Mighty Mercy - Mark 5:14-20 Series

Introduction

A story of Power

We left off last time right in the middle of this epic confrontation between Jesus and Legion—this man with thousands of demons in him. The confrontation was epic, but the battle itself was anything but epic. It only lasted about one second, and the demons were sent off screaming for mercy as usual. This section of Mark is all about the power of Christ’s word, and Jesus does four miracles to show that power. The first one was the calming of the storm with a word. That one showed the power of Christ’s word over nature. Now this second one shows the power of Christ’s word over evil. Jesus drives out a legion of demons.

Mark 5:13 … the unclean spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

That may have been the mightiest display of power so far in the gospel. It was awesome.

A Story of Mercy

So, is this a story about Christ’s power? Absolutely. But after v.13 the demons are gone, and yet the story’s not over. The focus now shifts from the demons to the man. Why? Because this isn’t just a story about power. It’s a story about mercy. That’s how Jesus saw it. Look at Jesus’ take on the whole event down there in v.19:

19 "Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."

That’s interesting. He didn’t say, “Go and tell the story of how I conquered the forces of darkness.” He said, “Go tell the story of how I showed mercy.” So it’s about mercy. What is mercy? Here’s a definition: Mercy is the goodness and kindness of God expressed toward those in misery or distress. If you’re nice to someone, that’s kindness. If you’re nice to someone who’s in trouble, that’s mercy. Mercy relieves misery.

Mighty Mercy

So this passage is about two attributes of Christ—his power and his mercy. And that’s a beautiful combination of God’s attributes, because mercy is useless if it isn’t backed up with power, and power is deadly if it isn’t controlled by mercy. If you have someone who is mighty but not merciful, he will hurt you. And if you have someone who is merciful but not powerful, he will want to help you, but he won’t be able to. What good would it be if Jesus felt really sorry for this guy, but couldn’t do anything to help him? But Jesus has infinite mercy and omnipotent power to show that mercy. So I’ve titled this message, “Mighty Mercy.”

Before: Supreme Misery

Now, if mercy is helping someone in misery, then if Jesus really wants to put the extremes of his mercy on display, he needs to find someone who is really, really miserable, right? And I think this guy qualifies. He might win the prize as the most miserable person ever. We can think of his misery under three headings.

1) Wild

2)

First, he was wild. He had completely lost control of himself.

2 When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an unclean spirit came from the tombs to meet him.

When it says with an unclean spirit, that means the demon had control of him—even to the point where the demon speaks out of this guy’s mouth and forces him to harm himself.

5 Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

And not only could he not control himself; he couldn’t even be restrained by others.

3 This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more, not even with a chain. 4 For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him.

Literally, no one was strong enough to tame him. Normally we talk about taming a wild animal, not a human being. But this guy is worse than a wild animal, because wild animals can at least be tamed. No one could control him and he couldn’t control himself because he was under the control of the demons, who were tormenting him. You read stories about people like Richard Wurmbrand, who was tortured in unspeakable ways by the communists in Romania on a constant, daily basis for 14 years. I’ve read his book, and I can’t even imagine going through what he went through for a day, much less 14 years. But even worse than being tortured by communist prison guards would be to be tortured by demons, who can not only hurt your body, but who can also bring unthinkable terrors into your mind.