Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
There are many reactions to Jesus in the gospels. Some people follow him, some do him homage, some plot against, and others try to entrap him. Today's gospel account seems very peculiar in what occurs during the exorcism in Matthew 8:28-34 (parallel accounts in Mark and Luke).
After Jesus frees the Gerasene demoniacs by allowing the demons to descend upon the swine, the people of the town come out and beg him to leave. Scripture notes that they are afraid of him, so they recognize his power and unique mission, but they want nothing to do with him.
I would love to understand this response better. As swine herders these people are likely pagan, does that lead to their fear of Jesus? St. Irenaeus who we remember today, is sometimes quoted as saying, "The Glory of God is man fully alive." But glorious things can be terrifying things as well. When we are used to half-dead mediocrity. When the most powerful things we have seen are possessed men living among the tombs, then we can be awestruck by true life, true freedom, and true beauty.
Or maybe they weren't afraid of Jesus but the change he leaves in his wake. Did they fear that Jesus will do more damage to their way of life (he did kill a herd of swine) and they are comfortable with the status quo? In this same vein, these people would fall in with the earlier “Would Be Followers” from earlier in the chapter.
To bring it closer to home, they might serve as a warning to those of us who don’t want Jesus to change anything in our lives. In some ways, maybe the people of the town are more enslaved then even the possessed men were (hence why Jesus leaves him there in Luke to continue the ministry of preaching freedom).
No matter how we read it, it is undeniable that we can find freedom in Christ, a freedom from life among the tombs and enslaved to the sins that make us savage, but we must be ready for him to disrupt our status quo.
- Spencer Hargadon