When He had come to the other side, to the country of the Gergesenes, there met Him two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way.  And suddenly they cried out, saying, “What have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?” Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.” And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water. Then those who kept them fled; and they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from their region. (Mat 8:28-34 NKJ)

You might be expecting the moral of this devotion to be about the demon-possessed man, and the deliverance for a ‘Legion’ of demons is no small matter. Luke 11:24-25 warns us about cleaning house, and leaving it empty.  The demonic powers multiply and come back even stronger.

Gergesenes was a gentile region, but the swine were owned by the Jews. The demons, having been evicted from what was an unclean house, seem to know that pigs are regarded as unclean and want to find their new abode there.  Pigs were better than no home at all. However, the pigs then charge head-long straight into the water.  The people reaction is not one of rejoicing that the man was now free.  They were concerned that they had lost their pigs.

The owners of the pigs could not charge Jesus for the loss, because they should not have owned the pigs in the first place. If they did make a public complaint, they could not do it with glorifying God and recognizing Jesus as coming from God.