“And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, ‘If you will, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Yeshua sternly charged him and sent him away at once.” (Mark 1:40-43)
There is compassion that passes on, then there is the compassion of Yeshua.
It was Mark alone who tells us that when the leper came to meet Yeshua, “he was moved with compassion.” (The law of the leper is found in Leviticus 13 and 14). This man was in the midst of a crowd who undoubtedly loathed him. He came close to Yeshua with no hope for him in himself: No value in him to society. Yeshua was moved with compassion and the nature of his compassion was manifested in what followed.
There is genuine compassion that recoils and shudders and passes on its way. It is compassion but it is not the compassion of Yeshua. There was no contempt for the man, there was no recoil from him, there was a forward step and the hand was laid upon him, on the whiteness of his corruption. There had come from the man of corruption a plaintive, pitiful cry,
“Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
Immediately, Yeshua touched him and said, “I will, be made clean.” In other words, 'do not question my willingness'.
The leper's leprosy was instantly "cleansed".
But it didn’t stop there.
The compassion of Yeshua not only "touched" and "cleansed". It also "restored".
And this is the ultimate message of the servant messenger: Restoration.
Not only restoration of body, or restoration of a “castaway” back to his community.
But also restoration of the soul... Restoration to our Heavenly Father.
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