There is something powerful about encountering Christ. Things change, lives change, and priorities are reassessed. What I used to be I am no longer. It is not just a change on the outside. It is not superficial; it is transformative, radical, and distinctive. It is a complete and total metamorphosis.
This is what happens to the man in Mark 5. He lived in uncleanness, among the tombs among the dead. This was the perfect place for demons. Satan regularly dwells in those places where life is most profane. Before Christ he was homeless, friendless, tormented by the voices within him. They controlled his life, they controlled his environment, and they also controlled his destiny. In the past some had tried to subdue him and rehabilitate him. That feat had proven impossible. Not even chains could hold him. The real chains that really held him were stronger… some dark matter, some dark energy had a greater hold. Then one day this man whose life was literally out of control met Jesus. And Jesus was like no one else he had met before.
There was an immediate impact! There is just something about the presence of Jesus. Scripture says he ran to him and he fell before him. This man, from whom everyone else ran, ran to the Jesus and fell at His feet. The demons that drove this man away from all human relationships drove him to the feet of Jesus.
Some of us look at this story and consider the exorcising of the demons the miracle, perhaps, but consider the transformation of the man himself. He was no longer a danger to himself or others, he was now clothed and more importantly Mark says he was in his right mind. Where there had been torment there was now comfort; where there was pain and agony there was now contentment; where there was chaos there was now order and peace. All because this man had met Jesus!
What happened here in Mark happens every day when one encounters Christ. There is a change, a transformation, a new creation. We should be committed to changing our world by having people everywhere meet this same Jesus.
The scripture: Mark 5:14-15
"Those tending the pigs, scared to death, bolted and told their story in town and country. Everyone wanted to see what had happened. They came up to Jesus and saw the madman sitting there wearing decent clothes and making sense, no longer a walking madhouse of a man."
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