I’m listening to my Bible CD again out on the mail route.

It’s the New Testament….so I’m skipping a lot of the rough stuff in the Old Testament.

I’m in the part where Christ is born and then crucified.

I take it back.

That’s some rough stuff in the New Testament, too.

It’s a British guy doing the reading.

Anyway, one of the stories is the confrontation with a possessed guy who, when Christ asks,”What is your name?” answers…….”LEGION!!”

Even with a British dude doing the reading, it’s kind of scary the way he says, “LEGION!!”

In the story, this demon pleads not to be hurt by Jesus….because he recognizes who Jesus is…so Christ kicks the demons (there’s a bunch of demons in this guy….that’s why he’s called “Legion”) out of him….and sends them into a nearby herd of pigs.

WHAT?!!

Then….the pigs freak out and run off the land into the lake and they all ….DIE!!

All the pigs….and, depending on which part you’re in, they could be like, maybe, four or five thousand pigs….anyway….they all die in the lake.

WHAT!!

I was listening to this and thinking, “What the heck?”

This is a long-winded way of saying that I was imagining the farmer running up the hill as he watched all this transpiring, not understanding the historical and theological aspects of it all, screaming at the top of his lungs,

“HEY!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY PIGS?!! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO GET THOUSANDS OF PIGS TOGETHER OUT HERE?!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? I DON’T HAVE INSURANCE AGAINST SOMETHING LIKE MASS DEMON SWINE POSSESSION!! I DIDN’T BUY THAT RIDER!!! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!”

That was great to get Legion out of that guy…but…all those pigs?

That poor farmer.

Man.

That was a lot of pigs.

That’s some crazy stuff…imagining all those pigs running off into the lake.

And….wait until you get to the part where Jesus kills the fig tree.

What was that about?

There are lots of better parts in there….but….those pigs have got me flummoxed.

Wild.