The Transforming Power of Christ

Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon

²⁶bThen they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,3 which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷When Jesus4 had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house cbut among the tombs. ²⁸When he saw Jesus, he dcried out and fell down before him and said dwith a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, eSon of fthe Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” ²⁹For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon ginto the desert.) ³⁰Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, h“Legion,” for many demons had entered him. ³¹And they begged him not to command them to depart into ithe abyss. ³²Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. ³³Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into jthe lake and drowned.

³⁴When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. ³⁵Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting kat the feet of Jesus, lclothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. ³⁶And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed5 man had been healed. ³⁷Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes masked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. ³⁸The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, ³⁹“Return to your home, and ndeclare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.