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
Doctors Without Borders is an international medical humanitarian organization created in 1971 by doctors and journalists in France. It provides aid to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe due to armed conflict, natural disasters, or exclusion from health care. (www.doctorswithoutborders.org)
Jesus is a doctor without borders. When he encounters the leper, he does not respect the isolation imposed on him because of his disease. He listens to him, and, scandalously, even touches him. Nothing is bad enough, unclean enough to separate him from those he loves and serves. That is good news for the lonely, the sick, the lost, the isolated ones of our world. It is good news for you when your survival is threatened by sin, death, and the devil, by whatever form the enemy takes.
Prayer
O God, cast us not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from us. Restore to us the joy of your salvation, and uphold us with your free Spirit. Amen.