28 “And when he came to the other side, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way. 29 And behold, they cried out, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8:28–29 (ESV)
Following the stilling of the storm (Matt. 8:23-27), Jesus and His disciples arrive on the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. They arrive to the country of the Gadarenes.
When Jesus and the disciples arrived, two demon-possessed men met the Lord. The men do not seem interest in the disciples; only Jesus. They were singularly focused on the Lord.
“Casting out demons was one of the most frequent acts of healing that Jesus performed during the three years that He ministered before going to the cross. In fact, one cannot walk away from reading the Synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—without being struck by the flurry of demonic activity that characterized the Holy Land in the first century,” explains Dr. R. C. Sproul.
Note that the demoniacs recognized who Jesus was. The text says the demons cried out. The phrase they cried out (κράζω; krazo) means to scream. The implication is that this shout was an unpleasant sound. It was not a cry of joy but of agony.
With an unpleasant scream, the demons said, ““What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” Let us examine both statements separately.
“What have you to do with us, O Son of God?” The demons asked a question of Jesus was to why He was at Gadara. They also acknowledged who He was, and is; the Son of God.
“As applied to Jesus, the title reflects Jesus’ unique relation to the Father (Matt. 11:27; 16:16; 21:38). The tri-unity of the one, true God is implied,” states Dr. Sproul.
Their second question was, “Have you come here to torment us before the time?” The demons complained that the Day of Judgment had not yet arrived. They knew such a day was coming but they did not want it to be now.
“Satan and his demons are mentioned throughout the Bible, and we are told to put on the armor of God to battle them successfully (Eph. 6:10–20). We should not be surprised that our Lord’s earthly ministry was the occasion of an increase in demonic activity. After all, 1 John 3:8 explains that “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” The evil spirits opposed Christ because they knew who He was and that He came to bring about their final defeat (Luke 4:33–34),” concludes Dr. Sproul.
“The Bible teaches that although God cannot do any evil Himself, He is nonetheless in control of evil, and that evil serves to advance His ultimately good purposes. This is good news for us, because it means that every evil we endure will be used by God for a good end. We do not always see how this happens on this side of glory, but we can be sure that God will ultimately bring good out of every evil.”
Soli deo Gloria!
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