Across The Lake

So they arrived at the other side of the lake, in the region of the Gerasenes.  When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from a cemetery to meet him. [Mark 5.1-2]

Mark said it this way (above) that it was one man in Gerasenes and it was a single evil spirit who claimed to be many spirits.

Matthew said it was in Gadarenes and that it was two men with multiple spirits.

The footnotes are all over the place as to whether it was 'Gerasenes', 'Gadarenes', or even 'Gergesenes'.

The point is, the manuscripts are obviously difficult to decipher.  There were written in a language difficult to interpret and there were many copies of the same manuscripts supposedly all originating from the same source.  The exact details are hard to know.  Anyone who claims to know exactly how this all happened is simply mistaken.  There is no room for dogmatism when presenting details of this event (not unlike many of the Biblical stories).

However, the fact that so many manuscripts contain the same story gives credence to the fact of the matter.  The event certainly took place although the details are uncertain.  What we can gather from it all is that Jesus crossed the lake, arrived at an area called something starting with a "g" sound and ending with an "enes" sound, encountered and overcame demonic activity in at least one man, and the people of that area begged Him to leave.

While one could get buried in the details that are different, my question surrounds the last event Matthew, Mark, and Luke all agreed on - the people asked Jesus to leave.  Why?  Luke said they were fearful.  But why?  Why would the people reject Jesus because He had delivered this man (men) from what everyone would agree was a damnable situation?

Father, I really don't understand why the people of the area "across the lake" wanted Jesus to leave.  Help me to meditate on this detail and learn what You have to teach me through it.