Question: Why did the demons possessing the men among the Gadarenes ask Our Lord Jesus to send them to the nearby swine? Was it because they want to leave on their own terms? If so, why did Jesus allow them such a privilege?
— Andres Wong, via email
Answer: The overall purpose of this passage of the Gadarene demoniac(s) is to show forth Jesus’ authority as Messiah and Lord. Up to this point in the gospels, Jesus has been healing multitudes, multiplying the loaves and fishes, and, in a passage just prior to this one, calms a storm at sea. This leads to the focal question of the apostles: “What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?” (Mt 8:27).
Hence, as this passage begins, we are introduced to two demoniacs who are “… so savage that no one could travel by that road” (Mt 8:28). Mark mentions only one of the two men, but Luke confirms there are two. As Mark wrote: “He had frequently been bound with shackles and chains, but the chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles smashed, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the hillsides he was always crying out and bruising himself with stones” (Mk 5:4-5). Nevertheless, Jesus is able to instantly subdue them and they beg him “not to drive them away from that territory” (Mk 5:10). Even if they had to be driven into the swine nearby, they see it as better than being driven from the region. Powerful demons begging Jesus not to torture them or drive them out is surely a further sign of his power.
Jesus does not simply give them what they want. For purposes of his own (not simply because they ask), he drives them into the swine. This likely serves the purpose of illustrating that the demoniacs are not the only wretched ones in that area. Pigs, from a Jewish perspective, are unclean animals. The fact that the citizens of this region see them as food and wealth and keep them in large numbers is illustrative of their degraded condition. Indeed, seeing their losses, the townsfolk beg Jesus to leave their town; holiness is bad for business. So, Jesus gives his diagnosis of a town and region in serious condition who need to repent and come to Jesus the savior of all. While pigs are not unclean animals for us today, biblically they serve to illustrate sin and our attachment to both sin and worldly things.
