A God Who Takes My Place

A God Who Takes My Place Mark 1:40-45 40 “A leper came to Jesus beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him and saying, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.' Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I am willing, be cleansed.' 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopular areas and they were coming to Him from everywhere.” What was the problem with the man getting healed in this portion? How severe was this problem? The read portion says he was a leper. Luke says he was full of leprosy, Luke 5:12...visible, ugly, frightening, a living death. Now the fact that he came to Jesus is a shock. He's not supposed to do that. Outcasts were forbidden to come near anyone. But this leper came to Jesus, through the crowd because there was always a crowd. He violated all necessary standards of exclusion in his desperation. He came to Jesus beseeching him, begging Him with strong pleas, showing his desperation. Did this move make Jesus to heal the leper? The only thing that moved Jesus to heal a man is indicated in verse 41, His compassion, He was moved with compassion. He felt the man's pain. He felt the agony of this man's isolation, physical distress, social isolation, religious isolation. The man's plight triggered Jesus' compassion. God is a God of compassion. God feels the pain. This is the heart of God who feels the pain of suffering in this world. That's what motivated Him. It wasn't some trigger by the man's level of faith, for Jesus healed everybody all the time, faith or no faith. Jesus stretched out His hand, I told you last week He healed with a word and a touch, He stretched out His hand, touched him and then said to him, “I'm willing, be cleansed.” Now in Leviticus 5:3 there's a law forbidding anyone to touch a leper. His touch was a touch of compassion. His touch was a touch of connection. It is Jesus linking Himself directly to the healing. His miracles were always creative. Making the one who hears and sees to introspect and change their way of looking at things. The healing had effects and after effects. In verse 45 we read “They were coming to Him from everywhere, out to the wilderness, out to the mountain side, out to the hills, out to the valleys, out to the fields, out to the seashore...massive crowds. And He can't enter the city.” This is what happens when we show compassion. Jesus exchange or trades places with the leper. The leper started in the wilderness in isolation and after meeting Jesus, was able to mingle in the city. Or Jesus started in the city after meeting the leper, was isolated to the wilderness. He is a God who is ready to take our place, be in our situation. And that is what He did at the cross, is it not? We are the spiritual lepers who lived in alienation and isolation from God. We met Him, we were brought into the presence of God in the Kingdom. But the only way we could ever be taken from our isolation and brought into the presence of God was if He left the presence of God and went Himself into isolation. And that's what He did on the cross because Jesus was forsaken, because Jesus was treated as an outcast we are accepted and welcomed into the presence of God. This lent can we a. Have compassion like that of Jesus? b. Try to trade places and find the pain?