In Mark 5, we encounter a demon-possessed man. He is described as being too strong to be subdued. He was a tortured soul. “Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones” (Mark 5:5). If there was ever a hopeless case, it was this man.

Imagine being this man’s relative or close friend. You live near the tombs that this man had made his home. As you put your children to bed at night, you can hear the man in the distance, crying out with loud, distress-filled screams. It was not always this way. You remember a time when you and the man went to school together. You remember swimming in the lake together. You remember sharing meals with each other. You remember singing songs together. Then, one day, the joy in his eyes was gone. The man that you use to run and play with in the community was now being chained. Your neighbor became someone that you now avoided. Your friend was gone. Hope seemed to be lost with this man now being relegated to a living death among the tombs.

Then one day, a man named Jesus visited your area, and your former friend “came from the tombs to meet him.” The terrifying and torturing impure spirits that had controlled the man were suddenly terrified and tortured themselves.

You were not around for Jesus’ initial encounter with the man, but as you approach your town, you see the man “sitting there, dressed and in his right man.” He is with Jesus. And, understandably, the power of Jesus leaves the whole town terrified. What kind of person can show up and deliver a man like your former friend? If Jesus can change a life like his life, what does that mean for us?

You see, with Jesus, despite what we may think or feel in the moment, there are no hopeless cases or unredeemable lives. When Jesus is near, the unsubduable man is subdued with a word of mercy. When Jesus is near, immediate life change is possible.

Are there people in your life that you have essentially consigned to a living death because you believe their lives are just too messed up? Have you given up on that former friend who has gone astray? Have you assumed that there is no one powerful enough to subdue your wayward child? If so, then you desperately see that when Jesus is near, there is hope for life change and deliverance because He is powerful! He is able! He is merciful!

Your friend’s trouble, those “demons” that they cannot seem to shake, is no match for Jesus’ mercy! When Jesus is near, there are no hopeless cases.