Mark 1:40–41: “Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.'”

January 27th, 2022 by Pastor Ed in devotional

Seeing a person with leprosy is very shocking; they are usually missing fingers and toes. In advanced and untreated case, the person looks mutilated, with infected tissue dying from head to foot. They were not only ostracized from society because they were so highly contagious but because the look and smell of them, the stench of dead human flesh, was repulsive. One of the strange ironies of this disease is that even though it appears to be horribly painful, the wounds are not usually felt at all. That is because leprosy is a silent killer; the organism that carries the disease attacks the nerve cells. Few of us think of the feeling of pain as being something that is important or even helpful. However, without the sensation of pain, we continue to hurt ourselves without realizing it.

The poor, leprous man in this chapter had not been able to feel for years, and his body was full of the effects of leprosy. By law, if he saw anyone approaching him, he was required to cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” to warn them from getting too close. But this pitiable man boldly approached the Savior, desperate but confident about whom he approached. He said to Jesus, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” It is interesting that he knew Jesus was able, but he didn’t know if He was willing. We are only slightly different from this leper. We cannot say to Jesus, “If you are willing, You can make me clean,” because we know He is willing. We must say to Jesus, “since You are willing, I surrender to Your will, cleanse me.”

Did you notice that the leper wasn’t asking to be healed but to be made clean? When Jesus told His disciples to go and preach the gospel, He said, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers” (Matt. 10:8, italics added). Scripture almost always speaks of leprosy as being cleansed, not healed. Why? Leprosy is often used as an illustration for sin. Sin functions just like leprosy as it deadens, not nerve endings, but our conscience, our sense of right and wrong. Our conscience is the pain receptor for our soul and spirit, but sin acts as an anesthetic, deadening our senses to injury. The more we ignore our conscience and sin, the less we feel pain. The old adage “let your conscience be your guide” is horribly advice, since the more seared our conscience becomes the less reliable it is as a warning system. It becomes incapable of detecting damage being done. As long as we remain in these bodies of flesh, we will never be immune from sins pull. And so we must be cleansed not healed of sin.

“LORD, cleanse us, as we know You are willing. Forgive us.”