Thurs.’s Devo - The Men of the Gaderenes

Read Luke 8:22-34 Jesus wanted to take his disciples over to the other side of the lake. Obviously, the devil did not want him to come because he arouses a storm to turn them back. He also chose to bring it while Jesus was asleep. When the storm became so violent the disciples were not able to control their boat and feared death, so they went and woke Jesus. Mark also tells this story and I love how he tells it. When they went to wake up Jesus they said, “Don’t you care that we are perishing?” It’s like they think anything happens that Jesus doesn’t perceive first. Jesus never panicked, he just got up and rebuked the storm and it was perfectly calm. Then he turned to them and said, “Where is your faith?” I don’t think he was getting on to them as much as he wanted them to answer that question to themselves. Where was their faith? Was it in their own ability to control the boat, because that wasn’t working for them. Was it in Jesus? When they couldn’t do it themselves they turned to Jesus which was good, but Jesus wanted to train them to exercise their own faith. The first person they met when they got to the other side was the man possessed of devils. They have arrived at the land of the Gaderenes. Matthew says that two men came out of the tombs who were fierce and filled with demons. They were so mean they wouldn’t let people pass that way. They were the personification of a stronghold or a principality. They were unclean because they lived among the dead. They were fierce and scary and allowed no passagee and they were naked and bound by chains. When Jesus talked to the man and commanded the unclean spirit to come out of them, the chains were broken and the devils were driven into the wilderness. These men held the principality that had hold of the city. If they came down, the whole city would be open to the gospel. When Jesus asked his name it was Legion which is a term given to a Roman regimen of men. This tells us they were many, they were organized and bent on war. Jesus was going to send them back to hell but they begged to go into a herd of hogs. Jesus let them and the pigs went crazy and ran off the cliff into to the water where they were choked. And that is how we have deviled ham… just kidding. Interesting: the name Gaderenes means “reward at the end”. The demons got their reward in the end and so did the men who were possessed. The men who kept the hogs saw the whole thing and ran to the city to tell the city what they had witnessed. Jesus, I know you want to ask us that question “where is our faith” and you want us to exercise your faith over the principalities in our cities. Help us to have the faith and discernment to do just that.