(a) Explain Luke's account of the healing of the Demoniac [13 marks] (b) Give two reasons why the evil spirits were sent into the swine. [2 marks]

Answer Details

(a) Luke's account of the healing of the demoniac (Luke 8:26-39)

Jesus and His disciples sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, opposite Galilee. As Jesus stepped ashore, a man from the city met Him who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes and lived not in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus he cried out, fell down before Him, and shouted with a loud voice, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me." For Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. The demon had often seized him, and though he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilderness.

Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He answered, "Legion," for many demons had entered him. They begged Jesus not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside, and the demons begged Him to let them enter the pigs. He gave them permission. The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

When the herdsmen saw it, they fled and told the people in the city and countryside. The people came out and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told how the demoniac had been healed. Then all the people of the region asked Jesus to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear, and He got into the boat to return. The man who was healed begged to go with Him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you." So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

(b) Two reasons the evil spirits were sent into the swine

• The demons themselves begged Jesus to allow them to enter the pigs rather than be sent into the abyss, and He granted their request.
• It served as visible proof that the man had truly been delivered and that the demons were real and destructive, since the drowning of the herd demonstrated the power that had held the man captive.