Red Letters – Skin Deep – April 12

RED LETTERS
April 12, 2021

Skin Deep

Mark 1:43-45, ‘Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “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 others.” Instead, 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 (NIV).

I don’t know if I even remember what the attention from another human being feels like, let alone physical touch. It’s been so long. Sometimes I dream that the breezes dancing across my skin in the early morning hours before heat has claimed the day are the traces of a loved one’s fingers. I recall light touches made me shiver and gooseflesh would follow. Nothing like this leprous flesh which has devoured my tissue and left me monstrous and hideous, disdained.
I heard about this Jesus and the labyrinth of miraculous healings that follow Him. Maybe. Just maybe. But then I am reminded, the oozing open boils eating my skin form a barrier between me and the rest of the world. Even if He could come close to me, would He? Surely not. I live in very lonely places and there are laws literally that protect mankind from the likes of a leper. This man I hear about, the perfect Son of God, flawless and sinless the Scriptures say, would never break a law on behalf of me or chance contracting my disease. My head hangs. It won’t be the first time I had hoped and then reason replaced foolish dreams. Nor the last, I s’pose. The trickle of a tear which I don’t often allow sends a shiver; it feels like the memory of a kiss upon my cheek.
The chanting breaks into my reverie, and from a long way off, I see this Jesus I keep hearing about. He. Is. Coming. Toward. Me. I count off His steps. I can’t help myself. I begin moving toward Him too. I calculate my steps and the legal distance and immediately wonder if I should announce myself as is customary. But my head has left the station and its just me left with my heart in my hands and my condition screaming like a statement.
He is upon me and I can barely breathe. I reach out, wagering everything I am, ever was and once dreamt to be. I hear my plea as if they are words belonging to another; the echo sounds distant and forced in my ears. “You could make me clean,” I stutter with certainty. Because I do know with my entire being that He can…do that; I feel His power and ability. But will He? and that’s where my certainty stumbles and falls flat on the dirty road. “If You are willing,” I hear myself mumble.
It could have been the compassion on His face or the tear in His eye but suddenly the slightest trace of a human touch lights on me and at once my skin glows like that of a child, soft and wholesome. “I am willing. Be cleansed,” this Jesus announces, and immediately, the condition I have feared, fought and been beaten by for much of my life is gone, in the blink of an eye. “See that you tell no one,” He commands and moves on by, but before I can even contemplate His words, the praises begin to fall from my lips. How would anyone contain a secret like that?! I shout what this Miracle Worker just did for me as I travel the road into a town I have not been allowed to enter in years. What this Jesus did for me is more than skin deep; He cleansed me all the way inside. I cannot keep it to myself. There is simply not possible.

I’ve been reading RED LETTERS all my life, but never with my heart.
During the month of April, let’s JOURNEY where JESUS journeyed,
and listen with our hearts to all He came to proclaim.