Luke 8:26–39
Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage of Scripture.
1. Jesus, for whatever reason, sails east with His disciples, to an area known as Gerasene, a Gentile area, also known as the Decapolis, meaning 10 cities.
2. Immediately he encounters a man who had demons, and this for a long period of time. He was naked, super powerful, and crazed. How he knew about Jesus is not known. He falls at the feet of Jesus and asks that Jesus not torment him. This request is likely from the master demon in him, whom we find later is named Legion.
3. “They” beg Jesus not to cast them into the “abyss,” which was the place where Satan and his fallen angels would be imprisoned forever. Instead, they wish to remain in flesh, and so they wanted to be cast into a nearby herd of pigs. Mark tells us there were about 2000 pigs, which is the number of soldiers in a Roman legion.)
4. Jesus casts them out and the pigs rush into the sea and are drowned. This event, unbelievable for those who witnessed it, caused a great deal of concern for the herdsmen and the locals.
5. When these locals located Jesus, they found the man who had the demons sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And these people were “afraid.”
6. The formerly possessed man wanted to remain with Jesus, but Jesus told him to go back to his home and declare the miracle he had experienced. And Luke tells us that is exactly what he did.