Stroke of God
Mark 1:40-42 Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean”. Then Jesus moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him and said to him, “ I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. In verse 44 He even asks the healed man to show himself to the priest and do the offering as per the Law.
A person who was affected by leprosy was isolated from his family and was banned from entering any public places, including places of worship and was not allowed to take part in the feasts or any other celebrations. This disease filled people with horror and hopelessness. The Jews regarded it as “stroke of God” which means God’s wrath as a result of sin. The leper had no hope and had to cover his mouth and shout “unclean, unclean” if at all others came closer to him. The situation is something similar to what is happening now. People affected with the pandemic live in isolation and in hopelessness.
Leviticus: 14: 3&4 And the priest shall go out of the camp and the priest shall examine him and indeed if the leprosy is healed, in the leper, then the priest shall command to take for him who is to be cleansed two living and clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet and hyssop”
The chapter goes on to explain about the cleaning process of a person who had been cured of leprosy.
The priest does a few things here. He goes out of the camp, as the camp is a holy place and it cannot be defiled. God has warned the Israelites about this defilement not because our acts would make Him less holy but rather we would consumed by His holiness. The priest is only doing a cleansing process and not the healing. The healing has to be done by God. We have somebody who came out of the camp, down from His throne, knowing our helplessness. But the difference here is He heals and He cleanses. He is God and our High Priest.
The priest chooses one bird from the two clean birds and slaughters it, sprinkles the blood on the person who is to be cleansed and dips the live bird in the blood and sets it free. It is easy for the priest to randomly pullout one clean bird from the given two birds. But for our God the Father, it was not easy as it was His only begotten Son. It was not some random act. Jesus was the chosen sacrifice from the very beginning. He chose the one clean and blemish-less bird as the other one was totally unclean and unfit for sacrifice. Because of this act of grace, the unclean bird, dipped in His blood is set free. It’s not just our body but even our soul & spirit that is set free in Him. The way to Jesus wouldn’t have been easy for the leper. He was an outcast; he would have been humiliated or even stoned. But yet he endured. In this troubled times, let us rejoice that we that we have a God who is filled with compassion and always willing to set us free. Like the leper, we will have to walk towards Him and endure.
Devotion written by Reena Thomas.