Fifth Sunday of Pentecost

Jesus Sends a Man's Demons into a Drove of Pigs

Matthew 8: 24 - 34

Mark 5: 1 - 20

Luke 8: 26 - 39

Jews and Muslims believe that all pork is ritually unclean. They may never eat any form of pork for any reason, nor can they raise pigs for other people to eat.

But the Roman occupiers of Palestine ate pork as a basic survival food. They believed the army traveled "on its stomach," and they were very good at developing foods that kept and traveled well, like ham and bacon.

Around the Sea of Galilee, the people who raised pigs and the people who thought eating pork was disgusting lived very near one another. This story may take place in the Decapolis, the region east of Galilee, across the Jordan River.

A group of pigs is called a drove or a drift. Pigs in a group can also be called swine.

1. How did Jesus get to Gerasa?

[Jesus sailed across the Sea of Galilee.]

2. Where did the man with demons live?

[The man had been living naked among the tombs of the dead people.]

3. Why did the man call himself "Lots?"

[The man thought he had "Lots" of demons in him.]

4. What did the demons ask Jesus to do?

[The demons asked Jesus to send them into a herd of pigs.]

5. What happened after the pigs were drowned?

[The man sat with his clothes on and was in his right mind.]

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