Please read the passage before the commentary.
It may not seem like it, but the kingdom of God is at hand. God triumphing over evil is a sign of the kingdom. Healing of the men possessed by devils is good, but dumping herd of swing into the sea suggests something else. In Matthew’s account, Jesus had just come off the sea after a storm. After that the disciples were amazed and asked who this fellow Jesus was, “whom even the winds and the sea obey.” Now we learn that not only the winds and the sea obey but also herds of animals, and demoniacs even recognize Jesus, not a fellow who calms the winds, but as the Son of God.
Perhaps we are on the wrong side of Jesus. Perhaps we need to have our demons cast out, our pride reduced, our sense of being reoriented. Perhaps it is the storms at seas or the stampede of wild animals are the occasions calling our belief in Jesus.
It is also true that the coming of the kingdom is never to be done according to our ideas of the kingdom. Perhaps it is our interaction with evil that promotes the kingdom of God. Perhaps it is our struggle with evil that advances the kingdom. Perhaps it is this particular evil in this particular life at this particular time in which we are supposed to believe in the kingdom.
We are not supposed to roll over and play dead, to give up hope. Rather we are called to calm the storms, drive out demons despite stampeding animals, savage opposition, and driving rainstorms. It may not seem like it, but the kingdom of God is moving forward.
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