Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Ezekiel 25-30
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Mark 1:41-44
Jesus was powerfully moved. He reached out and actually touched the leper.
Jesus: I do want to. Be clean.
And at that very moment, the disease left him; the leper was cleansed and made whole once again. Jesus sent him away, but first He warned him strongly.
Jesus: Don’t tell anybody how this happened. Just go and show yourself to the priest so that he can certify you’re clean. Perform the ceremony prescribed by Moses as proof of your cleansing, and then you may return home.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Have you ever run into one of those guys? You desperately need something done. He knows how to do it and can do it well, but refuses to help. Maybe he wants more credit than you want to give him. Maybe he wants you to beg and plead some more. Maybe he wants to sabotage the project. It’s that feeling from him, “I can, but I just don’t want to.” Infuriating, isn’t it? I really don’t like to come across those kinds of folks.
I understand if they don’t have the time because of busy schedules. I understand if there are trade secrets involved. I understand if they are in the middle of something and to take care of my need would disrupt their activities significantly. I understand those issues. But when the answer is, “I can, but I just don’t want to.” Those, I just don’t like. I’m sure you don’t either.
That’s what I like about this story. The leper came to Jesus. He broke all the rules to do so. In Jesus day, lepers lived outside of the towns and villages in the wilderness, banned from contact with the communities. They were contagious and no one could come near them. In fact, if the leper saw anyone, the law required him to yell, “Unclean! Unclean!” to ward off the unsuspecting traveler and avoid any contamination.
But this man pushes through the crowd surrounding Jesus. See, once His ministry began, He never traveled alone. Someone was always with Him on those roads. In fact, there were always crowds around Him looking to see what would happen next. Dozens of people crowded the dusty road as this leper came pushing through crowd and walked right up to Jesus.
“If you want to, you can heal me of my disease. Help me, please.”
I like Jesus’ answer. “I do want to.”
But Jesus didn’t just say the words. He reached out and touched the leper. He did something no one else would do. Jesus felt such compassion for this lonely, forsaken man that He broke all the rules, too. I can picture Jesus reaching out putting His hands on the man’s shoulders gently lifting him to his feet. I see Him looking into the leper’s eyes and speaking those words, “I do want to,” then embracing him in His strong arms. Then Jesus says, “Be clean.” and continues His embrace as He whispers into His ear, “Don’t tell anyone how this happened. Just go show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifice Moses required. Then go home. Everyone wants to see you again.”
The man broke all the rules to get to Jesus. Jesus broke all the rules in sharing and showing compassion to him. But then, if the man is clean in the end, did Jesus and the man break any rules? The man was clean, not diseased in the end. Whose to say either did a bad thing? Who can condemn either one if the man went home to his family healed of the disease?
Do we get so tangled up in our taboos that we forget the people inside them? I sometimes think that’s what Jesus tries to tells us. The leper He healed that day had only other lepers as friends. Drug addicts end up with drug addicts and dealers as their only friends. The homeless end up with only the homeless as friends. The down-and-out end up with the down-and-out as their only friends. Maybe part of the less Jesus wants us to learn is that we need to break the rules every once in a while and break through with compassion to those who need someone else in their circle of friends.
Before we can be healed of any of those maladies above, we must want to be healed, just like the leper in the scene Mark gives us. But how many of the addicts, homeless, down-and-out finally come to realize they need help, only to find that when they get to the edge of the crowd, no one will reach out and touch them. No one on our side of the divide will dare to break the rules as Jesus did.
To find healing from the diseases the sin this world brings upon us, it takes two willing to break the rules. God in His holiness, willing to reach out to a sinful man and forgive him of the wrongs committed. And this sinful man recognizing the pitiful state I’m in and reaching out to a holy God in whose presence I am not worthy to stand.
When both of us break the rules, healing takes place. He makes me clean and invites me into His kingdom. What a marvelous God we serve. Have the two of you broken the rules yet?
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