CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 8:28. Gergesenes.—The readings vary between Gerasenes, Gadarenes, and Gergesenes (Carr). Modern research claims to have ascertained the exact locality of the transaction. The ruins right opposite the plain of Gennesaret, from which they had sailed, bear still the name of Kersa or Gersa. About a quarter of an hour to the south of Gersa is a steep bluff, which descends abruptly on a narrow ledge of shore. The whole neighbourhood abounds in limestone caverns and rock chambers. These local features meet the requirements of the story (Laidlaw). Two possessed with devils.—See on Matthew 8:16. St. Mark and St. Luke speak of “one” only. A like difference meets us in St. Matthew’s “two blind men” at Jericho (Matthew 20:30) as compared with the “one” of the two other Gospels. The natural explanation is that, in each case, one was more prominent than the other in speech or act, and so was remembered and specified, while the other was either forgotten or left unnoticed. The difference, as far as it goes, is obviously in favour of the independence of St. Matthew’s narrative (Plumptre).
Matthew 8:29. Thou Son of God.—The utterance rather of the demons than of the demoniacs (Morison).
Matthew 8:30. Swine.—Unclean animals that were an abomination to all true Jews (Leviticus 11:7; Deuteronomy 14:8). The keeping of them or the rearing of them was strictly forbidden by the Jewish canon-law, as Dr. Lightfoot shows in his “Exercitations” (ibid.).
Matthew 8:31. Suffer us to go away, etc.—Whence such a request? We are not told, and we need not anxiously conjecture. Theophylact supposes that their aim was to arrest the influence of Jesus in the locality, by stirring up the opposition of the proprietors of the flock. Perhaps there was pure malice. Perhaps, too, there was infatuated malice, for it is needless to suppose that they always—or even that they ever—reasoned well. Are they not always, in the end, outwitted? (ibid.).
Matthew 8:32. Go.—We are at least on the right track in suggesting that only in some such way could the man be delivered from the inextricable confusion between himself and the unclean spirits in which he had been involved. Not till he saw the demoniac forces that had oppressed him transferred to the bodies of other creatures, and working on them the effects which they had wrought on him, could he believe in his own deliverance. Those who measure rightly the worth of a human spirit thus restored to itself, to its fellowmen, and to God, will not think that the destruction of brute life was too dear a price to pay for its restoration. Other subordinate ends—such, e.g., as that it was a penalty on those who kept the unclean beasts for their violation of the law, or that it taught men that it was through their indulgence of the swinish nature in themselves that they became subject to the darker and more demoniac passions—have been suggested with more or less plausibility (Plumptre).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 8:28-34
The powers of darkness.—What happened by the way, when the Saviour took His “disciples” away from the “multitudes” which He had gathered around Him at Capernaum, for the “other side” of the lake, is told us in the verses preceding. What happened when they arrived thither is found in the verses before us. They may be fitly treated, we think, as illustrating on the one hand, the extent of His power; and on the other, the depth of His mercy.
I. The extent of His power.—The first step towards a fitting realisation of this is to be found in what is told us of the persons He meets with on landing. As the boat touches the shore there have come down to meet Him two highly exceptional men. They are exceptional in their wildness, their fierceness, their strength (Mark 5:4). Also because of these things they had the neighbourhood almost to themselves (Matthew 8:28). Other men shunned a place which such worse than beasts as could neither be “tamed” nor controlled, had to themselves. Besides this, they were believed to be exceptional in a still more evil degree. In the eyes of the Saviour, and so of truth, they were in a special degree under the influence and control of the spirits of evil. They were “δαιμονιζόμενοι” men possessed with devils—in a peculiarly manifest way. The language they employ, in the next place, was in full accord with this view of their case. It is language which has little or nothing to do with those unhappy beings as men. There is a knowledge of the present which those isolated wanderers could hardly have learned (Matthew 8:29, “Jesus, Thou Son of God”). There is a knowledge of the future of which the same can be said, and which points also to what we are not told anywhere of the children of men (end of Matthew 8:29, also Matthew 25:41). And there is a request or entreaty which would be absolutely impossible, if not unmeaning, if merely spoken by men. A numerous “herd of swine” is seen feeding some distance away. The voices that speak are voices asking permission to “enter into” those swine. Such a request would be an utter absurdity if only spoken by men. Moreover, the voices themselves are such as to teach, by the language they use, that they are not uttered by men. How could men even think of asking not to be “cast out” (Matthew 8:31) of themselves? Evidently, therefore, there are beings here which are other than men. The issue of the request, in the last place, tells just the same tale. “Permit us to go,” the voices cry out. The Saviour replies to them by whomsoever they are uttered. He says to them, “Go.” What follows next? The real utterers of those strange utterances do as He permits. They “go out”; they go away; they “go into” the swine (Matthew 8:32). Suddenly maddened, the whole herd rushes down the “steep” cliff, and is choked in the sea at its foot. Who can doubt that there were powers here far greater than man’s? Who can doubt also that there is a Power here far greater than theirs?
II. The depth of His mercy.—The case of the persons delivered may show this, to begin. What befel the swine is vivid evidence of what had been previously suffered by them. The very suddenness and universality of that sweep to destruction only makes this the more plain. What must have been the condition of those two human personalities—each, it may be believed, with a capacity for suffering beyond that of all the swine in existence—when in the hands and at the mercy—if they had mercy at all—of such powers! And what an act of mercy therefore—as well as of power—was that of setting them free! What a merciful substitution of heaven for hell must it have seemed to their hearts! On the other hand, we see almost equal mercy in that which ensued. When the swine rushed down into the waters, those that kept them rushed away to the “city,” and, open-mouthed, and doubtless with abundance of gesture, told the story of their loss; as also of what had happened in consequence to the two demoniac men. Touched in purse and so to the quick, the greedy owners come forth. They see Jesus; they see the men He has blessed; they see where their riches had been. This last sight affects them the most. They have but one request to prefer. Would He “depart out of their coasts?” (Matthew 8:34). Not to see Him now; never to see Him again; that is all they desire. To this insolent requirement the Saviour replies only in meekness and love. Without a word of anger—or even of remonstrance so far as we know—the Saviour does as they ask. Instead of this, if we may judge from Luke 8:39, He goes away in a spirit of deepest concern for those who have sent Him away—and so is as merciful to them as, in another way, to the poor demoniacs themselves!
Do we not also see, in conclusion:—
1. How excellent a lesson there would be in all this to the disciples of Christ.—Having before seen Jesus in triumphant contact with nature, they now see Him the same in contact with Hades!
2. How exceedingly unwise it is to judge hastily and a priori about such matters as these.—Who can tell what goes on—or what ought to go on—in the invisible world?
3. How wide and deep are the scriptural foundations for the belief implied here.—Cf. as above, end of Matthew 8:29 with Matthew 25:41; also Luke 8:31; Revelation 20:3, etc.; also Acts 16:16-17, compared with the utterances noted above.
4. How there is a kind of “possession” even now which is as bad in result as anything described here.—A “possession” which, as it were, “casts out” the presence of Jesus Himself, a “possession,” therefore, which does the very worst for us that even Satan can wish.
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 8:28-34. Christ casting out devils.—
1. Christ went nowhere but for a special errand. Pity for these two poor possessed men moved Him to cross the sea of Tiberius.
2. Christ can make the devils bring men to Him.
3. The malice of the devils is exceeding cruel, where they can get liberty to show it against men.
4. However powerful devils may be, yet they can neither stand out against Christ’s power, nor flee from Him, nor abide His presence.
5. The case of possessed souls, in whom the spirit of disobedience doth rule, is to be seen in these whose bodies were possessed with devils. The man is their lodging-house. He is no more master of his own actions, but Satan’s slave. The man’s eyes look for Satan, his hands and feet work and walk for Satan, his throat is made Satan’s blowing-horn, his mouth speaketh for Satan.
6. Devils knew Christ to be the Son of God, but they knew also that He came not into the world for their good, but to be the Saviour of men. “What have we to do with Thee?”
7. Although it is not in the power of devils not to yield to Christ, yet they retain their wicked aversion to obey Him, being loth to leave the possession they have got. They would be let alone by Him if they could.
8. They know there is a time coming when they shall be more tormented than they are as yet.
9. They cannot hurt so much as a sow except Christ, Lord of heaven and earth, do suffer them.
10. The Lord sometimes suffereth Satan to have his will of men’s bodies and goods.
11. These wicked spirits love always to do evil, and make it a sport to destroy what they are permitted.
12. To the end that the trial of men may be perfected, Christ will have them to know the spiritual benefits of the gospel, as well as the temporal inconveniences following it. This is why Christ will have the Gadarenes know of the delivery of the men possessed with devils, as well as of the drowning of the swine. The swineherds tell them of all, that so they might be inexcusable.
13. Men left to themselves will choose anything rather than Christ, and will do no better than these Gadarenes did.
14. Temporal loss of swine is so great in worldly men’s estimation that spiritual advantage is nothing esteemed of.
15. If men see nothing of Christ’s sweet mercies, but only take up His power they will be loth to have Him in their company (Matthew 8:34). Such worldly men will rather quit the gospel than hazard their worldly goods.
16. This is the greatest token of Christ’s leaving a place, or not coming into a place, when the whole place doth consist only of Gadarenes, and all do consent that He should depart; for there apparently He hath no errand to stay Him; and wherever Christ hath no employment, thence will He remove.—David Dickson.
Matthew 8:28-29. A Saviour, not a tormentor.—
1. It would seem that there were two natures in the men—one, a good and sane nature, urging them to go to meet Jesus, the other, a bad and mad nature, making them cry, “What have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of God?” Is it not so with all of us? Two voices there are within—one calling us to what is healthy and holy, the other to all that is destructive and bad.
2. Just as the Saviour did not land on the coast of the Gadarenes to torment them, but to save them from the demons and sins that were their real tormentors, so He did not come into the world to torment us, but to save us from evil passions and desires, than which there are no worse tormentors.
3. It may be frankly admitted that true religion does restrain our conduct; but this ought not to be considered a tormenting characteristic, because every man, if he is to remain a man and not to become a brute, must restrain himself.
4. Nor does Christ torment us by taking up all our time. What time does it take to do everything to the glory of God, which is true religion? No more time than to do everything to God’s dishonour.
5. “What have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of God?” was the question asked by these wretched men, and each of us must ask the same question at different periods of life.—E. J. Hardy, M.A.
Matthew 8:34. Christ and the commercial spirit.—We may observe:—
I. That it is the special mission of Christ to save men from the devil.—
1. The devil has possession of man.
2. The devil in the man becomes injurious to him and makes him injurious to all about him.
3. When once the devil gains possession he will not go out; he must be cast out.
4. Christ only can cast out the devil from the human soul.
II. That the salvation of man may involve the destruction of property.—This may be an unavoidable consequence of the progress of a good work, or it may be an indirect result following upon a particular case. Thus:
1. Property may lose its value, e.g. the damsel who had the spirit of divination; progress of the gospel destroying the trade of the craftsmen of Ephesus.
2. Property may even be destroyed. The chariots of Egypt; idols of Israel and the nations; goods and cattle of the Amalekites.
III. That it is possible to suppose a state of society in which property is more highly prized than man.—The loss of the swine held to be more important than the saving of a man. Is not this the besetting sin of a commercial age? “Wealth accumulates and men decay.” This is also the characteristic of despotic governments—Turkey and the East generally—all slaveholders, etc. There are three states of society to which we may direct attention.
1. The slave state. When man can hold property in man.
2. The commercial state. When man regards man as a means of increasing his wealth, as if one class lived for the aggrandisement of another.
3. The Christian state. When man holds property for man, as a trust for humane and benevolent purposes, never to be set against the highest welfare of the race.
IV. That when people prefer property to man, they may well wish to be rid of Christ.—Where Jesus is, there are:
1. Sacrifices to be made for the good of others.
2. Efforts to be made for the good of others.
3. Men are to be saved at all risks.
V. That when people show that they prefer wealth to humanity, Christ is not likely to make His abode with them.—He gives them up to commerce and devils, since they desire Him to depart from them.
1. May not this be so in a society or church?
2. May not men of business experience a crisis when they must hold their wealth for Christ, or else hold their wealth instead of Christ?
3. How awful the condition of those who prefer wealth and devils to Christ.
Lessons.—
1. Set a high value on everything human.
2. Save the human from the diabolical.
3. Let property, and time, and talent, be devoted to this work.
4. Let us be assured that this is the work of Christ, and therefore worthy of us.—W. Whale.