone that demons hate us more than non-speaking animals. Therefore, those who did not have mercy on the pigs, but in a moment threw them into the abyss, how much more would they do to the people themselves who are under their authority, leading them to the wilderness, if God’s providence does not intervene to put an end to them and stop their subsequent attacks.
   Fourthly - By this action, God declared His evaluation of the human soul. He was willing to let the herd of pigs perish in order to save two people.
5. What is the spiritual conclusion from this marvel?
    Every person who is not deterred by anything and carried away by the strong inclination of his passion for every evil deed is no different from a man possessed by a demon, who walks around naked like that, wearing clothes but not wearing the real garment, naked of all the glory that befits him, not cutting his body with stones, but with his sins, which cut off more than many stones. .
   Who then can bind such a person? Who can put an end to his evil and contempt, which does not allow him to reproach himself, but is always present in the graves? For thus shall the harlots be, which are full of every foul odor and every filth...

“Why did you come so early, to torment us?”

Many Christians consider Satan a pious invention of believers who want to identify evil, or justify their human desires thereby.

But Satan, according to biblical teaching, is a living person and exists. In the text that we heard, we see him speaking directly to Christ and addressing him...

Satan was an angel, but his pride and his attempt to build a kingdom for himself without God pushed him from the rank of the brightest angel to the darkest. It reduced him from an angel of light to a malicious, evil spirit.

God allowed Satan to work before the final judgment on him in the general judgment, because it benefits the spiritual perfection of man. The conflict between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan is ongoing, even if its end is known.

Satan knows that he is defeated in the end, but he “prowls around like a lion, wanting to devour his prey as long as there is still time.” That is why he said to Jesus after he expelled him from the madmen: “Why did you come before the time to torment us?” The incarnation of Christ, His work, His miracles, His establishment of the Church and its secrets, and the outpouring of the grace of the Holy Spirit within it, constitute for Satan a defeat before the final judgment, that is, a torture for him before the time has come.

“So the demons began to ask him, saying, ‘If you cast us out, then allow us to go into the herd of pigs.’”

Saint John Chrysostom says: “The Lord allowed the devils to enter the pigs to show people how much evil they would cause them worse than what happened to the pigs if they did not protect their souls with God’s care. If demons did this to non-speaking animals, how much more would they do this to people who came under their authority?

Christ came to bring his kingdom on earth. Satan tried from the beginning of Jesus' message, in the temptation on the mountain, to make an agreement with him, when he promised him to give him all those kingdoms if Jesus contributed to spreading the kingdom of Satan as well and bowed down to him. But God forbid that he should become a second devil. Rejecting Christ, in that temptation, means that He began a kingdom whose ways differ from the snares of Satan and whose paths differ from the ways of this evil one.

Jesus chose the paths of his kingdom planted with crosses, and placed on the shoulders of his allies and disciples sacrifice instead of interest, sacrifice instead of exploitation, honesty instead of deception, in other words, the narrow path that leads to life, instead of that deception that leads to destruction.

Lattakia Archbishopric Bulletin
8 / 7 / 2001
Number: 23