Made Clean (blog)

"If you are willing, you can make me clean." (Mark 1:40)

In Jesus' day, people with infectious skin diseases were declared "unclean" and were not allowed in the temple area where they might intermingle with others.  They were quarantined, not just from people but also from God.  Anyone who touched an unclean person, even unintentionally, also became unclean - "guilty" of sin (Lev. 5:3).  That is why, kneeling before him, a leprous man asked Jesus if he was willing to heal him."Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man.  'I am willing,' he said.  'Be clean!'  (Mark 1:41)On the night he was betrayed, Jesus himself knelt in anguish before God and asked, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done" (Luke 22:42).God's compassionate will was that we be made clean and brought near to him again.  The only way for this to happen was for Jesus, who alone was without sin, to take everything that separates us from God, all of our guilt (our uncleanness) upon himself and die for it on the Cross.Prayer:  Jesus, we're wearing masks and gloves, and distancing ourselves from other people, so that we don't get sick with Covid-19.  It's hard for us to imagine you reaching out and touching the man with leprosy.  It's even harder to imagine that you would die for him, and for us, as painfully as you did.  Thank you Lord, for the compassion you have shown us all.

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Wanting Change (blog)