The man lived in the tombs and was so totally possessed that though the demons recognized Jesus as “Son of the Most High God,” but the man could not free himself. The point of this story, as well as all the demon-healing stories in the Gospels is that the power of God can cast out demons.


It reads in Luke 8:26-39 EASY> Jesus and his disciples went to the place where the Gerasene people lived. This place is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus got out of the boat there, a man from the town came towards him. Bad spirits were living inside him. He had not worn any clothes for a long time. He did not live in a house. Instead, he lived outside, among some graves. When he saw Jesus, he screamed. Then he went down on his knees in front of Jesus and said in a loud voice, ‘Jesus, you are the Son of the powerful God who is over all! What are you doing here? Please do not hurt me.’ He said that because Jesus had already said to the bad spirit, ‘Come out of this man.’ The bad spirit had often taken hold of the man, so people watched him carefully. They held his feet with metal chains. But when the bad spirit took hold of him, he often broke the chains. The bad spirit then caused him to go into the wilderness. Jesus asked the man, ‘What is your name?’ The man replied, ‘My name is Army.’ He said this because very many bad spirits had gone into him. These bad spirits asked Jesus not to send them away to the world below. There was a large group of pigs there and they were eating on the hill. The bad spirits asked Jesus, ‘Let us go into the pigs.’ Jesus replied, ‘You can go into them.’ So the bad spirits came out of the man and they went into the pigs. All the pigs rushed together down the hill into the lake. They all died there in the water. The men who were taking care of the pigs saw this happen. They ran away. They told the people in the town and in the villages what had happened. So the people went out from these places to see what had happened. They came to Jesus. The man that the bad spirits had come out of was sitting there, beside Jesus’ feet. Now he was wearing clothes and his mind was well again. When the people saw this, they were afraid. Some people had seen Jesus make the man well. They told the other people how he had done this. Then all the Gerasene people who lived in that place said to Jesus, ‘Please go away and leave us.’ They said this because they were very afraid. So Jesus got back into the boat to leave that place. Then the man that the bad spirits had gone out from said to Jesus, ‘Please let me come with you.’ But Jesus replied, ‘No. You must return to your home. Tell everyone about all that God has done for you.’ So the man went away. He went everywhere in the town and told all the people, ‘Jesus has done very good things for me.’