In the 8th chapter of Matthew is a wonderful account of the healing of two insane men, and this story is also told by Mark and Luke with some slight variations which are not necessarily contradictions of Matthew's account. It is true that Mark and Luke mention only one man, but they dwell at greater length upon the healing, and tell how the poor, tormented sufferer began to express that perfect ideal of manhood which not only recognized the Christ that had healed him, but which loved his deliverer and desired to follow him wherever he went. We might linger long over this wonderful story, and see how the blind ferocity of so-called material force, which could break material chains and fetters but which could not break the fetters of sin and of false belief, was proved powerless by the majesty of divine Mind expressed by Christ Jesus. Another of its most beautiful lessons is to be found in the Master's insistence that the man who was healed go back to his home, there to work out the problems which he perhaps had neglected in the days gone by. He was now fitted to serve, by living the truth which had healed him, as well as by telling others of its power.
But the story has another side! The people who heard of the healing were far more interested in what they considered one of its incidents than in the healing itself; and strangely enough, many who read the story today almost forget its wonderful spiritual appeal because of their interest in the fate of a herd of swine. They seem to assume the very attitude of Jesus' enemies, who sought to make him responsible for the destruction of these animals, an opinion which has no support in the facts of the case as seen in the light of Christian Science. Jesus cast out of the man's consciousness the belief that evil had power and reality, and this healed him. The people about him doubtless all believed that the evil which seemed to control the man was real,—an entity having intelligence and even a name,—as so many believe today respecting the various manifestations of disease; but had Christ Jesus held such a belief he could not have healed this man, or others, as he did. (See Science and Health, p. 75.)
Those who believed in the reality of evil would naturally expect it to go somewhere when cast out, and this is what seemed to happen, but many of the best commentators are agreed that Jesus should not be held responsible for the destruction of the swine; that his work was the casting out of the devils, whatever these might be. They do insist, however, that if the healing of the man required the sacrifice of the swine, it was not too great a price to pay. Jesus had said on another occasion, "How much then is a man better than a sheep?" These creatures were only being fed for slaughter, yet the people besought this mighty healer to "depart out of their coasts," because some swine had been lost, though a fellow-being was saved!
