His Mercy Prevails

Mark 1: 40-42 "And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed."

Leviticus 13:45-46 "And the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean. All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be."

Under the old covenant, a leper was classified as unclean, could not live in the town or city with others and was supposed to publicly proclaim his status of uncleanness. His condition was worse than the present day stigmatisation of some dreaded incurable diseases like HIV/AIDS.

Under the new covenant, Jesus broke the norm, reached out and TOUCHED a lepper! He could have spoken a word of healing, rebuked the devil or used any other means other than touching the lepper. But the Bible says Jesus had compassion on him, touched him, healed him and cleansed him.

The Master touching a leper, an unclean person, tells me no one is too lost beyond His redemptive power, too "unclean" for Him to cleanse, too far for Him to reach!

The mercy of God supercedes all traditions, commandments, norms and precepts. His mercy prevails over judgement! Appeal to His mercy - the lepper came "beseeching him, and kneeling down to him".

Selah!