Jesus Saves the Man of the Tombs

Luke 8:26-39. This story provides great insight into the compassion of Jesus. He and his disciples had crossed over the lake and were in Gentile territory, "out of bounds" so to speak. And now Jesus ministers to a man who is "out of bounds" in this region that is already beyond the pale. He reaches the lowest of the low, someone who has forgotten that he is even human. And yet Jesus sees a human being beneath all the demonic domination that had eviscerated his psyche. My wife had a noteworthy insight about why Jesus allowed the demons to go into the herd of pigs. It would add validity and weight to the man's testimony in that region. There would not just be this single man's word for it; there would be all the witnesses who saw the herd of pigs plunge off the cliff and would know the reason why. And there would be the leaders of the community who pleaded with Jesus to leave, who would for that very reason acknowledge that the man of the tombs had been set free by the hand of the God of Israel.