After calming the storm, Jesus lands and disembarks on the other side of the sea of Galilee.
A demon-possessed man runs to meet Jesus and falls on the ground before him. The text provides the back story about him - he is possessed by many demons. He lives among the tombs, can break iron chains, and cuts himself with stones.
Note, the text in Matthew says that there were two demon-possessed men while Mark and Luke say Jesus interacted with one. I suspect there were probably two men, but one of them was in a far worse place than the other. As a result, the text focuses on the one in worse condition.
One interpretation I have heard from people with experience in deliverance ministry is that when the man came running to Jesus, it was the free will of the man, not the demons. Clearly, the man had difficulties of separating his own faculties from the spirits but this act of running to Jesus was the will of the man yearning to be free.
The demons initially speak as one, even though they are many. Their first questions to Jesus use the first-person singular ("have you come to torture me?"). Further, the state their name, Legion, implies a coordinated action as one. Later, they change to using the first-person plural ("send us to the pigs").
Who knows what this is conveying, perhaps they tried to initially hide their group status from Jesus, which did not work. Or, perhaps they had lived so long in the man, that the identity of the man blended with that of a group of demons so that they could speak on behalf of the man in way that "we" are "me" and vice versa.
Regardless, a multitude of demons are begging themselves in front of Jesus. They do not want Jesus to order them to the Abyss. This is the first mention of an "Abyss". I assume it is the name of the "arid" place that was referred to in the earlier parable about the spirit getting kicked out of the home (person), going to an arid place, and then returning to the home with seven friends.
The demons beg with Jesus and finally suggest going to a nearby herd of pigs. Jesus tells them "go". They do. Soon, the herd of 2,000 pigs runs off a cliff and drowns. Those tending the pigs tell the nearby townspeople what happened and they all are afraid of Jesus and ask him to leave.
Jesus does leave and the man healed of Legion ask to come with Jesus. It is quite possible that the man felt embarrassed about what he had done and did not want to return home. However, Jesus tells him to go home and he astonishes the area with his story. This is the exact opposite effect of the pig-herders describing the same story.
Why the difference? This is total speculation on my part, but I think it is reasonable. The difference in the outcome is probably due to the details emphasized by the pig-herders versus the man healed of the demons. The pig-herders probably told the story in a way that made it sound like Jesus was an evil sorcerer who commanded armies of evil spirits to do bad things like drown large herds of pigs. In contrast, the man healed of the demons portrayed Jesus in a positive light.
A few other things to ponder - why go to the pigs at all? Why did they drown? I have no idea. I assume hg the pig-herders were Gentiles, possibly even Romans, but I do not think that has relevance to the story. They could have just easily entered a flock of sheep.
I do think that it was not Jesus' desire that the pigs drown. Rather, this seems to be the action of the evil spirits out of their frustration or even to discredit Jesus. Since the drowning resulted in Jesus being feared and discredited, this may have been the case.
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