“If
you
are willing, you can make me clean” (Mark 1:40).
Leprosy
was a terrible disease. Not
only did it
disfigure and tear up one’s body, it also tore up everything the
person held
dear. Lepers had to leave
their homes, families,
jobs and even their towns. They
had to
shout “unclean” so that they did not come into contact with
healthy
people. It was such a
lonely existence
that some referred to lepers as “the living dead” because they had
lost
everything that brought meaning to their lives.
It
is
notable, then, that this man approaches Jesus.
Maybe he thought that he had nothing left to lose, or maybe
his faith
was so strong that he could not stay away.
Either way, he took a huge risk just talking to Jesus. However, his words reveal the
next big risk.
Seemingly,
he had no doubt that Jesus could heal him.
What he was not so certain about was whether Jesus would do
it. “If you are willing…”. Is that not where a lot of
us stumble? We read about
how powerful God is and we
think, “He can do anything” and yet we wonder, “Will he help me?”
Maybe
we know ourselves too well. We
can list all
kinds of reasons that we must be beyond God’s grace and mercy. Maybe we assume that those
nice Biblical
stories make good teaching material, but we are just not sure
whether those
promises really apply to us.
If
you
have ever wondered whether you have gone too far away from God for
him to hear
or help you, then please pay attention to Jesus’ response: “I am willing… Be clean!”
(Mark 1:41)
God
is
willing to listen. He is
willing to
help. He is willing to let
you start
over. He is willing to
clean up the
mess. In fact, not only is
he willing,
he loves us so much that he has already taken care of our biggest
issues through
Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection (John 3:16-17). Even before we knew that we
needed help, he
provided the answer (Romans 5:8).
If
you
ever wonder how God thinks, what he is like, or how he would
react, look at
Jesus and remember these words, “I am willing”.
Jesus
is what God had to say!
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