This week, we have a special series for our First Word Blog.
For Summers 2005 and 2006, Program Director Jessica “Shadow” Bordeleau created a series of first-person devotions sharing the perspective of different people from the Bible and their interactions with Jesus. Campers would go on a “Jesus Walk” one of their nights at camp and hear from different counselors acting out biblical characters who would tell “their” story to the campers. Here is how that night was introduced to campers:
Tonight is a special devotion. You will go on a journey to see Jesus. You will travel from fire to fire looking for Jesus. You will be led in songs the entire way. You will sing as you walk from fire to fire. One you get to a fire you will sit quietly on the benches and wait to see what will happen. Your journey begins now! Remember you are looking for Jesus.
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Clean - Mark 1:40-45
Do you know what leprosy is like? Hardly anyone has it anymore, but in my day it was everyone’s fear. If you got leprosy your skin would begin to flake and peel, you lost feeling in your limbs, your own body would begin to decay and fall apart while you were still alive! Men and women would lose hands, feet, ears...it turns you into a walking monster!
If you had leprosy you had to stay away from everyone...you couldn’t live with your family or stay in your home – because anyone that got too close to you could get it from you. If anyone came near a leper they were required by law to yell “UNCLEAN! UNCLEAN!” so that they would know to stay away from you. Being a leper meant that you were utterly alone and untouchable. Can you image what that is like?
I don’t have to imagine...I know. The Bible says I was “covered with leprosy”. There was no cure, no doctors that would come near me. Leprosy was a death sentence, as soon as I got it I was a walking, breathing, dead man. Who knew how long I would live; a week, a month, a year....all I knew for sure was that I would spend the rest of my life away from those I loved and that I would die alone. I had to leave my wife, my little baby....everything. My life was over.
I was forced to live in the outskirts of the city. For my wife’s sake and the baby’s I kept my distance, the thought of this terrible disease spreading to them was more than I could handle. My wife brought baskets of food to a distant well and left them there for me each day. I would wait on top of the hill to watch her. I couldn’t go to her, hug her...or even get close enough to talk with her. Each day I would wait just to watch her leave the food and sadly wave to me... It got to the point where I just couldn’t even watch her anymore, it hurt too much. I knew there was no hope.
I had heard of a man that healed people with the power of God. I even saw Him heal people. Men with crippled legs could run, a woman was cured by just touching him. I looked into the eyes of a man born blind, and knew that he could see me. Jesus had the power to heal the sick and disabled...but this was different. I was a leper, no one would dare to come near me, no one would dare help me.
(...pause)
“He touches lepers!” I remember my wife standing by the well screaming at me; “He touches lepers!” What was she taking about, NO ONE touches lepers. “Jesus touches lepers, I heard it in town!” Through her tears my wife was yelling that I had to meet Jesus, that I MUST meet Jesus, that there was some hope if only I could meet Jesus.
Who would dare touch lepers? Even more than I wanted to be healed, I wanted to know what kind of a man would touch a leper. I had to find him, I had to meet him. It wasn’t hard to find Him, crowds followed Him wherever He went. I saw the throngs of people gathered in the distance listening to Him preach, thousands and thousands at a time. At first I hid from them so they wouldn’t see me and watched from far away....but not this time! I started running. I knew that He could heal me, that He was my only hope.
I came to the edge of the crowd, it was no problem getting close to Him, people took one look at me and stepped aside, ran aside...I could see Him. If this was true, if he really could heal me, He was no ordinary man. A man who touches lepers must be from God. I fell with my face to the ground and I begged him, pleaded with Him “Lord, if you are willing you can make me clean!” I started sobbing...I wanted to go home to my wife, I wanted to be whole, to be alive again. And then HE TOUCHED ME. It had been so long since I had any human contact. He reached out His hand and laid it on my shoulder and said “I am willing...Be Clean!”...and immediately the leprosy left me and I WAS CLEAN.
More than fixing my broken body, Jesus fixed my soul. Just like leprosy spreads all over your body, so our own sinful desires and wants spread over us and destroy us. You may be healthy on the outside, but sin can make you dead on the inside. Even more than I needed to be healed, I needed to be forgiven. Faith in Jesus is the only way to be right with God. The disease-like decay of sin had invaded my whole life, but Jesus healed me.
I couldn’t hold it in! Jesus had given me my life back and I had to tell everyone! I went to the high priest and showed him that I was clean of the disease, I went through the whole town telling everyone what Jesus did! My wife, my little girl they spread the word too! Nothing is too great for the Lord! No sin so horrible that He can’t forgive you, No habit so addicting that He can’t free you. Jesus isn’t afraid to touch lepers or love sinners! Jesus loves you. Jesus can forgive you. He can make you clean.