“And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.'” (Mark 1:40)
Leprosy is a terrible disease that causes lesions to form on one’s skin. When untreated, it can cause permanent damage to one’s skin, nerves, limbs, and eyes, and can be fatal. Back in the Bible times, there was no cure or treatment for this deadly disease. People with leprosy were not allowed to live in the cities or villages with other human beings, they were cast out of the city and lived as beggars in leper colonies or alone. A leper was not allowed to come within a certain distance of any other person, and would yell “Unclean!” when approaching or approached by someone else. Basically, having leprosy in those days was a death sentence.
So, in the verse above, we read about a leper who comes to Jesus and begs to be healed of his disease. Being afflicted with this deadly disease that was slowly destroying his life, this leper comes to the only source of deliverance – Jesus Christ. And we read in the next two verses, “Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.”
Can you imagine the pure joy and excitement this man must have felt. One moment he is cast outside the city, an outcast, a disease ridden leper, one who was despised by others in his society. And now, as a result of coming to Christ, he is suddenly healed of this disease! He can now go from living as a beggar outside the city back to living with his friends and family in the comfort of his home. The disease that was destroying his life is now gone!
The Bible mentions leprosy over 40 times. It was a common disease back in those days and there was no cure or treatment. It basically meant death! And a slow and painful death at that. Being healed from such a torment would have been one of the most amazing experiences one could have. That is why even though Jesus told the leper to not spread the word, he couldn’t help it – he told everyone he came in contact with. That is why Mark 1:45 tells us, “But he (the leper) went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.” He told EVERYONE!
The same is true with our own lives. We were once stricken with the deadly disease of our sin. There was no hope, we were doomed to die and go to hell. Not only was our sin a death sentence, it also destroyed our life while here on this earth, and we were hopeless. However, Jesus Christ came and died on the cross to free us from that penalty of sin. All we had to do was come to Him like the leper and ask Him to heal us, believing on Him as our Savior. What an AMAZING transformation in our lives, when we are no longer bound by the chains of sin, but are now free to live for and follow Jesus Christ.
Now, suppose the leper who was cleansed had after a few days gone back outside the city and took up residence in the leper colony again, and began to rub hands with and seek to contract the disease again. We would be shocked at his actions. Yet, that’s what many of us do. We’ve been cleansed from our sin and from the chains of this world that destroy our lives, yet rather than daily following Jesus, we seem to would rather go back to living in the sin that almost destroyed us.
Proverbs 26:11 warns us, “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” Why would a leper cleansed of leprosy want to go back and get the disease again? And why would we who are cleansed from our sin want to go back and revel in it more? Rather, we should like the leper in our story – be out telling EVERYONE about the WONDER and AMAZING GRACE of our Savior Jesus Christ who CHANGED our life by cleansing us of sin.
The leper who was healed no longer had to go around yelling “Unclean!”, because now he was cleaned by the miraculous power of Jesus. And we too who have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior are now CLEANSED by the miraculous healing power of Jesus Christ!
“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:11)