As I went back to read this story, I noticed something I had once scribbled in the margin. It reads, “this is a horrible story”. And it is. Jesus gets off the boat where two demoniacs meet him and command him (αποστειλον is the imperative) to send the demons to the pigs if Jesus indeed casts them out. And Jesus does. This then leads to the pigs running down a steep bank to meet their death in the water. PETA would not pleased, and rightfully so. I suppose to a Jewish audience, who at the time would see pigs as something “unclean”, the wanton death of a herd of swine would be no big deal; but isn’t Jesus concerned with wastefulness, with life, with respect for “all creatures great and small”? And furthermore this herd was some one’s livelihood. In Three Months With Matthew Justo Gonzalez sees this a move of social justice, as though Jesus is offering affordable housing in the midst of a crooked developer. But that’s not what’s happening here at all. It’s not as though Jesus set up shop with more affordable swine who are treated more humanely. No his exorcism simply led the pigs to their death. Furthermore, do we have any evidence that the owner of the heard was exploiting people at all? it’s possible, perhaps even likely, but all we have speculation. I’m not sure where Gonzalez is seeing this. I like his point, but I think it’s stretch in this context. He says, “Note that quite often when good is done to some, others are disturbed and even protest” (48), and then he follows it up with hypothetical examples of like affordable food pantries and the like.
I don’t see this in the text anywhere. It assumes that the only way for Jesus to heal or exorcise those men was to cast them into swine who would then be led to their death; as though Jesus’ only option was two human souls or a herd of swine. Not so. There were infinite ways in which Jesus could have cast out those demons. Gonzalez makes a giant leap here. I don’t see his point in the text, but then I am left to wonder, “if not that point, then what is the point?” All Jesus does here is upset an entire town. If this was truly some kind of social justice move, wouldn’t there be a section of the town grateful for his work as we usually see when acts in social justice? The text says, “the whole town… begged him to leave”. I wonder if when Jesus walked away with his disciples, if he kind of skipped out, shrugged his shoulders, looked at his disciples and said, “oops.”
So what is the point of this story? I am going to go on record with saying, “I honestly don’t know”. If I were to go all “Thomas Jefferson” on the Bible, this would be one of the first stories to go. I honestly don’t get it. I go back to my note in the margin: “This is a horrible story”. Time to wonder further. Time to interact with the Spirit of God asking, “God of mercy and justice, what IS going on here?”
Any thoughts?
Journey Through Matthew 
Pastor Paul and I, while brainstorming about future sermon series, liked the idea of doing one called, “The Difficult Sayings of Jesus”. As I myself wrestle with sermon prep on Matthew 10:34-42, I’m thinking we could just as easily called this sermon series, “Journey through Matthew….and through lots and lots of hard sayings of Jesus”.
Jesus doesn’t just give us pat answers. Often he leaves us with more questions. My gut tells me though that most of us would not be content with pat answers and religious platitudes. We desire changed lives, changed hearts and a changed world. A little theological wrestling, study and struggle is good for our faith, just as exercising is good for our bodies.