That You May Know - Pt 6

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. (Mark 1:40-45 ESV).

Keep in mind that lepers were considered unclean by the Jews and were required to keep a safe distance so they would not contaminate them (cf. Leviticus 13-14). The average course of the disease is nine years and ends in mental decay, coma and ultimately death. The leper was required to wear a black garment and everywhere he went he also had to call out loudly a warning with the cry “unclean, unclean"! Some people even threw rocks at lepers to keep them at a safe distance. This man came boldly right to Jesus believing He had the power to heal him. Jesus, with compassion, reached out and touched him and the leper was instantly healed. To the pious Jew, so conscious of the ritual of uncleanness of the leper, this miracle must have been staggering. Then Jesus tells him to go and report to the priest that he had been healed. The reason was that if ever a leper was cured he had to undergo a complicated ceremony of restoration as described in the Mosaic Law. The key in this miracle is that no person is too disgusting for God’s touch. In a sense we are all people with leprosy because we have all been deformed by the ugliness of sin. But God, by sending His Son Jesus has touched us, giving us the opportunity to be healed. It is a clear revelation of the depth of the compassion of Jesus. The story has been repeated many times. A reporter watched Mother Teresa of Calcutta as she cleaned the maggot-infested wound of a man on the street, only to say, “I wouldn’t do what you do for a million dollars.” Mother Teresa is supposed to have replied, immediately, with a bit of a wry smile, “I wouldn’t either.” Our faith has its own calculus of value, and it is not that of the world. The world must reckon—to the extent that it can—what things are worth. That is the only way we can compare objects and actions to achieve a balance in commerce. Granted, it is often not fair. It’s simply what the market dictates. But Christians do not reckon as the world does because our picture of what it means to be human has been redrawn by Christ. He measured everything with the weight of compassion.