The Book of Mark
Chapter 1 (NIV)
43Jesus 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." 45Instead 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.
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2 comments:
Interesting that Jesus wanted the man to tell no one but the priests. He bade the man to make sacrifices to God, and so the cleansing would have been a witness to God's glory. Everything Jesus did in His ministry and life was for the glory of God, not himself.
Jesus is always willing to heal. He healed a leper and that was a miracle. It was a gift of a healing to the leprous man who had faith. I have the tendency to focus on the gifts rather than the giver and source of all things that are good. Perhaps that's why Jesus told the person not to tell people about the healing event. Not that Jesus did not want to heal the people of their infirmities, but even these "good things" have the potential of taking away from the primary purpose for which Christ had come into the fallen world. That of course, is as Jesus said last week, is to preach the Word and to announce the coming of this new Kingdom with its crazy counter-intuitive principles. While the gifts are good and I pray for them, I wanna have Jesus be the preeminent focus of my life. Amen.
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