Throughout the Bible, we encounter those who suffer from leprosy. This horrid disease brought with it a host of hardships. Of the dreadful affliction, Barnes writes:
“…though the appearance of the disease is at first in the skin, yet it is deeply seated in the bones, and marrow, and joints of the body…A leprous person may live twenty, or thirty, or even fifty years, if he received the disease at his birth, but they will be years of indescribable misery. The bones and marrow are pervaded with the disease. The malady advances, from one stage to another, with slow and certain ruin. Life still lingers amidst the desolation; the joints, and hands, and feet, lose their power; and the body collapses, or falls together, in a form hideous and awful.”
Being contagious, the victim was doomed to a life of segregation from society, including loved ones. The leper helplessly bore a sentence of death in the body; having a hint of life, but not able to live.
In Mark’s gospel, such an individual dared to search for a solution to his plight. We read,
"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." (Mark 1:40-42)
As dreaded as leprosy is, it has only touched but a handful of humanity. However, there is another ‘leprosy’ which has crept its way throughout all humanity, and, once having contracted it, we are powerless to free ourselves from its hold. So great a ‘leprosy’ it is, that it does not simply destroy the physical body, but the very soul of man. Of course, I speak of sin.
Leprosy and sin are strikingly similar, but sin is so much worse. Leprosy causes one to be separated from his fellow man. Sin causes one to be separated from His God (Isaiah 59:1-2). Leprosy is loathsome, and detestable before society. Sin is abhorrent before God, contemptible in His sight. Leprosy is a deep-seated disease, reaching far beyond the outward manifestation upon the flesh. Likewise, sin finds its beginning as deep as can be within a man, in the heart (Matthew 15:18-20). Leprosy is incurable by human ability. And again, once we are subject to sin, we are helpless in and of ourselves to find relief from its bondage (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Such a glorious example the leper of Mark 1 is for those under bondage to sin. He came to the Lord, bowed down in reverence, acknowledging his inability to heal himself, and yet at the same time, manifesting faith that Jesus was capable of making him whole if He willed to do so. And so it was, that the Lord spoke, “I am willing; be cleansed”, and he was made whole again in an instant.
The apostle Peter records,
"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)
The Lord is willing to cleanse all who would come to Him. The Hebrew writer penned concerning Jesus,
"...having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." (Hebrews 5:9)
There is no need for any to die of the leprosy of the soul, God has placed healing within our reach:
"...God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered." (Romans 6:17)
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