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
“If you choose, you can make me clean.” The leper lays his life at Jesus’ feet. He cannot heal himself. “Jesus, you can choose to do what I cannot do for myself.”
By faith, we know how Jesus will choose. By faith, we know that Jesus can respond in no other way than to heal the sick, lift up the downtrodden, mend the broken, and love the unlovable. By faith, we know that Jesus does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. By faith, we too can respond in no other way than to seek to do the same for our neighbors in need.
Like the leper, you may not be able to keep quiet about the gift of healing in your life. Good!
Prayer
Lord, do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Heal our brokenness and raise us to new life. Amen.