Stay Or Go?
Matthew 8:32-34 NKJV
32 And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.
33 Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. 34 And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region.
This is an unusual request that people made of Jesus. Please leave our region. In most cases, people were asking Jesus to stay a little longer. Even a Samaritan village, which was often hostile towards Jews, asked Jesus to stay. In the sixth chapter of Mark, the people in the region of Gennesaret begged Jesus to just walk through their area so that people could just touch Him. What is worth noting is that people received what they asked for—the ones who asked Him to stay, and those who asked Him to go.
But why would they want Jesus to depart from their region? I can only speculate here, but I believe Jesus scared them. He had just cast the demons out of two men who had terrorized that area for years. These men were so fierce that people could not pass by them. They must have been some seriously scary dudes. Jesus delivered them from their demonic possession. He also allowed the demonic spirits to enter a herd of pigs close by. When the demons entered the pigs, they ran off a steep place into the sea and drowned. I imagine that this was a dramatic situation. Other gospel writers tell us that after the men were delivered from the demons, they were normal. They put on their clothes and were in their right minds. They were sitting calmly and listening to Jesus.
I believe this is what scared the people of the area. Jesus cast the demons out of the men. The demons went into the pigs, and they drowned. Could these people have believed that Jesus would send demons into them? One thing is obvious: they did not know Jesus. They did not know that He was not in their area to cause torment and trouble. He came to deliver them from torment and trouble. But they did not understand and did not trust Him, so they asked Him to leave.
Application
How many people today do not know how good Jesus is? How many people today believe that He will do them harm instead of good? How many believe that with Him in their life, it will cause trouble? So it really comes down to trust. The more we trust in the Lord and trust that He is a good shepherd, someone who wants to add to our lives, the more we want Him in our lives. If we think He will do something to ruin our lives, we don’t want Him to stay.
Stay or go? We are still having to answer that question today.
Prayer
Lord, I trust You and trust that whatever You have for me is for my good and Your glory. Stay in my life in a bigger way!