Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Man

Okay, Okay I guess technically it should be man/men, as Matthew had two of them - but maybe he got confused by the whole multiple personality due to multiple demons thing. I am pretty sure it's the same event though as it happens at the correct time in the time line, and in the correct place.
Now this is a particularly large passage for us and can be summarised as follows:

• Jesus gets out the boat on the far side
  
• he is approached by the demon possessed.
  
• The Demons (not the man) Beg to be sent into the herd of pigs
  
• a ginormous herd of pigs dies by drowning themselves
  
• The locals ask him to leave
  
• The previously possessed wants to follow Jesus, but instead does his bidding and preaches throughout the Decapolis
  

as you can see from this map that was a lot of territory to cover!

Now what I would like to point out here are some of the not so obvious parts of the text:

• Even Demons, (or maybe it's especially demons) don't want to be set into the pit, I am guessing therefore that it's not a particularly nice place.
  
• The locals had a very big pig herd (may not seem important until you consider that pork isn't kosher and they weren't meant to eat it.
  
• Understandably they aren't particularly happy with Jesus destroying all that revenue - maybe they are worried that their sheep or cattle are next. Either way they focus on their money and not the miracle that Jesus just performed.
  
• the man (I don't think we should call him legion as that was the name of the demon inside him) knows who buttered his bread, and rather than wanting to celebrate or go see his family the first thing he wants to do is serve God. Also notice he doesn't think that he needs a degree in theology , or to become a pastor to get off his butt and go and spread the good news - he just does it. How many of us have prayed for something promising God that we will do whatever he wants if he answers it, and as soon as he does answer it we just carry on as normal.

In closing this is a cool text with lotsa stuff - read it a couple of times and if anything else jumps out at you then put it in the comments for us all to share.