Mark 1:40-41
And a leper came to Him, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying to Him, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." And moved with compassion, He stretched out His hand, and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed."
In this brief passage, there are rich truths to instruct us on how to approach God.
Notice first, that the leper came beseeching Jesus. The word beseech comes from a compound word in the greek. It consists of a preposition meaning beside, and a verb meaning to call. This, to me, adds a great meaning to the passage because you have to come near to Him to call on God. Too often our pride prevents us from asking for help from others and especially from God. Yet the leper came to Jesus, and that was unacceptable for the leper in that culture. Being a leper, he was ceremonially unclean and was to supposed to cry out "unclean" whenever someone came near so that they could avoid being unclean themselves. This shows the need and the boldness of the leper. He needed to be cleansed of his leprosy and knew where to find the help. He was bold in approaching Jesus and Hebrews 4:16 tells us to "draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." If we, like the leper, could clearly see our needs, maybe we would have the boldness to approach the throne of God in seeking His hand to help us with our sins and downfalls. Maybe the difficulty comes from our pride and the fact that in doing so we acknowledge the Lordship of Christ and must humbly kneel before Him. This leads me to the next step in approaching God.
Notice that the leper knelt before Christ. In this act the leper acknowledges the true place of Christ as King. Pride may be the biggest sin that we face as Christians. Part of it from ourselves and another part from our culture. The American culture looks down on those who need help and are not considered a "success." In America, we strive to be the best and often times it means running over others to get there. In the Church, we try to put our best face forward as though nothing is wrong. That we are not struggling with life, with sin, and with troubles. Could it be that even in the Church we do not really care about helping our brothers and sisters? Not from pity, nor from obligation, but from love and a recognition of our own frailty should we open our eyes to see the needs of others before they ask. But do we spend the time to get to know each other in the Church? Are we afraid that others may see our faults? I figure that the Church should be the place where we are not afraid to reveal our warts. I suppose that those whose sins have been forgiven and their hearts opened up before a Holy God would and should be the most accepting and forgiving people on earth. Sounds like I am chasing a rabbit doesn't it? But if you really think about it, doesn't it all go back to the Lordship of Christ? If we bow our knee to Christ we would not judge others doing the same. The leper sets an example of acknowledging the Lordship of Christ because he had no thought, care, or concern for what others might think, only what Christ would think. The most amazing part of this passage, however, is what the leper said.
The leper approaches Christ without doubt and in faith. This is seen in what he said, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." He doesn't ask Jesus IF he can cleanse the leprosy, but he says to Jesus you CAN make me clean, if you are willing. How often do we approach God with this amount of confidence in His ability? How often do we have faith like this? How powerful is it to approach God like this? Look at the response of Christ. Mark says He was moved with compassion. Jesus was so moved with compassion, that He did that which was forbidden under Jewish law, he stretched out His hand and touched the leper.
If we come near to Christ, acknowledge His Lordship, and ask in faith will He have compassion on us as well?
