Tuesday, February 21, 2017
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.
DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK
Because there is nothing that we can ask of God that God would reply, "I'm sorry, but that's impossible."
Had the leper in our text come to anyone other than Jesus with his request, he would have been told, "I'm sorry, but it is impossible to cure leprosy." Leprosy was an incurable disease that disfigured the sufferer and ended with a painful, lonely death. Really, a miracle was the only hope that a leper had of being cured.
A miracle is defined as an extraordinary event brought on by divine intervention. In other words, it's something that can only happen if God Himself does it. Had the leper asked anyone but Jesus to heal him, they would have replied, "Who do you think I am? God?" But Jesus didn't scoff at the request, because He is, in fact, God, true God and true man in one person. It seems likely that the leper had heard of the many healings that Jesus had done. As Jesus told John the Baptist's disciples, "The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them" (Matthew 11:5). But this leper's request of Jesus was more than just the hope that Jesus could help him. He didn't ask, "If you can do it, make me clean." The leper knew that only God could help him, and so he went to God, offering a prayer to God the Son, saying, "If You are willing, You can make me clean!" He asks in faith. He knows that Jesus can heal him because He knows that Jesus is God. On the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus was revealed in all of His heavenly glory. What the disciples saw with their eyes on the mountain, this leper saw with the eyes of faith. He knew Jesus, not only as a healer, but as His Savior, the promised Messiah, true God as well as true Man.
When we approach God in prayer, we also approach God in faith, asking in the name of Jesus. When we come in the name of the One who is the Mediator between God and man, who has made peace between God and man by paying for sin, we can approach God with the confidence that He will hear and answer our prayers. After all, we are told that we are, "... the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). Therefore we can, as Martin Luther says, "Ask God as dear children ask their dear Father."
