“Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.” (Luke 8:36-37)
A major aspect of Jesus’ ministry was defeating Satan and his minions. He went out of His way to enter into a confrontation with Satan’s forces who had possessed a man on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. This was an awesome encounter for the demons had so debased and abused the man that they had stripped him of his humanity. He resembled an animal, a brute beast. They had destroyed the image of God in him.
The fact that the man dwelt alone tells us that people were afraid of him and had given up on him. Often the devil attacks us with fear, tries to belittle us and tells us we are no good, that we are nothing but swine. In this way he hopes to make us turn from God, to make people reject His mercy and so perish.
We should observe Jesus and see that He was not intimidated even though the demons tried to make Him afraid with the name “Legion”. This meant that there were over 2000 demonic spirits in possession of the man. That, along with the man’s ghastly look, disgusting smell, bizarre actions and terrifying cries would cause most of us to panic and run. But not so Jesus. He did not negotiate, waste time or argue. The demons had to acknowledge that they were in the presence of a superior force, the Almighty Himself. He cast them out with a command. Thus we see that when the devil attacks we must always cling to Jesus. He is the supreme authority. He will defend us if we hold fast to our faith in His word.