Afraid of Change

When God changes a life, it’s so dramatic, so significant, that you usually can’t even tell what the person was once like. That’s what God can do.

And that’s what the Savior did when He met two demon-possessed men after crossing the Sea of Galilee. There was a herd of pigs nearby, and the demons begged Him, “If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs” (Matthew 8:31 nlt).

So the demons went into the pigs, who then went over the side of a cliff and committed mass suicide. This shows us that the men’s demon possession was real. Otherwise, someone could have claimed they were just putting on a show, that it was all phony.

How did the people in the community react? Matthew tells us, “The herdsmen fled to the nearby town, telling everyone what happened to the demon-possessed men. Then the entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone” (8:33–34 NLT).

The terrifying men who lived in a graveyard were transformed. The community couldn’t believe they were the same people as before. You would think the community would rejoice and want Jesus to stay and perform more miracles. But they were afraid. That’s because Jesus was bad for business. They were making good money off those pigs (which, by the way, were unkosher), and their livelihood had just gone over a cliff. In their minds, Jesus had ruined everything, so they begged Him to go away.

Jesus might have wanted to change their lives, but they didn’t want that change. Instead, they wanted Him to leave.

What would you have done if you had been living in that community at that time? Would you have said, “Lord, come into my life” or “Away with You, Lord!”? When it comes to Jesus, those are really the only two choices we have.