Please allow me to apologize first. I do get carried away, sometimes…
Being fiscally conservative and watching every penny, can be a curse as well as a blessing…my immediate concern was for “the value” of the pigs that were lost.
This would have had a huge “economic impact” not only on “the immediate village,” but also the surrounding area, as well. To say my interest was piqued was to put it mildly.
Like always, I wanted to know…how many pigs or swine were there? What was the market value? What are pigs used for? What’s the difference between pigs and swine?
What I found was this…
A ‘pig’ is an “immature swine,” while a ‘hog’ is considered the mature version of the swine. A ‘gilt’ is the female term, until it delivers piglets, and once that happens, it is now called a ‘sow.’ A ‘barrow’ is a castrated male.
At the time of the sale, market swine will weigh between 200 and 280 pounds with an average weight of 265 pounds. Market pigs sell for between $2.00 and $4.00 a pound with an average price of $3.50 per pound.
So, $3.50 x 265 pounds equals $927.50 a hog.
I know, that’s all boring, yadda, yadda, yadda…Sorry, TMI?
But each pig was worth about $1,000.00 by today’s market values…
But get this: According to Luke’s Gospel – “Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.”
So the gospel writer Luke, the 3rd Gospel written does not give us an actual number for the amount of swine that were present…Bummer. Pee Wee.
Mark, the first gospel to be written says, “Now there on the hillside a great herd of swine was feeding; and the unclean spirits begged him, “Send us into the swine; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. “And the unclean spirits came out and entered the swine; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and were drowned in the sea.”
Mark tells us there were about 2,000 in the herd that would sell today for like $1,000.00 a head. That would mean a $2,000,000.00 impact on the area. Hardly chump change!
Matthew (like Luke) gives us no specific numbers…apparently; neither one of them liked the “economic impact” either…especially seeing as Jesus caused it, and then just booked from the area…
But you know I wasn’t done, yet. I needed to dig a little deeper. I had to. I was driven. Bear with me…sorry, again!
So, everybody knows about hot ham and rolls on Sundays, pork chops, bacon, smoked butt, pulled pork and all the rest…
And of course, we also know about “replacement valves” that saves human lives every year…and we know about tossing the “pigskin” around in the fall.
But did you know that by-products are also used for: insulin, heparin, cell regeneration, gelatins, soaps, anti-freeze, adhesives, make-up, crayons, fabric softener, beer, brushes, matches, fine china, artist’s paints, polishing compounds, fertilizers and in the making train brakes? Pigs have a huge economic impact. Anyone wanna go into business? Why, I have been told on good authority, you can even sell the pig manure. Woo Hoo!
All of this, from a story that talks about a healing of a man in a “Gentile region”…which would have been an “unclean area” for any religious Jew…
Did any of this stop Jesus? Nope! Not when someone was hurting…
The man’s community has tried to “preserve” both “him and themselves” from the power of the demons.
“Shackling and guarding him” allowed “them” to feed him and” keep him alive” while keeping themselves “safe.”
But when he was “unshackled,” he leaves the world of “the living” for the world of the “tombs.”
Now all of a sudden he becomes this “wild man!”
His life “under the demons” is a “paradox” of being “shackled in a fearful community” or “being deserted and left to a kind of permanent loneliness.”
When the demon leaves the man, his life is re-“ordered.” He is made whole again.
“Unshackled” he is NOW able not only to be” in the presence of other persons,” but even to sit at the feet of Jesus…
I like it, that Jesus apparently has no fear of this guy!
“Fear” has a relatively large role to play in this gospel text. The people are “fearful” of something they do not understand. But then, aren’t we usually?
They are afraid of the man, his nakedness, his strength, his craziness, his choice of residences. He needs to be kept at more than arm’s distance.
We still do this today.
So many fears…
So afraid of others…
Afraid of the unknown…WE DO THIS! We do it often!
We do it all the time. We do it to ourselves…
Fear gets in our way. We allow that stuff! Maybe it’s time to rethink some of our fears…that are holding us in bondage…and keeping us back?
I pray it is so.
Amen.