February 28, 2021
One KC, Week 3 - Mark 1-3
Jesus brought with Him an explosion of compassion!
Mark 1:40-41, Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
Leprosy in the Bible is a picture of sin. Spiritually, we are all born lepers and need to be cleansed! Jesus came to not only forgive us of our sin but to cleanse us from our sin! 1 John 1:9 ,“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Like sin, leprosy was a disease that started beneath the surface long before it could be seen. Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?”
Like sin, leprosy would begin as a tiny speck on the flesh that would eventually take over the entire body. That is the nature of sin. It begins small, but when allowed to go unchecked, it will eventually completely take over.
Like sin, leprosy attacked the sensory nerves of the body; the leper eventually lost feeling. 1 Timothy 4:2, “speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron.”
Like sin, leprosy was a slow death, but eventually it always destroyed its victim.
James 1:13-16, Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
Mark 1:41-42, Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.”