30 Days Watching Jesus. Set free.

Nathan: 00:00

Mark 5:2–5 (NKJV): When He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, ​3 who had his dwelling among the tombs ... [who] had often been bound with shackles and chains ... [yet] the shackles [he had] broken in pieces ... night and day, he was ... crying out and cutting himself with stones. Mark. Mark 5:2–5.

Hey, I’m Nathan, and this is Day 6 of 30 Days Watching Jesus. Imagine just the psychological distress this man dealt with every waking moment—and probably in sleep, too. You could hear his cries of agonized suffering long before you could see him. Imagine—an underground retreat —if you could even call it that—among the dead. There was no place in civilization for this raging hurricane of a man. The best doctors offered no medical miracle. The local authorities could not contain him. Religious leaders spoke no words of hope or peace. Friends and family did not visit. He was a menace to society. He was as good as dead—almost, though to this point for him—and everybody else—death would have been better. However, when Jesus saw him—yes, saw HIM—he didn’t see a raging lunatic, he saw a man, oppressed by demonic forces. Jesus saw what no one else could see—hope. He—Jesus—was not afraid of this ferocious human hurricane—he overflowed with compassion. And gave him back his freedom. How often we allow what we see to define a person—rather than allowing God’s vision, to define them.