Friday, May 3, 2013

I Am Willing


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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