A Man with Leprosy                                                                                                              B - 4

  

A man with leprosy came to him (Jesus) and begged him on his knees.  “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.  “I am willing,” he said.  “Be clean!”  Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.

Mark 1:40-42 (NIV)

 

The leper came with such an understandable mixed bag of emotions: panic, fear, hurt, loneliness, physical suffering, social isolation, isolation from loved ones, but also with a glimmer of hope, faith and expectation.  The big question in his mind, though, was not could Jesus heal him, but would Jesus heal him.  There’s a wide gap between “could” and “would”.  Anyone could see his mind spinning about the reaction Jesus would have to his plea, about whether Jesus would give him attention, about whether he was valuable enough for a minute of Jesus’ time. 

Many of us even today, even churchgoers, wonder down deep about the willingness of Jesus to heal and bless them.  Sometimes, mistakes in our past clouds our view of the heart of Jesus, what’s he like, and what he relishes doing.  Let’s set the record straight.

First, reread the words “filled with compassion”.  That doesn’t sound like a cold, indifferent, far off, uninvolved, God.  Rather, it sounds like a God who really does care and does notice, someone who wants to heal and bless, someone who wants to sit with us at the kitchen table as we wonder how to love our spouse, love our children, make ends meet.  Or to start over.

Next, look at the exclamation point after “Be clean!”.  This exclamation point means that when Jesus healed him, and when Jesus heals us, he does it with authority, with full knowledge, with full power.  It may be immediate, or it may take stages, like peeling off an orange skin.  But his healings for us are total and complete; there’s no distractions or shared attention!  And as in the leper’s case, his healings are not only physical, but social, spiritual and emotional as well.

Next time you are in your spiritual or mental leper mode, feeling so down that you think you won’t make it even until the end of the day, trust Jesus that he is quite able and quite willing to touch you and make you whole!  How about we let him start his healing work now?

 

1) The absolute worst spiritual assumption is that we are not sure that God wants to heal us!  How did Jesus answer the leper? 

2) What actions did the leper have to do to receive a healing? 

3) When the leper believed and Jesus acted, how long did it take for healing? 

4) Name the ways in which this leper was cured and changed? 

5) Sometimes we also feel like a leper, in our prayer life, our social life, our past life, etc.

 

What would Jesus like to do now for you?