"Gotta Tell Somebody"

Today we are going to take a look in Mark 1:40-45 at a guy who just couldn't seem to help but tell everyone about his encounter with Jesus.  He was actually quite the blabbermouth about it even though Jesus had specifically asked him not to. It says in verse 45 ...But he went out and he began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every quarter. 

To "proclaim it freely," and "to spread the matter" basically means, he blabbed to everyone, everywhere he went. He couldn't stay silent!  It was to big, too much for him not to talk.  He had to tell somebody, everybody.  Jeremiah understood that same feeling.  He put it like this, "... but His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not. Jeremiah 20:9

So what did he have to tell? What was his testimony? What had happened that made it so hard to contain it?

It all starts with a guys reputation and the question  he asked Jesus. Both his reputation and his question are found in verse 40. His reputation, leper.  His question, "If You are willing, You can make me clean?"

As a leper he was considered unclean, and had to live outside of towns, and had to cry, "unclean" when other people came near. So every time a person approached he had to yell out and tell them he was unclean, to stay away, don't come near.

When he said, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." it says, ...Then Jesus, moved with compassion, put out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.

I love that Jesus responded in a way that shows that he looked beyond the leprosy the heart of the man in front of Him. We know this because His compassion motivated Him to do something no one else would. He reached out and touched him! The man was a leper. No one touches a leper. Jesus did! We know that he didn't need to. He could have just spoken it like He did with others throughout His ministry. He told him, "He was willing," and he said, "Be cleansed." Not be healed, but be cleansed. I love His compassion! He healed the whole man not just the leprosy! He healed not just his body, but the emotional scars and the spiritual wounds that come with declaring, "I'm dirty, don't come near." as a way of life.

Is it any wonder he couldn't stay silent!  Now everywhere he went he had something else to declare! "Jesus healed me! I'm clean!  He touched me, when no one else would. He touched me!"

Is it any wonder? ... He was brand new, inside and out!