Notes to the Lord: The Power of a Touch

Mark 1

40A leper came to him, begging on his knees, "If you want to, you can cleanse me." 41-45Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, "I want to. Be clean."

Lord Jesus-What was it about this man that caught your attention? Was it the plea in his voice? Was it the family that this man had that you could see that he kept in his broken heart? "If you want to..." Did that break you heart? Of course you wanted to...

You reached out and touched him. You touched a man who may not have been touched in years. You touched someone no one else would touch and did with power to heal. Your power to heal has not changed. You still touch with healing hands.

Then and there the leprosy was gone, his skin smooth and healthy. Jesus dismissed him with strict orders: "Say nothing to anyone. Take the offering for cleansing that Moses prescribed and present yourself to the priest. This will validate your healing to the people."

Lord Jesus-- It was a simple thing that you asked, but one that was not possible. This man had experienced your grace and power and you were asking him to not tell anyone about it.

This man's life was transformed, reformed...a face rebuilt in a moment?...or was it a hand that was re-grown? We will never know. But what we do know is that a dead man walking was alive again. His heart could not hold it in.

That is the way it should be in my heart Lord. How can I keep still and be quite when you have healed what no one else has the power to? Telling the story of grace received is always personal. It is always about transformation from the inside out.   It always has the fingerprints of God all over it.  Thank you for grace received.

But as soon as the man was out of earshot, he told everyone he met what had happened, spreading the news all over town. So Jesus kept to out-of-the-way places, no longer able to move freely in and out of the city. But people found him, and came from all over.