The healing of a leper, which is our text for today, is also found in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but both Matthew and Luke omit the emotional reactions of Jesus found in Mark. The term leprosy was used for any kind of skin disease, and those with such kind of diseases were considered as unclean and not allowed to be part of society. They had to live on the outskirts of the city, and had to make their presence known whenever they entered the city, so that others could avoid any kind of contact with them and so not get contaminated.
In this miracle, Jesus not only heals the leper, but also reaches out and touches him. This probably means that Jesus cannot be contaminated or made unclean by anything from outside. It could also indicate Jesus’ wanting to reach out to the leper in a personal manner and treat him as a full human being.
The prayer of the leper is a lesson for each one of us on the meaning of prayer. In his prayer the leper both acknowledges his dependence on Jesus through the words, “If you will” and also has faith in the ability of Jesus to heal through the words, “you can make me clean”. Prayer means to acknowledge our dependence on God and also to have faith that God can do what to us may seem impossible.
Very true..
ReplyDeletebut there are lot of instances as we all know, where a prayer goes unanswered, even if its said with faith.. I am reminded of my cousin, who lost her 2 yr old son, after a heart surgery.. the family was very prayerful.. and always had complete trust in god, such losses, at times, gets oneself into kind of depression, that the parents of the child have kind of refused to pray anymore.. I too felt bad at the death of my nephew but, when I spoke to Jesus in my prayer, the answer I got was in a mail that came as a forward the next day.. it said, if I grant you 1000 wishes, and refuses one, will you forget the 1000 wishes I granted! This was an eye opener to me..
Just sharing..
Thanks for the message