These two guys were terrifying.

They were strong. They were irrational. They were unreasonable. They were random. They were full of it, if it means evil. They lived among the tombs, making funerals frightening. They waited just off the road, making travel troubling.

These two men may not have understood why everyone stayed away. They may not have understood why no one trusted them, why everyone turned around.

And, of course, Jesus is by the tombs. Making a string of unlikely pearls, Matthew adds another story mentioning death. And it isn’t just about the tombs. A herd of pigs die as they are filled with demons and plunge into the lake.

That is the beginning of the story that the herdsmen tell to the people of the town.

Our pigs died. This guy from across the lake made it happen. Oh yes, it looked like he was talking to the tomb-guys. But our pigs! He killed our pigs!

The town came. A herd of pigs over a cliff is a big deal. And they begged Jesus to go away.

It seems to us like a good deal. Two guys can have civilized conversations for the first time in what seems like forever at the cost of a heard of pigs.

For the people of the town, however, the pigs were the big deal. They had learned to walk around the two men. They had written off the lives of those two me to unfortunate circumstances. It was hard on the guys, but bad stuff happens.

Jesus turned the local economy upside down, giving human life the value of 100 pigs. It was a bigger price than the people were willing to live with.

Rather than talking to the savior the didn’t know, they prefered the devil they knew. I understand. Unfortunately.