It’s one of the strangest stories in the gospels. Jesus arrives on the other side of the lake and is immediately confronted by two men possessed by demons. They are fierce, isolated, and tormented—living among tombs, cut off from society. No one could pass that way because of them. In other words, they were seen as a threat—unapproachable and unsolvable.
But Jesus does not avoid them.
The demons recognize him and panic. They beg to be sent into a herd of pigs, and Jesus complies. The pigs rush into the water and drown. It’s a chilling image—disturbing, even. But the town’s reaction is what truly startles: they beg Jesus to leave.
He just freed two people from torment. He healed what no one else could. And still, the people ask him to go.
Why?
Maybe because healing isn’t always neat. Maybe because the cost of liberation is too high when it disrupts our economy or stability. Maybe because we’ve gotten used to certain evils and wouldn’t know how to function without them. (Or maybe, they just like pigs.)
Here’s where the story reaches across time to us: What do we do when Jesus shows up and disrupts things in a way that makes us uncomfortable? When healing someone means losing something we’ve come to depend on? When Jesus confronts madness, violence, and torment—not just in others, but in our systems, our assumptions, our neighborhoods?
We often say WWJD—but that can be abstract. And maybe just because Jesus did something doesn’t mean that I should, too. More poignant is: What would Jesus have me do?
Because I’m not Jesus. I don’t have his authority. But I do follow him. So what would Jesus have me do with the madness in our world? The torment that isolates people? The unjust systems that keep others shackled?
It’s tempting to name evil, shake our heads, and move on. But Jesus steps into it, unafraid, and brings liberation. It’s messy. It’s unsettling. And it always leaves a cost.
So what would Jesus have me do?
That’s the question I want to live with today.
Matthew 8:28–34
When Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake in the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed came from among the tombs to meet him. They were so violent that nobody could travel on that road. They cried out, “What are you going to do with us, Son of God? Have you come to torture us before the time of judgment?” Far off in the distance a large herd of pigs was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, “If you throw us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
Then he said to the demons, “Go away,” and they came out and went into the pigs. The whole herd rushed down the cliff into the lake and drowned. Those who tended the pigs ran into the city and told everything that had happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the whole city came out and met Jesus. When they saw him, they pleaded with him to leave their region.
Psalm 10
Get up, Lord! Get your fist ready, God! Don’t forget the ones who suffer!
Why do the wicked reject God? Why do they think to themselves that you won’t find out? But you do see! You do see troublemaking and grief, and you do something about it! The helpless leave it all to you. You are the orphan’s helper.
Break the arms of those who are wicked and evil. Seek out their wickedness until there’s no more to find. The Lord rules forever and always! The nations will vanish from his land.
Lord, you listen to the desires of those who suffer. You steady their hearts;
you listen closely to them, to establish justice for the orphan and the oppressed,
so that people of the land will never again be terrified.
Prayer
God,
If only there were a herd of pigs into which we could today stuff all the madness. It seems like the easier - albeit quite unproductive - choice today is to say how terrible the mad men around us are (and their actions are, indeed!). But what does demon-casting-into-pigs look like now? How do we do such a thing?
Are we supposed to do such a thing? WWJD vs. WWJHMD?
Do you want me to find a herd of pigs? If I could truly send the madness into them, I would gladly do it. Just show me the way.
Sigh.
Day after day, help us to be knowers and practitioners of your justice. Help our tongues and key-stroking fingers recognize when to make noise and when to be silent. We pray for those who put themselves in harm's way and those who are put there by others. For those with power, we pray for better wisdom and discernment.
By your Spirit and in Christ,
Amen.