crumbs83

 

Crumbs from the Master ‘s Table 83

Leprosy

Scripture Mark 1: 40-45 NIV 40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”41 Jesus was indignant  He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “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.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Crumbs This passage centers, not around, demons or disease but the state of “clean” or rather “unclean” 1 Peter 1:16New International Reader's Version 16 It is written, “Be holy, because I am holy.” (Lev; 19:2) It is a useful picture of our sinfulness which separates us from God and each other.

This leprosy may have been any one of several skin diseases as well as Hansen’s disease, the one we are most familiar with. They were all enough to have the man cut off from his fellows and ostracized. So he asked to be made clean rather than healed. Jesus is filled with outraged compassion. He then does an amazing thing. He touches the man and becomes unclean. Jesus joins us in our condition that He might save us .Numbers 19:22

In giving the man a warning to go to the priest Jesus is helping the man back into being clean and re-entering community life. Instead he makes a hullabaloo about it and makes Jesus’ mission much more difficult than it was. How often do we think we are helping God and are in fact getting in the way!

Questions 1. To what issues would anger be an appropriate response ? 2. When should we submit to the regulations imposed by others? 3. What have we learnt about the nature of our salvation from this passage ?