In this Bible study, we dive into Luke 8:26-39, where Jesus encounters a man possessed by demons. Through this story, we learn about the power of Jesus to heal and restore even the most broken and lost among us. Join us as we explore the deeper meaning of this powerful passage and discover how it can apply to our lives today. This study is perfect for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of the Bible and grow in their faith. Don’t miss out on this insightful and inspiring study!
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Transcript
00:00:00:23 – 00:00:32:02
Clint Loveall
Hey, friends. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us. As we’re mid-week and as we continue through the Gospel of Luke, continuing through the eighth chapter. Long story today by what we’ve seen comparatively. I’ll read this. This is one of those stories that does lots of things, brings up lots of questions, has some disturbing elements, has some confusing elements. I’ll try to I’ll try to just maybe hit the highlights rather than read all of it.
00:00:32:02 – 00:00:52:28
Clint Loveall
But we’re starting in verse 26. They arrive at the country of the Garrisons, which is opposite Galilee as he stepped out on land. Jesus was met by a man of the city who had demons. For a long time he wore no clothes. He did not live in a house, but in tombs. He saw Jesus and fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, What do you have to do with me?
00:00:52:28 – 00:01:13:32
Clint Loveall
Jesus, son of the most I, I beg you, do not torment me. For Jesus commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many times it seized him. He was kept underground and guarded, bound with chains and shackles, because he would break his bonds and be driven by the demons into the wild. Jesus asked him, What is your name?
00:01:13:37 – 00:01:33:52
Clint Loveall
He said, Legion for many demons and entered the man. They begged him not to make them go back to the abyss. On the hillside, I heard a swine was feeding the demons. Beg Jesus, Let them enter the swine. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man, entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank and into the lake and was drowned.
00:01:33:54 – 00:02:05:01
Clint Loveall
Let’s stop there, Michael. That’s the basis of the story. The rest is reaction. So very intriguing, very interesting, very odd scenario. Jesus travels to this area, the garrisons. He steps on the land. There’s a man there who is tormented by evil spirits. The unfortunate reality for this man is that he’s been kept chained away from people. He seems to at least be a danger to himself.
00:02:05:06 – 00:02:41:58
Clint Loveall
It is possible that they thought he was a danger to others. You know, the the mental health aspect of this is probably not up to our standards. And it’s okay to be troubled by that, but it’s probably not helpful to get bogged down in it. Jesus has this interesting conversation with the demons who call themselves Legion, which is not only many, literally a lot, but is also what Roman detachments of soldiers are called the Roman Legionnaires.
00:02:41:58 – 00:03:10:46
Clint Loveall
And Legion is a group of soldiers. So some connection there. Here it primarily means many. And the demons begged Jesus not to send them back to the abyss, but to let them enter a herd of swine. And Jesus relents. Jesus accepts that, agrees to it. And then, having entered the swine, the swine run down the steep bank into the lake and they were drowned.
00:03:10:46 – 00:03:41:40
Clint Loveall
And there may be the Middle East, particularly the culture in which these stories spread, does kind of value. What would be the word? Michael Trickery may be too strong a word, shrewdness, craftiness. And so the idea that Jesus gets the upper hand or sort of tricks these demons, that would be a kind of cultural note to the story.
00:03:41:40 – 00:04:15:36
Clint Loveall
It would it would show that Jesus was crafty and shrewd. That may be what’s going on here. It’s a very odd story, and to my knowledge, nobody knows exactly what to do with it. So when that’s true and sorry to go along here, Michael, but when that’s true, I think that a good guiding premise is stick with the basics and pay attention to the central storyline, which is Jesus again has the authority to command evil and it has no choice but to obey him.
00:04:15:41 – 00:04:38:27
Michael Gewecke
So that is, I think, very wise to start in that position. And it connects Clint to the story from yesterday. Let’s make it clear they are in the boat crossing the lake. When you’ve got this storm that comes up and this storm is the thing that you could read as impeding them on their way to this place where Jesus is going to do another level of miracle.
00:04:38:27 – 00:05:05:58
Michael Gewecke
This storm is a physical reality. It is the question of Jesus, his lordship over the creation. Now, when Jesus comes ashore, make no mistake about it, He comes, as we have translated here, into the country of the dearest scenes and here, which is opposite of Galilee. This is important to know a Gentile region. So Luke is in short and letting us know Jesus is leaving.
00:05:06:03 – 00:05:26:11
Michael Gewecke
So out of that Jewish context and he’s now going into a Gentile context which matters because Luke is the one who gives us acts, acts as the book of the Bible, which follows through as the continuation of the Book of Luke to show us the good news, the Kingdom of God spreading throughout the Gentile world here in Jesus’s own life and ministry.
00:05:26:11 – 00:05:49:31
Michael Gewecke
In Jesus’s story, we’re going to see him passing through the storm miraculously calming it now, coming into a man’s inner storm and not just an inner storm, but an inner demonic possession, and not just by one demon, but by a legion. And can you point out the fact that this legion is a word used to describe a detachment of Roman soldiers?
00:05:49:31 – 00:06:19:57
Michael Gewecke
I think the simple meaning here being that this man has a lot of demons. When Jesus confronts this problem, it’s not just one spiritual possessor. It’s many. And so in this encounter, we see Jesus going into a Gentile space, likely a place. And by the way, the pigs that come later in the story are also evidence of that, because no self-respecting Jewish person is going to be making money selling pigs and unclean animals.
00:06:19:57 – 00:06:45:43
Michael Gewecke
So here Jesus is going into this context. He encounters this demonic possession and with by the word Jesus is, as you say, clean, able to really outsmart, undo, overpower these demons. Now, the trickery aspect and the fact that they go into the pigs and the pigs, I mean, I think that’s worthy of a whole nother set of conversations because I think it complexities of the story.
00:06:45:48 – 00:07:13:44
Michael Gewecke
But this has been a long way of getting back to where you ended. There is just simply to say that at the core of this story is a continuation of the question who is this man? And in this case, the demons called Jesus as the they call him the son of the most high God. Here. Jesus is clearly more than just the son of the most Hagar Jesus is able to do as God does.
00:07:13:44 – 00:07:16:51
Michael Gewecke
And so there’s a lot of layers happening in this story like this.
00:07:16:51 – 00:07:34:40
Clint Loveall
Clint Yeah, I agreed. And let me, let me jump back in and will finish and then kind of try to put some, some meaning to the rest of it. Verse 34 Then the swine herd saw what had happened and they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. And people came out to see what happened.
00:07:34:40 – 00:07:58:14
Clint Loveall
And when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed of all the demons had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the garrisons asked Jesus to leave, for they were seized with fear.
00:07:58:19 – 00:08:20:30
Clint Loveall
So he got in the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. So He went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him. So again, swine herds, we know that these aren’t Jewish people.
00:08:20:34 – 00:08:58:23
Clint Loveall
We know these are Gentiles, as you said, Michael, and a fascinating reaction. They see this man whom they have known as one who was possessed, they have known as one who was isolated and troubled. And here they find him clothed. They find him in his right mind, and they find him seated at Jesus feet. And it is interesting that Luke connects those revelations to their fear when they see that Jesus has been able to to cure this man.
00:08:58:28 – 00:09:24:22
Clint Loveall
It’s a little harder in Luke. There are some versions of this where you can kind of read maybe they they they thought Jesus cost them a bunch of money by getting rid of a group of pigs and maybe there is an economic thing in this, but it doesn’t take the forefront. Their fear is simply what has happened. And like we heard the disciples ask yesterday, this sort of subtext here is who is this man?
00:09:24:27 – 00:10:08:27
Clint Loveall
And in their fear, they ask Jesus to leave, which if fascinating detail in the story. They were seized with great fear. And we said yesterday that Luke does a really nice job of inter playing fear against faith. And here their fear wins. And yet the faith of the man remains. He wants to go with Jesus. Jesus says, No, you stay here and tell these people, continue to be a witness, be a sign of what God has done in your life so that they continue to hear it, so that they continue to encounter it, which is in a sense, you know, be careful with this.
00:10:08:27 – 00:10:33:31
Clint Loveall
I think, Michael, But you could argue that this makes the man the first sort of missionary, gentile missionary in the gospel of Luke. Luke doesn’t make a very big point out of that. But it does seem as though Jesus is sending somebody to preach the good news in a Gentile context. And I don’t think we’ve seen that before.
00:10:33:36 – 00:10:54:52
Clint Loveall
And that may matter to Luke. I mean, certainly probably is no accident. I think more interesting is this idea that having seen what Jesus can do, their reaction to it is not faith is not they say, we’re not sure we’re ready for this. Could you would you mind going on and which Jesus does.
00:10:54:57 – 00:11:22:35
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, I read a commentator once who made that exact point that this may be the in Luke, the first Gentile missionary. And while I think that’s a really interesting idea, I think that we’ve got to remember the reason he’s occupying this role in the text, if we would give that to him, is because of who he’s encountered, that the end of the day, this isn’t about the man, it’s about the man at the feet of who he sits.
00:11:22:35 – 00:11:54:31
Michael Gewecke
It is about Jesus. And that is, I think, a fascinating maybe cultural implication of this story, because in the New Testament time there was a pattern and process for people who were called exorcists. In other words, when you had a person demon possessed, there were ways in which they culturally tried to deal with that. And Luke goes out of Luke’s way to make it clear that all has been done for this man That can be done.
00:11:54:39 – 00:12:24:16
Michael Gewecke
They’ve gone to the point of removing him and shackling him, and yet these demons are able to overpower him physically, and he is then able to essentially be unrestrained in the depths of this possession. And so when Jesus comes, Jesus does not utilize any kind of formula. He doesn’t have some kind of process or enchantment. There’s not a particular kind of Jesus versus the demons here.
00:12:24:16 – 00:12:54:23
Michael Gewecke
In fact, if anything, there’s begging and pleading happening here and Jesus allowing something to happen that’s being suggested. And I think that is a fascinating way for Luke to tell the story. Luke is making it clear Jesus isn’t wishing and hoping or using some strong, you know, sort of scepter to make this happen. Jesus doesn’t need that. His power is so great, His authority is so strong that what Jesus allows happens and what Jesus doesn’t allow doesn’t happen.
00:12:54:23 – 00:13:22:10
Michael Gewecke
And I would argue to piggyback off of my closing comments yesterday, I just think there’s a magnification of power being displayed by Luke in Jesus’s story. We’ve already seen Jesus heal, we’ve seen Jesus feed, we’ve seen Jesus calm the storm miraculously now we’ve seen Jesus cast out a legion of demons, that spiritual warfare being conducted at Jesus’s own word.
00:13:22:15 – 00:13:35:06
Michael Gewecke
And that’s the kind of person that we are encountering in the text. That’s who Luke wants us to know. Jesus says his power is beyond that, which we can imagine. And this is another step in our understanding of it.
00:13:35:11 – 00:14:12:06
Clint Loveall
Right? And and just think about the details Luke gives us along those lines. Michael So here’s a man who’s outnumbered by demons. He doesn’t have a demon. He has an army. Army would literally be the probably closest English translation. And Jesus is also outnumbered by that Legion of Demons, and they beg him not to send them. So the demons fall down at Jesus feet, begging for him not to destroy them, which he sort of does through an offhanded way anyway.
00:14:12:10 – 00:14:42:06
Clint Loveall
But the gap between them is so immense that there’s not a thing even an army of demons can do to Jesus that would break his word or go against what he ordered and what he commands. And so that’s clearly part of the story. And I think that’s a good observation. The other thing here, if we could maybe spin this devotional for a minute, there is, I think of an interesting thing to think about at the end of the story.
00:14:42:10 – 00:15:07:30
Clint Loveall
The man begged Jesus to go with him and Jesus said, No return to your home. Tell how much God has done for you. And so he did. And I think one of the hardest callings that we have in our life is the one that isn’t the one we want, Right? We we want to do this thing and it doesn’t work out or those doors don’t open up.
00:15:07:35 – 00:15:36:45
Clint Loveall
And instead we get put on this other path. And I think, you know, you could maybe at the simplest, this is something like Bloom where you’re planted, but this man has a thing he wants to do and Jesus has another thing for him to do instead. And I think, you know, when you encounter those moments, they are they’re difficult opportunities because it is easy to focus on the road that you don’t get to take that maybe you thought you would prefer.
00:15:36:50 – 00:16:03:16
Clint Loveall
But there is a mission for this man. It fascinatingly, rather than take it, there is again, I don’t want to I want to be careful. I may be reading things in here so please be please be alert to that. There is a sense in which Jesus almost asks more of Him to stay there and work on his own.
00:16:03:21 – 00:16:30:38
Clint Loveall
You stay here. You preach the gospel. You tell people how grateful you are. You give joy to people, and there’s a sense in which maybe that is more difficult than saying, Yeah, come on, get in the boat with us. We don’t know that. That’s just me trying to maybe find some sermon stuff in the text, But I just think it’s a really interesting thing because I suspect all of us in our life have had moments where we said, God, I really want to do this.
00:16:30:43 – 00:16:38:11
Clint Loveall
And that door didn’t open and we find ourselves doing something that may be the something we were intended to do in the first place.
00:16:38:22 – 00:17:28:35
Michael Gewecke
It makes me think of all of the sort of personality assessments and the leadership strength assessments that people take and all of us would love for our calling to be based in some shining light or some strong character trait. We would all love to be a gifted orators or incorrect table minds that we bring to Bible study. But this man, you could argue, is called to be a witness to Jesus because of the Legion of Demons that had afflicted Him, that Jesus was able to take what was the darkest, most up restraining aspect of this man’s life and turn that in through Jesus has redemptive strength and opportunity for this man to share the good
00:17:28:35 – 00:17:52:28
Michael Gewecke
news of Jesus Christ for others. I think that if we are alert to it, some of our soft places, some of our places, some of the things that we are ashamed of are places that in God’s restorative grace and God’s loving work in our life can become places, though. And we got to be careful to not, you know, spread all of our junk around to the world.
00:17:52:28 – 00:18:27:43
Michael Gewecke
But there comes a time when we sit at the feet of Jesus straight and clean and shaven and put together, and we can point to the ways that only God could do that, that there is a very God honoring, very mission minded kind of calling that’s happening in a moment like that. And I think the encouragement by way of devotion also is just to say if you are experiencing that own brokenness in yourself, that with God’s grace and time, that may become a place where God’s glory is lifted up and others might see the good news of Jesus Christ at work.
00:18:27:43 – 00:18:33:38
Michael Gewecke
And there’s hope, even in dark places. And this man is in some ways a living example of that.
00:18:33:43 – 00:18:57:56
Clint Loveall
Yet it is a temptation, I think, sometimes for us to imagine that we have to go somewhere and do something, that we have to travel, that we have to find some new element of our life to do God’s work, and instead this man finds out that that the newness happens in him, that that he is made new and that he doesn’t need new geography.
00:18:58:01 – 00:19:27:48
Clint Loveall
He has new opportunity. And the thing that I’ve never really considered exactly this way, Michael, if this man goes with Jesus, he has to tell his story. You know, people might say, oh, yeah, Jesus met him in this village by staying there. He is a story in himself, right? Everybody who knows him, everybody who sees him for the rest of his days remembers that guy.
00:19:27:48 – 00:19:51:25
Clint Loveall
Jesus changed that man’s life. That guy Jesus. He he is a living embodiment of a of a testimony by staying where he is in a way that I’m not sure is true if he travels and I’m you know, I’m not suggesting that’s the reason Jesus leaves him behind. I’m very cautious trying to say why things happened the way they do in Scripture.
00:19:51:30 – 00:19:55:10
Clint Loveall
But I do think it’s an interesting thought.
00:19:55:15 – 00:20:20:52
Michael Gewecke
Well, I’d just one note from the text here, I think to wrap that up is note how many people come in verse 37, all the people of the surrounding country. This is a big deal that everybody knows this man and everybody is drawn to Jesus, and then we shouldn’t pass by what you’ve already spoken of and their response was that they were seized with great fear.
00:20:20:52 – 00:20:46:53
Michael Gewecke
That is the encounter that happens with a God who is by definition, an outside of our control when when we encounter Jesus. It is a great grace to experience his love. But make no mistake about it, we are broken and our brokenness. Meeting his power and strength is, I think, a terrifying moment that that we like to imagine our encounter with Jesus.
00:20:46:53 – 00:21:07:28
Michael Gewecke
I think being comforting and full of peace. But over and over again in the Bible, those who see Jesus Christ at work, this kingdom being brought to bear, demons being cast out, which everyone there, I suspect, would have agreed was a good thing. Clint Yet they’re seized with great fear because this is the man who we serve and it’s not the other way around.
00:21:07:33 – 00:21:24:46
Michael Gewecke
And that is an unbelievable revelation that Luke is passing to us, that Jesus Christ is not contained, Jesus Christ is not led on by our expectations. Jesus does what Jesus does, and when we encounter him, it will surely change us.
00:21:24:59 – 00:22:06:57
Clint Loveall
And don’t miss that. Jesus here says, Return to your home where this man hasn’t been, according to the text, in a very long time. And that that theme of returning home Luke is going to lean on that again about six and a half chapters from now in one of the most familiar stories of the gospel. But so just put a pin in this idea of returning home and what it means not only for the man, but for the idea of spiritually speaking, coming to yourself in the gospel and this idea of being welcomed back home is going to be significant.
00:22:06:57 – 00:22:09:37
Clint Loveall
So we see a little preview here as well.
00:22:09:52 – 00:22:15:45
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for being with us. Definitely subscribe so you can be with us when we get there and until tomorrow, be blessed.
00:22:15:46 – 00:22:16:30
Clint Loveall
Thanks, everybody.