Jesus Frees the Men among the Tombs

Jesus came to the other side of the water. Matthew says this was the country of the Gergesenes, where two men came from the tombs to meet him. Mark and Luke say the country of the Gadarenes and focus on one man. He had lived among the tombs for a long time, and people had not been able to restrain him.

Matthew says the two men were so fierce that nobody could pass that way. Mark and Luke show how cut off the man had become. He did not live in a house, and even chains had not held him. When he saw Jesus, he ran and fell before him, and the spirits cried out, calling Jesus the Son of God or the Son of the Most High God.

Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out. In Mark and Luke, Jesus asked its name, and the answer was Legion, because many demons had entered the man. Nearby, a herd of pigs was feeding. The demons begged to enter the pigs, and Jesus allowed it.

The demons came out and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the water and died. Those feeding the pigs fled and told the city and the countryside what had happened. People came and saw the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.

The people asked Jesus to leave their region. As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been freed begged to go with him. Jesus sent him home instead to tell what great things the Lord had done for him, and how God had shown him mercy. So he went through his city and through the Decapolis telling what Jesus had done, and people marvelled. What do you notice about the different ways people responded to Jesus?