Matthew
8:1-4
“When
Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him; and
there was a leper who came to him and knelt before him, saying, ‘Lord,
if you choose, you can make me clean.’”
(Matthew 8:1-2)
We
sometimes fail to recognize the risks people took when coming to Jesus for
healing. Because infirmity often
isolated one as unclean, a person placed him or her self at great risk in
venturing into the crowds that often surrounded Jesus. Because leprosy was not only seen as a curse,
but also thought to be highly contagious, lepers, like the man in Matthew’s
story, risked everything in reaching out to Jesus.
In
the fifth chapter of Mark’s gospel, the writer tells the story of a woman who
had been bleeding for twelve years who braved the crowd to touch the hem of
Jesus’ garment, that she might be healed. Like that woman, the leper took the courageous
step of seeking Jesus publicly. He
didn’t beg for mercy or plead the injustice of his circumstance. He trusted himself into Jesus’ hands,
acknowledging that Jesus had the power and choice to heal.
The
Lenten journey exposes our own infirmities…physical, emotional, spiritual. It may seem risky to acknowledge these
struggles and bring them to Jesus, but by faith, we too can trust…“Lord, if you
choose, you can make me clean.”
Prayer:
Help me, dear Jesus, to have the courage to reach out, to trust in you.
Amen.
Jim
Abernathy
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