The Willing Exchange

Posted by Trudy

The story in Mark 1:40 is a familiar one. Jesus heals a leper. Perhaps like me you have learned many valuable lessons from it already. You have seen the compassionate heart of Christ at work, you have been moved by His willingness to touch the untouchable, you have witnessed His power to simply speak a word and command the dirty to be clean. You have watched how He skillfully fulfilled the law and His mission at the same time.

But one of things that I love about Scripture is how God will lift a well worn story off the pages and turn it ever so slightly and blow my socks off with a new revelation from it. That is what happened the last time I read Mark 1:40-45 and it made me love my Savior all the more. Maybe this is not new to you but just in case it might have the same effect on you, I thought it would be worth sharing.

Here is the story:

40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
41 Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!"
42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:
44 "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."

I’ve never really understood the reason why Jesus would not want the leper to share what He’d done for Him. After all, leprosy was regarded as humanly incurable...and He just cured it. Only twice in the Old Testament God chose to cleanse a leper. But if people knew that Jesus cured this man wouldn’t that cause many to make the connection that He was God? Wouldn’t that be a good thing?

But as I read the next verse, something hit me that I had never seen before:

45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

Because of this awful disease lepers were not just deemed unclean -they were isolated from society. Until this point, it was probably early enough in Jesus’ ministry where He was still able to enjoy some freedoms without being mobbed by crowds of people who wanted something from Him. Maybe He longed for people to know Him first before they latched on to the miracles He could perform and maybe that is why He asked the leper not to tell anyone....at least for a time.

But verse 45 says that the leper chose to disobey Jesus’ instruction and spread the news of his cure and because of that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but had to stay outside in lonely places.
　
Did you catch that exchange?

"In lonely places"

The leper, once isolated, was now cured and free to leave the lonely places.

Jesus’ willingness to cure him cost Him His freedom and sent Him to the lonely places.

He didn't get leprosy, but he traded places with the leper.

People still sought Him, but not so much to know Him as to "take" from Him.
And yet, knowing that would happen, He still did it.

It floors me to think of what Jesus  exchanges for me.   

Wholeness for broken-ness
Beauty for ashes
Purity for filth
Freedom for captivity
Joy for mourning
Sinlessness for sin
Fellowship for isolation
Righteousness for unrighteousness
Life for death

And He does it so willingly....at great cost to Himself.

I can’t wrap my mind around the depth of  that kind of compassion.

"Pierced for my transgressions, crushed for my iniquities; the punishment that brought me peace was upon Him and by His wounds I am healed" Is.53:5

Lord let me never forget what the exchange costs You!