There’s this Jewish tax guy named Matthew. He’s got this unbelievable story about a bunch of pig farmers who lost their entire herd in a single day.

Apparently, some homeless trouble-maker showed up in town one morning, spooked the herd and drove all 2,000 pigs down a steep bank into the lake. That’s 4,000 sides of floating bacon gone to waste.

What a mess!

He didn’t even care that he just cost a bunch of folks (good folks, just minding their own business) their livelihood, their property, their jobs, their retirement. I wonder how many people 2,000 pigs could feed in a year? It seems this trouble-maker thought that helping out a couple of nameless nut cases on the fringe (they lived in the local cemetery) was more important than the economic stability of an entire region.

Crazy…

Know what they did to that trouble-maker? Nothing! The whole town showed up, checked out the scene, and just politely asked him to leave. Now, that’s far short of runnin’ him outta town, don’t you think?

I’m telling you, the whole thing is just nuts crazy!

Or not…

Maybe their financial security, their prosperity, was less important than it seemed?

Makes me wonder about those preachers who tell me that the trouble-maker wants me to prosper financially… If I’ll just believe… If I’ll just give…

Maybe that’s the real craziness.

Maybe that trouble-maker has more important things in mind for me?

I’ve heard this other crazy story that he gave something incredibly valuable for me, something I couldn’t give or buy myself, that made it possible for me to enjoy something more valuable than life itself.

That sounds better than a whole herd of pigs to me.

I’m pretty sure it sounded good to those two nut cases, too.

(Matthew 8:28-34)

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