In Luke 8:26-39 we have the account of Jesus healing the demon-possessed man who lived in the tombs of Gerasenes by casting out the demons into the pigs. At the end of this we read, “Then all the people of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them, because they were overcome with fear. So He got into the boat and left” (Luke 8:37).
This to me is a tragic verse. We don’t read of any other time when Jesus visited this region. They asked Him to leave, and He obliged.
Why did the people ask Jesus to leave? The Scripture says, ‘because of fear’. One possible reason for this fear is that the people were farming pigs, which as we all know, were forbidden for the Jews to eat (Deut. 14:8). They may have seen Jesus casting the demons into the pigs so that they all rushed down the hillside and died, as judgement for this, and were afraid of what He would do next. They didn’t see (or chose not to see) how Jesus came to set the man free from the legions of demons that were tormenting him, and that He could set them free from their sin if they only asked Him.
Similarly for us, it is possible to resist the Holy Spirit drawing us to salvation for so long, that in the end He leaves us alone. This is a dangerous place to be. If you’re in that place today, I would urge you to reconsider. Your eternal destiny is at stake. Today is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2).
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