Revealed as Healer
For Meditation (Corey Widmer)
During this Epiphany season, we are reflecting on the ways Jesus’ identity and mission are revealed in distinct and powerful ways throughout the Gospels. This Sunday, we see Jesus revealed as healer. In this simple yet striking story, a man with leprosy boldly approaches Jesus and pleads to be made clean.
In the ancient world, people with leprosy were the most ostracized members of society. The disease not only robbed them of their health, but also of their name, vocation, family, community, and access to worship. They were forced to live in banished isolation, cut off from human contact for fear of contaminating others.
As a rabbi, Jesus was required to keep his distance from anyone who was considered unclean. But instead, likely to the horror of those watching, Jesus reaches out and touches the man, offering what may have been the first human touch he had experienced in many years. In that touch, and in Jesus’ words, the man is not only healed physically, but restored to his family, his community, and his life.
In this story, we see the depth of Jesus’ compassion for the most isolated, his power and willingness to heal, and his commitment to free humanity from all that separates and diminishes us. We also hear a calling: to embody Jesus’ own posture toward those deemed “untouchable” in our world today.
As you prepare for worship, consider the following:
Where do you notice Jesus’ compassion most clearly in this story—his willingness to heal, his willingness to touch, or both? Why does that matter to you?
The man with leprosy loses not just his health but his community and identity. Where do you see people today experiencing similar forms of isolation or exclusion?
What fears—social, religious, or personal—does Jesus cross in order to bring healing? Where might Christ be inviting us to cross similar boundaries?
In what ways do you long for healing right now—not only physical healing, but relational, emotional, or spiritual restoration?
How might the church embody Jesus’ healing presence in a world still marked by fear, division, and exclusion? What would that look like in concrete ways?
Mark 1:40–45
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.
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 them.” 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.