DEVOTION
THE GOSPEL
OF MARK
I AM WILLING
Mark 1:40-42
40 A man
with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing,
you can make me clean." 41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his
hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be
clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy
left him and he was cured.
NIV
Already the
reputation of Jesus is spreading and people are beginning to think he is
someone very special, maybe not the Messiah, but surely a man with special powers,
perhaps a prophet, but nevertheless they are taking advantage of the
opportunity. We all know how horrible leprosy was and that touching people could
infect the other person. We know lepers had to stay outside the city, isolated from
contact with other healthy people. So for Jesus to touch him was very special.
We can only imagine how terrible life would be without the touch of another
human being. We spend our whole life continually experiencing touch, even if it
to just shake hands with a friend. We have to know that for Jesus to reach out
and touch this man was extraordinary, but then, in doing so, Jesus also healed
him. With our lives being to intertwined with touch, it is hard to imagine people
who live outside the city and feel so isolated from all the healthy people. Yet
there are those who do live isolated, maybe not in the physical sense, but
surely in either an emotional, mental or spiritual sense. Even people right in
our own church may feel left standing outside the city. The question we have to
ask ourselves is, are we going to leave them there or reach out our hand and
touch them? Maybe we are one of those who feel isolated and we are hoping
someone will have compassion and reach out to us. Either way if there, and most
likely there are, people who feel like this, those who proclaim to follow Jesus
need to be more like Jesus and reach out and touch, and who knows a real
healing just might take place. All too often we tend to stay in our closed clichés,
never seeing those who feel isolated, and perhaps not really even caring. But
if we are following Jesus we need to be open to the cry, even if it a silent
one, “If you are willing you can make me clean”. If we are open we can see
them, standing outside, alone, unhappy, emotionally, mentally or spiritually
unhealthy. We cannot simply say it is their own fault, they need to get
involved, we have to, being filled with compassion, reach out our hand, our heart
and say, “I am willing”.
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