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62. Jesus Heals A Leper


Key Verse: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone.  But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
Mark 1:44

He came on his knees.  We have no idea what this man’s original station in life was, but we know what disease had reduced him to.  He was an outcast, an untouchable.  He knew that he was not where he belonged, but he was also desperate.  We get that way when we have no other hope.  This man had no other hope.  So he came, in humility; a broken man, finally willing to submit to the will of God.  He was not making demands or bargaining, just simply presenting himself and letting God have his way. 

Then there is Jesus, giver of the Law, yet willing to go beyond the Law to reach out and touch a helpless man.  He didn’t scold or lecture the man about the fact that he wasn’t where he was supposed to be, on the fringe of the community.  He became more than a priest.  He did not reach out and touch the man simply to examine him.  Rather, he touched the man to love him and heal him and to set him free.  What a joy to know that God is willing.  After all, disease is one of those results of sin for which he died to set us free.  Here he is, doing what he came to earth to do.  In this we see in miniature what he did for all of us on the cross. 

It is interesting to note that the man does not ask for healing here, but cleansing.  This is probably due to the fact that leprosy has always been considered to be a disease contracted from a lack of cleanliness.  In the law, it was even labeled as unclean.  The man, however, by asking Jesus, was asking for something deeper than he himself realized.  Jesus could do something much more than deal with the surface.  When Jesus was through, the man would be clean indeed. 

It is interesting to note that, while some of the details vary between the different versions of this event, there are two details that are the same in all three gospel accounts.  The first detail is the man’s statement, “Lord, if you are willing…” and Jesus’ response of, “I am willing.  Be clean.”

The second detail that is the same is in Jesus telling the man to keep quiet about his cleansing and then sending him first to the priests at the temple to abide by the law.  Why?  Jesus says that he should do this so that his actions will become a testimony to the priests.  In this, Jesus is showing his respect for the laws that He established on Mt. Sinai more than a millennium before.  “I did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.”  Jesus is making sure that He cannot be accused of breaking His law, or setting it aside simply because He has come into the world. 

When we read in Leviticus what this man would be required to do, we see that it was no small task that Jesus was sending him to do.  Even the poor had to atone for their cleansing.  Yet, Jesus sent him to the priest before he was sent home to his loved ones, but why? 

Could it be that by giving the priests an opportunity to fully examine the man, from head to toe, seeing for themselves that this man was indeed healed, Jesus knew that they would not be able to come later and accuse him of fraud or trickery.  The priests would be required to touch the man on his ear, his thumb and his big toe, after he had been completely shaven.  They would have to stand before him and place their left hand, with palm filled with oil, on the top of his head.  He may have been known by the priests too so they would know that he had been a leper.  Now they would be able to take the time to see for themselves whether or not he was truly clean. And they would have to touch him too. Jesus Is The Real Thing! 

Hymn: “Whiter than Snow” 
or "Whiter than Snow" a nice variation

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