Mark 1:40-45 (NRSV)
Read Mark 1:40-45 on biblegateway.com
Verse 40A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Verse 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Verse 42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. Verse 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, Verse 44saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." Verse 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
Devotion
“Nah, nah, nah, boo, boo!” That is how we as children would tease one another, daring the others to cross a boundary of one sort or another.
“If you choose, you can make me clean.” The leper challenges Jesus’ authority and the social laws of his day. He dares Jesus to declare that he is clean. In doing so, Jesus would cross more than one boundary.
Whether truly out of pity, as one translation reads, or with indignation at how society had marginalized this man, Jesus responds by choosing to do just that – make him clean. Yes, Jesus crosses boundaries for you and me. He crossed the ultimate boundary from life into death and back into life again, so that death would never again be a barrier between us and God.
Prayer
Thank you, O Christ, for breaking the boundaries that keep us from you. Amen.