A Lesson From Legion

One of Jesus’ most interesting miracles is when he cast out devils who calls themselves Legion from a man and they request to be sent into a herd of swine. There are so many things we learn from this miracle, but what intrigues me the most is that after the miracle. Before the miracle all the people knew of the crazy man who was chained and held in a cave because he was so wild. They had seen him naked and hurting himself and threatening others and they had heard him rant and rave and bellow. And after Jesus mercifully casts out the devils, they see the man clothed and calmly eating. Yet what do they do? They ask Jesus to leave.

We are not told why they ask the Savior to leave but one suspects that it has something to do with the loss of the swine that ran into the sea and were drowned. In other words, they are more concerned with their material welfare than they are with their spiritual.

At first this may seem absurd, but each of us has to ask ourselves if we put material comfort and wealth ahead of spiritual welfare. Are we more concerned with getting the tasks of life done each day or with reading our scriptures? Are we more interested in increasing our spirituality or our bank account? It is a matter of priority and it is a choice that we make daily.

We must watch that we like the people of Gadara don’t do things that in essence are asking Jesus to leave.