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!’
The sentence, “Jesus was indignant,” has in the past made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Other translations read that Jesus was filled with compassion, which seems a better fit. However, it came to me that Jesus was not indignant at the man coming to Him. He was indignant that the leprosy had made the man live in isolation and away from his family as an outcast. People would have shunned him, and indeed he had taken a risk in coming to Jesus. He would have been anxious that Jesus would have refused to have anything to do with him. After all, that’s what the law required. Jesus was indeed filled with compassion towards the man.
Sometimes we can be indignant for the wrong reasons. If someone who has previously had a checkered past seeks God’s forgiveness and decides to become a Christian, we need to be sure that we don’t show the same indignance as the scribes and the pharisees when they saw Jesus eating with “tax collectors and sinners.” Jesus will never turn a genuinely repentant heart away; he will always act with compassion. That’s good news for us when we mess up, but we need to take care to show the same compassion as Jesus if we claim to be following His way.
Dear Lord,
I am grateful for all the times You have dealt compassionately with me. Help me to do likewise, I pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.