The Greatest Influencer Ever

When this man with leprosy asks, “If you are willing?” He does not understand what Jesus was doing when he encountered Him. Jesus was on God’s mission to preach in the next town. This preaching was His primary purpose for being in this world. The preaching that He was on His way to do was God’s will for Him in these moments, and He was on the move, getting to where He was to preach next. If Jesus were like one of us, He might have said, “I am very busy, can we talk another time?” But that is not what Jesus did, does, or will forever do. Instead, when the leper approaches Him and falls on his knees, Jesus stops dead in His tracks. He turns His body to face the man, He lowers Himself so that He looks into his eyes, where He graciously sees the man inside the leprosy. Then God fills Him with compassion for this man who has suffered the disease, the ostracizing of others, the loss of community, the loss of community Temple worship, and the extreme loneliness of living on the outskirts of society. No one wanted to be near this man for fear of contracting leprosy themselves, but Jesus stops, faces him, and puts out His hand to cradle the bandaged right hand of the man who had been labeled, ‘Leper!’ There is so much wisdom in these verses about God, and about our relating to Him. This man is desperate. He has tried everything else; he has exhausted every other potential cure. He has bandaged his hands and his feet and even his face as much to cover his wounds as to prevent others from seeing his leprosy. The only parts of his body that are showing are the ones where no leprous sores are visible. He is afraid that even Jesus will reject him because he has suffered the pangs of rejection from so many other people, countless times. But Jesus is not afraid of him, or his leprosy. Jesus knows the man or woman inside of each of us, no matter how battered, or torn, or scarred, or ripped, or raw our outside is. He wants so badly to have a relationship with us that He will wait on us for the longest time to come to Him. This man has had leprosy for a long time. He has exhausted every other potential cure. He has heard others talking about this Jesus, but he heard them from afar, and he is not sure he heard them correctly. But this day he is so desperate that he takes a chance that this is indeed the Healer Jesus rushing by on His way somewhere else. And Jesus drops everything else He is doing to stop and relate to this very tired and wearied entire living being. We could even say that God’s will had been interrupted, or that God’s will was changed, or diverted for a moment. As Jesus stops to face this kneeling man, the man asks what Jesus wants to hear from each of us, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” (NIV, Mark 1:40b) Jesus has the same answer to this humble question for each of us who have come to the point of desperation and have finally admitted what is eternally true: You Jesus can make me clean! As Jesus reaches out His right hand to cradle the slowly dropping right hand of this leprous man, He says so powerfully and gently at the same time, “I am willing,’ He said. ‘Be clean!’ And His Word continues…42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.” (NIV, Mark 1:41b-42) Hallelujah! Jesus is always willing. He loves each of us so much! He waits patiently and expectantly for us to come to Him, He stops in the middle of His mission, He is ready at any moment for us to give our entire living being over to the Savior of the World. Jesus proved here that it is God’s will that every last healing opportunity in our lives will show us how deep and how wide is His love for us! He is willing! The real question is, “Are we ready, or desperate enough yet?” (This was taken from p.82-83 in the original submitted manuscript, or chapter 10, under first heading called "A Major Point of these Verses", starting at 2nd paragraph in this chapter and ending at the end of the "Major Point" section.)