² As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out of the tombs. ³ This man lived among the tombs, and no one was ever strong enough to restrain him, even with a chain. ⁴ He had been secured many times with leg irons and chains, but he broke the chains and smashed the leg irons. No one was tough enough to control him. ⁵ Night and day in the tombs and the hills, he would howl and cut himself with stones.(Mark 5:2-5, CEB)

There are several things in Mark 5:1-20 that challenge me.

In this passage it is the horrible torment that a man is going through. Society couldn’t handle him any more. There weren’t enough ways to deal with him in their own strength and knowledge. It had come to just dealing with a man like this.

The torment that was outward was also something that challenged me. As I was praying through this passage yesterday the thought was this: “It’s not just the torment that is outward. There are many who face that same intense torture inwardly. No one knows.”

Lent prepares us for the Resurrection. The resurrection is power. The same Spirit who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us. All around us we may encounter people facing intense battles. Some are outward. Some are inward. And the resurrected Christ has sent his Spirit to empower us to deal with people in bondage. People that no one else can see changed… this is where the Kingdom of God touches. No one is beyond Kingdom blessing. No one is beyond the powerful touch of the Kingdom of God.