At some point in your life you may have thought: “wow, I’m nothing, no one sees me, no one recognizes me”? It’s very likely. Maybe you’re feeling that way now: on the margins, invisible, worthless. So I want to open with you one of the most tragic stories in the Bible, the demoniac of Gadara, in Mark 5. And I’ll say it up front: our value does not depend on what we were, but on the hand that touched us.
A man no one wanted
“When he came ashore, immediately a man possessed by an unclean spirit met him, a man who lived among the tombs, and even chains could not bind him. [...] He roamed constantly, day and night, crying out among the tombs and on the hills, striking himself with stones.” (Marcos 5.2-3,5)
Let’s be honest: can you see any value in a person like that? Look at his dwelling: the cemetery. Chains and shackles didn’t hold him. He shouted day and night, beat himself, and most likely lived naked. He caused fear, dread, even terror. No one would look at him and say “I want a friend like that,” nor would anyone get close to ask “how can I help?” It was a life without love, without affection, without friends, without anyone to do good to him.
When Jesus asks his name, the answer shocks: “Legion is my name, because we are many.” From what we know, a Roman legion had at least three thousand soldiers, later reaching five thousand two hundred. Let’s keep the lower number, out of compassion for the Gadarenian: three thousand demonic manifestations in one man. His life was so dirty that when the spirits left, they went into a herd of about two thousand pigs.
It may be that you and I have not reached that stage of being lost, unwanted. But many of us have felt rejected, despised, completely worthless. And the first thing that comes to my heart when I read this text is this: glory to God, because God, in Christ, loved us when we were still his enemies.
The old violin
Meditating on this word, I remembered a story recorded in a book about the value of life. At an auction, the assets of a property were being sold. After the most beautiful pieces, the auctioneer found an old violin: ugly, dusty, scratched, with loose strings. He asked for a one‑dollar bid. No one did anything.
Then someone took the violin, wiped it with a cloth, cleaned it, adjusted the strings, tuned it and began to play. When the instrument returned to the table, the auctioneer opened the bids at one thousand dollars. Two thousand came in, and the violin sold for three thousand. What changed? One single thing: the Master’s hand. The Master’s hand, when it arrives, resolves. He touched, He resolved.
Seated, clothed, and in perfect sound mind
“Going to see Jesus, they saw the demoniac who had the legion, seated, clothed, in perfect sound mind; and they were afraid.” (Marcos 5.15)
Can you glorify God or not? No one wanted that man, everyone was afraid of him. The Master’s hand arrived. What was running on the hills is now seated. What was naked is now clothed. What was shouting and beating himself is now in perfect sound mind.
That is what God did in your life and in mine. He found us when no one placed a cent on the bid. Sinner is sinner, and was far from God. The Master’s hand brought us near God and made us children. Now we have a family and can call Him Father. So I say: I don’t care where I have been, I don’t care what I did, I don’t care what I was. What matters is that I am in Christ and that in Him I am a new creature.
The people’s reaction, however, was strange: they asked Jesus to leave. They should have said “stay with us, because we need change,” but their business was with the pigs. My mother, when she suspected my companions, would say: “who mixes with pigs eats the bran.” Those people didn’t want to be sheep, they wanted to stay with the pigs. Even so, Jesus went there, rescued us and loved us as no one else would. When there is an addict or a lost one in the family, no matter how much love exists, people give up, and sometimes the whole family gives up. The Master does not. He is always ready to extend his hand.
From rejected to missionary
“Jesus, however, did not allow him, but ordered him: Go to your home, to your people. Tell them all that the Lord has done for you and how He had compassion on you. So he went and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.” (Marcos 5.19-20)
The freed man wanted to follow Jesus, because he knew there was no better companionship. But he received a mission. The guy who had no value at all became a missionary in Decapolis, the region of the ten cities. And he didn’t need a big message. It was enough to say: “Do you remember that man who lived among the tombs, that even chains could not hold? Well, that was me.”
I have a friend of thirty-something years, now a missionary to the nations. In his youth he was so addicted to drugs that there was no room in his body for a syringe. Even his family didn’t want him. He left home as a hippie and got lost around the world. One day he was touched by the Master’s hand. Today, in Brazil and several countries, he is God’s instrument as a prophet and evangelist.
He can, and he wants
I also remember the leper in Matthew 8. No one wanted to embrace him. Yet he approached and said, “Lord, if you will, you can cleanse me.” He was certain that Jesus could. The only doubt was whether Jesus wanted to. And Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him as no one else could, and answered, “I want it, be clean!”
Both passages lead me to the same conclusion: we were never alone, neither in sin nor in disease. Christ came so that lepers would be reached, demon‑possessed would be set free, and so that our lives would be changed to the point that people say, “I want your God, because the God who changes your life changes any life.” There are no great sinners. Great is the God who forgives and transforms a sinner into a child.
God has His time and His way. The man at the pool of Bethesda waited thirty‑eight years. Maybe you were the most disbelieved in the family. That was my case: when I was little they said I was the biggest troublemaker of the seven, that I had no hope, that even my hair was bad. I grew up, things changed, and even the hair turned good. When the Master’s hand touches our life, His value reaches us.
Don’t forget where you were taken from
If at any time you were rejected, I want to tell you: God never rejected you. If you thought love didn’t exist, it does. It doesn’t matter how sinful we were or how many sins we committed. What matters is that the Master’s hand reached us, and we now have the value of the blood of the Lamb of God, which takes sin from the world. Without Christ there is no future, and a life without God is like a drunk riding a horse.
- Don’t go back to the pigs: the old life isn’t worth it; stay in the company of Jesus.
- Tell your people: go home and announce everything the Lord has done for you and how He had compassion on you.
- Don’t give up on anyone: if Jesus reached the Gadarenian, He can reach whoever you love.
I was lost and I was found, I was rejected and I was received. It’s worth serving God, my brother. I cannot forget how I was reached. I hope you do the same.
