*The cleansing work of Christ!*
`And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. Mark 1:42`
The man in this story had leprosy. The first sign of leprosy was regarded as a death sentence. *LEVITICUS 13:45* says _“The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out,‘Unclean, unclean.’ He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”_ The law was quite clear: *”Don’t touch”*. The rabbis carried this much further. If a leper came into someone’s house, the home itself was said to be defiled; it should be destroyed.
Unlike all of these, the leper made no attempt to touch Jesus. The leper understood the situation. He knew the law. But notice what Jesus did: “ _Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!_”
Jesus touched the leper before he healed him. He touched the leper while the leper was still unclean. This is God, who, after all, made the law, breaking his own law, for the sake of humanity. Jesus did not need to touch the leper to cleanse him. He performed other miracles at a distance; all he had to do was “say the word.” The word healed his body, but the touch healed his soul.
The secret to spiritual life is not to isolate yourself from sin and suffering. That would be impossible, even if we wanted to. Jesus lived on the same contaminated planet as the rest of us, but he was immune. The secret is to be so filled with the life of Jesus that in touching the world, instead of its infecting us,we infect it.
Your brother in Christ,
Apostle Ashok Martin