He walked slowly…dragging his now useless left foot across the dirt and only using it to maintain balance and not fall over. His hands were clinched in tight fists…bloody and cracked; they were the only part of his body that displayed any strength in him.
He drew in painful breathes while blood painted the back of his throat in bright red strokes…he swallowed the fowl taste in his mouth and shuddered at the sudden growl in his stomach.
His eyes were sunken dark orbs that let salty tears breach their lids with each painful movement. The tears that made trails down the cracks and boils of his blistered face use to sear him with burning hot pain…but not anymore.
He shook his head slowly as he realized his skin was becoming an ugly hard shell…there was something completely inhuman about it. Like there was something deep within himself that was trying to get out…it was stretching his skin and breaking it down. It was a violence he had never experienced before…and the result was his breathing corpse walking the outskirts of town where he and others like him had been out-casted by the healthy.
A small smile of desperation cracked his peeling lips as he thought about where he was before in life, and where he walked now. He let a slight chuckle breathe past his swollen tongue as he remembered his family…such an occurrence (his laugh) was lunacy, he knew that much. But he no longer concerned himself with matters of sanity. He was after all, seeking out a man that supposedly could perform miracles.
And while others like him told him it was foolish to go after something so ridiculous…something inside told him to put his faith in the impossible for once. And that thought offered him enough hope to keep him walking now…hoping that tonight would be the night for his miracle. And trusting that this man could see past the ugliness of his outsides…and expose the true nature of what was in his heart.
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A leper came to him, begging on his knees, “If you want to, you can cleanse me.”
Deeply moved, Jesus put out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to. Be clean.” Then and there the leprosy was gone, his skin smooth and healthy.
Mark 1 (the message)
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I’m going to be honest with you…every time I read this passage three words always stop me in my tracks and stir up my emotions, “I WANT TO…”
It’s just a reminder to me of how much Jesus loves you and I. You see, Christ wasn’t forced into dying a brutal death on the cross for us…He wasn’t talked into it or annoyed so much by all of our junk that He just had to do something.
He said, “I WANT TO…”
Is this not the most amazing thing you’ve ever heard? Just like Jesus wanted to heal the leper, He WANTED to die for each and every one of us so someday we would join Him in Heaven. I don’t know about you but that’s just amazing to me…truly awesome.
So here’s my challenge…as you spend Easter this weekend with your friends and family…or even if you’re spending it alone…try and remember that we celebrate Christ’s Victory on the cross not because of what He was forced to do…but because of what He WANTED to do.
You my brother and sister…are truly wonderful…beautiful…and worth dying for.
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“This is why the Father loves me: because I freely lay down my life. And so I am free to take it up again. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of my own free will.”
John 10 (the message)
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