Mark 1:40-45
Suggested further reading: Numbers 5:1-4
Leprosy is rarely found in our country but in Bible lands it was common. A vicious disease, it attacked not merely the skin but also the blood and the bones until the person rotted to death. Among the Jews, the leper was reckoned unclean and was cut off from the congregation of Israel and the ordinances of religion. He lived away from everyone. No one should touch him or help him. How terribly sad!
We suffer from something like leprosy, a disease that is ingrained into our very natures and cleaves to us with deadly force. That disease is the plague of sin. Like leprosy, it inflects every part of our natures: our heart, will, conscience, understanding, memory and feelings. Like leprosy, it makes us loathsome and unfits us for God’s presence and the glory of heaven. But sin is far worse than leprosy—it affects everyone and causes eternal death.
Our Lord is both willing and able to heal those suffering from this sin disease. He responded to the leper’s request and made him well—and the cure was immediately affected. With but a word and a touch, the Lord healed the leper and made him healthy.
Imagine how the cured leper felt. The morning sun rose upon him, a miserable being more dead than alive, a mass of sores and corruption; but the evening sun saw him full of hope and joy, free from pain and fit for society.
What Jesus did with leprosy, He can do with our spiritual disease of sin in our natures. No heart disease is so deep-seated, but He is able and willing to cure it. No plague of soul is so virulent, but our Great Physician cannot heal it. Praise God for such a compassionate and able Savior worthy of our trust and praise.
Lanny Tanton is the Pastor at The Bible Church of the Lakes in Horseshoe Bay, Texas – just outside of Marble Falls. Pastor Tanton welcomes you to our website and hopes that you’ll enjoy reading these insightful blog posts. Please contact us if you have further questions!!
