Mark 1:40-2:12. Mark sure gets right down to business. This section begins with another miracle. A leper is healed “immediately” of his illness. We talked about how that word has the idea of Jesus’ actions being appropriate but it can also mean “right now” and that is obviously what it means in this verse, but still it was the right thing to do, too. We know it happened right away because the man knew it, the people he told knew it, and Jesus wanted the man to show the priests so they would know it too. The offering that he was to give is described in Leviticus 14:1-20. In Mark 1:41 we see that Jesus had “compassion” for the man. The word translated “compassion” in the Greek refers to a persons “guts”. They were considered the part of the body where our strongest emotions come from, sometimes we say something is “gut wrenching” or that we have a “pit in our stomach”, those are similar ideas. So Jesus had very strong feelings about this mans problem. When we read a rule like the one in Leviticus we want to be careful to understand that God does not hate sick people, the rule was there to point our God’s purity. That is a very important thing to understand when we are thinking about our disobedience and rebellion (sin). God is pure and we are not and that was the lesson to be learned from the law about leprosy. And here we see that God does care about illness. In Revelation 21:2-4 we see a picture of eternity with God and in those verses we see that sadness, pain, and death will be no more. So God does care and Jesus was willing to help this guy.
You might think it is kind of odd that Jesus told him not to tell anyone. Actually he told him not to tell anyone but the priests. You need to understand that most of the Jewish people of Jesus day though that the way to be right with God was by obeying the Old Testament rules, the Law of Moses. Also they were looking forward to a day when they would have their kingdom, the Kingdom of David, back forever. The Messiah, or Christ, or promised one, was supposed to be the king of that kingdom. So many of them started to think maybe Jesus was the guy, and he was, but they missed the point of verses like Isaiah 53:6 which help us understand that the Messiah was not only going to be a king but also a sacrifice for our sins. The Law of Moses was only to show us we fail and that we need something else to make us right with God (Romans 3:19-29). Jesus actions at that time were about helping people see him as their personal savior and that upset the priests who thought that “their” sacrifices were the thing that would save the sin problem. So Jesus told this man who was healed to go and show the priests, Jesus wanted the priests to believe in him too.
The man didn’t do what Jesus told him to and instead told everyone, or at least it seemed like it. Jesus was overwhelmed with people wanting to be healed. Interestingly when he went home and all these people showed up Jesus didn’t start healing again but he started to teach them. Remember from yesterday’s reading that that is what he was supposed to do. Theses people had seen a great miracle in the healing of the man with leprosy and now Jesus was using that as proof that they should listen to him. That didn’t stop people from wanting to be healed though, and one guy had his friends rip the roof off the house so they could lower him into it near Jesus. Jesus was so impressed with their faith that he told the man that his “sins were forgiven”. What! That’s not supposed to be what happened, he was supposed to heal this paralyzed guy. And, boy were the religious leaders who were there watching and listening upset, “NO one can forgive sins but God.” Jesus knew what they were thinking so he challenged them, ‘Is it easier to say ‘your sins are forgiven’ or “get up and walk?’” Both things are equally easy to say and equally hard to follow through on. Only god can do either one. So to prove that he had authority to forgive sin Jesus healed the man. Jesus proved that he was God at that point.
WE need to be careful not to let our ideas about God get in the way of seeing who Jesus is and what he can do for us. We also need to be careful not to let the things we want become more important than getting right with God. We may want to be cured of some disease or have some other part of our life become easier but God is focusing on eternity. 10,000 year from now my sore knee wont really matter anymore (probably 50 years from now actually). God cares about our pain but he doesn’t want it to continue into eternity, but that is what will happen if we do not give our lives to Jesus now while we are alive. Trust Jesus now with your life, you will certainly still have troubles, God may fix some of them, but in eternity there will only be peace and happiness.
God thank you for caring about us today. Thank you for doing the things that are best for us for eternity. Help me trust you each day. Thank you for saving me and providing a path (Jesus) top an eternity with you.