Throughout history, Jesus is known as tenderhearted, kind, merciful, and gracious, yet some of his miraculous acts in the Bible are deemed “morally inappropriate” by some people. An instance is the story of a mentally unstable man in Luke 8:27-39 who called himself legion because he thought he was many. People question why Jesus would ask the demons possessing the man to vacate him, permitting them to enter into herds of pigs which ran into the sea, thereby destroying some people’s source of livelihood.
Luke 8:27-37 (KJV) “And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.
When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
(For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)
And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.
And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.
And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.
Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.
When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.
Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.
They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed.
Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.”
A certain man on a social media platform accused Jesus of destroying some innocent guys’ property and livelihood, questioning why Jesus would answer the demons’ prayers.
When you look at the whole story, you might be tempted to join the train of those who described the scene as morally inappropriate. After all, if Jesus would save the man, he could have, by his omnipotence, prevented the demons from destroying the people’s business and source of livelihood. But Jesus did not “actively” destroy their source of livelihood; he would not have an interest in doing such.
However, there are certain perspectives inappropriate to the Almighty God even if they are morally inappropriate to men. Of course, Jesus could have prevented the demons from spoiling those people’s business and property while at the same time saving the demon-possessed man.
While we could say Jesus passively destroyed those people’s source of livelihood in that he allowed the demons to enter the herds of pigs, crashing them into the sea, it should be understood that the whole scene was a show of the destructive sides of evil forces. The demons only pleaded with Jesus that he should allow them to inhabit those pigs, but it wasn’t what they later did; rather, they destroyed them, driving them into the sea.
Because Jesus was all-knowing and knew what would consequently happen upon casting the demons out of the man, he did not prevent the destruction of the people’s livelihood because they needed to be punished.
It was likely that the owners or the investors of the pigs were Jews, circumventing the prohibition of swines in Israeli territory by moving into Gaderene because they thought they would not be bound by the Jewish laws regarding unclean animals in the Gentile territory. However, because Gaderene is a Gentile territory, it was more likely that the owners or the investors of the pigs were Gentiles and punished for pagan sacrifices.
Anyway, the Lord was teaching us a lesson that a human life is much more valuable than financial wealth. A human life should be saved even if it is at the expense of the destruction of financial wealth or a vast business empire. Paul exhibited this same character in Acts 16:16-19, where he rendered some people’s source of livelihood useless to save a human life.
Acts 16:16-19 (KJV) “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.
And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers.”
