Don't Judge Others, Even in the Scriptures

A pig, just before he was put into a race

Matthew 8:34

And, behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus: and when they saw him, they besought him that he would depart out of their coasts.

An unknown boat pulls to shore, a group of unknown men get out.  Demons that call themselves “Legion” are released from a man who has been chained and secured to tombs outside of the town for years. Immediately there is screaming and wailing from supernatural places and thousands of pigs lose their mind and run into the sea to be drowned. This comes from Matthew 8 where we see Jesus heal some men who are possessed by “legion” of demons. As they are healed the demons make their way into a herd of pigs that then run off the cliff to their death. Soon after the town folk come out and tell Jesus and his follows to get out of dodge. They do not want them around their parts. They did not see the Messiah, they saw nothing but problems in that moment.

It is hard to not judge the people who came out to kick this rabbi or leader out of their town. Pig herdsmen who were in the area when the miracle occurred ran into town to tell the people that the possessed man, who had been chained up in the tombs, had been released. The also had to pass on the news that the 2,000 pigs had become possessed and ran into the ocean.

They must have all known, or at least known about, the crazy possessed man.  They must have feared him for years. They must have help chain him to the tombs to keep everyone safe. Now he was free.  The loss of 2,000 pigs would have had a huge effect on the wealth, security, and the ability of many in the town to support themselves. This would have been a big loss for them.  In addition, what must they thought of the man standing there who had the power to cause all of this to happen? They did not know who Jesus was.  This area would have probably been filled with gentiles. Their background would have been much different than the Jews who just rowed ashore. While they probably knew about the Jewish beliefs it would have probably been very general in nature. These town folk were not expecting a messiah. Their religious background would have been very different.

What would a normal reaction be to this event and loss of their livelihood?  I don’t think we can judge them for their reaction.  I do find it comforting that one of the healed wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus told him to go to his country and spread the word of his healing and tell the story to everyone.  That must have laid the groundwork for preaching that would come their way in just a few short years.

Life is much more complicated than can be told in one story. Let alone a few words or sentences within a story. People are complicated, wonderful, mean, beautiful, ugly, loving, angry, and sweet things all at different times. We all have backgrounds that no other human could ever fully understand. We all experience life in so many different ways, one story, or one victory, or one mistake I made could not come close to explaining who I am. We need to remember that when we look at others. We have a tendency to take one small example and blow that out to think we now know someone. We extrapolate one example to think we know the full story. That just is not possible and leads to horrible consequences.

The same is true with the people we read about in the scriptures. Be careful to not condemn or exalt characters we read about. Another example would be the woman "taken in adultery" that was brought before Jesus in John chapter 8. One act of her life told in only nine words in the scriptures is not near enough for us to understand her. Our focus should be on the Savior and his actions, not on others who we know nothing about. We can't draw conclusions for their lives with any of this information. The savior knows the complete story. He is the only one who does, so I'm so thankful he is my advocate, and I can trust him.

The purpose of the accounts in the scripture are for us to learn how Jesus answered, and treated others. They are there for us to focus on Christ. These writings are not there for us to judge others or look beyond the mark. Focus on Christ, not other people.