Mark starts off his account of Jesus’ life at a galloping pace. By the end of chapter one, Jesus has been baptised and anointed by God, the Spirit has moved Jesus to go to the desert for his famous tempation by satan, and he has started healing people.

Mark seems particularly interested in the healing of those two absolute outcasts – the demon-possessed and the leper.

Here, Mark dramatically and swiftly shows us how kind, how loving and compassionate Jesus is:

“Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If you are willing, you can make me clean.’

“Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.”

This is so beautiful. The Son of God, faced with one who is doomed to live forever outside the city walls, shouting “unclean” whenever someone strays near him, does not shrink from him, but is moved by compassion. Mark, poetically sparing in his prose, quotes him with those lovely five words: “I am willing: be cleansed.”

Thank You Jesus, for being willing to make the sacrifice needed to cleanse us. Thank you for being willing, and for being so kind. Please help me be kind. Help me be loving and a good teacher to my children, or rather please be their teacher through me. Father God, please send me Your Spirit so that I might have strength to follow the path You have laid out for me. Please help me follow it willingly. In Jesus’ name, Amen