Imploring Him To Stay

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And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region (Matthew 8:34).

“They implored Him to leave.”

A few days ago, I was sitting peacefully on my front porch, enjoying my morning coffee and a time of quiet Bible reading, when this verse hit me so hard that I paused and backed up for another look. As I whispered this phrase aloud, these five words hung in the air – and in my spirit.

“They implored Him to leave.”

Yes, Jesus granted the request of the demons inhabiting those men to be cast into a nearby herd of swine. And yes, that herd of hogs immediately and violently flung themselves off a nearby cliff, thereby perishing in the waters below.

That must have been a scary sight to behold for the herdsmen of those swine. In fact, the Bible says they fled into the city, telling everyone about the unbelievable deliverance of those two demoniacs and the subsequent loss of their herd. But still, how could a city that had just heard those firsthand accounts implore Jesus, the Healer and Deliverer, to leave their region? It seems ridiculous.

Jesus had not only helped those two men but also helped the city and the entire region in the process of this deliverance. I can only imagine the terror and trouble these two demoniacs had caused for the people in that region. Yet, the whole city wanted the source of their deliverance to be gone from the entire region.

In other words, the people of this region, the Gadarenes, basically told Jesus, “Thanks, but no thanks. Get out! Be gone! And don’t come back. Ever.”

So, He did. According to the very next chapter, Matthew 9, Jesus stepped into a boat and headed home. Deliverance done; case closed.

But here’s the thing. I have read this story in Matthew 8:28-34 countless times throughout my life. I can even remember hearing it as a preteen in our Sunday School class. But in all those years and during all those times of hearing and reading this account, this particular verse – the last one of the chapter, as well as the last line in this story – never impacted me quite so much.

Why did those people react that way? Why did they corporately implore Jesus to leave? I failed to understand the thought process behind their action. So, I did a little digging and read various commentaries on this passage.

Several modern theologians quoted within StudyLight.org viewed this story as a treatise on man’s preference for monetary possessions over the abiding presence of Jesus Christ. Other writers reminded readers that this miraculous encounter threatened the pagan belief system of the region. Furthermore, some scholars cited parallel biblical accounts of this story to explain the absolute fear of the Gadarenes over “the vast number of demons” involved in this deliverance and “the visible proof” of the absolute power that Jesus obviously had over those evil spirits.

All these thoughts are viable reasons why the Gadarenes might have implored Jesus to depart their region. But somehow, these suggestions seem to be only a partial explanation for the actions of these people, leaving out the spiritual significance of the passage.

So, after more study, I tended to agree with the explanation found in Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary:

There are a great many who prefer their swine before the Saviour, and so come short of Christ and salvation by him. They desire Christ to depart out of their hearts, and will not suffer his word to have place in them, because he and his word would destroy their brutish lusts, those swine which they give themselves up to feed.

Wow. These words, written by Matthew Henry over 300 years ago, were definitely concise, as well as cutting and convicting. They readily answered my nagging question as to why an entire city of people implored Jesus to leave their region, even after seeing His miraculous compassion and love for men in dire need of salvation and deliverance.

But Henry’s words also left me pondering another question, one that continues to press me on all sides: What about us?

Is our “region” imploring Jesus to leave? Are we pushing Him out of our nation, our states, our cities, our churches, our homes, and even our hearts? Do Americans, corporately or even individually, prefer “their swine before the Saviour?”

If so, the end of this story, that final verse of Matthew 8, is more terrifying than the mass demonic deliverance witnessed by those swine herdsmen: Jesus will leave a region when implored by its people.

Matthew Henry put that final, disturbing part of this biblical story into perspective with these words of warning: “And justly will Christ forsake all that are weary of him; and say hereafter, Depart, ye cursed, to those who now say to the Almighty, Depart from us.”

Perhaps it is not so ironic that Matthew Henry’s words echo those of Jesus, as quoted directly from the preceding chapter of the Gospel of Matthew:

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

With that eternally terrifying thought in mind, I beseech each of us to implore Jesus to remain in this region – for He alone is our only hope in this life and the one to come.

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