Can’t Keep a Secret

Mark 1:40-45:

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once. He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Blog:

All of us know at least one person who just can’t keep a secret.  For some of us, it might be us!?  When we press someone as to “why” they couldn’t keep the secret, they usually say something along the lines that the secret was just too good to keep to themself.  Isn’t that what happened in the Gospel here?  When Jesus heals the leper in the Gospel of Mark, He specifically tells the leper, “see that you tell no one anything”.  But how could the leper keep a secret this Good all to himself?  As a leper, he would have been exiled (perhaps for years) from his Family, community, etc.  Leprosy brought about a horrible existence for most without the most basic human element of all; touch.  This reminds me of a time when our Son was two or three years of age and I bought him “Underoos”.  Some might recall that “Underoos” were a t-shirt and underwear combo that usually had some kind of children’s character on them.  And, the ones that I had purchased were of Superman.  My Wife thought I had lost my mind and was frivolously-spending money.  I simply told her to just wait until we gave them to him later that evening.  Our Son was pretty excited about the “Underoos” when he saw the packaging.  And, then, he put them on…  BAM!  Superman ran around our house for about 20 minutes up and down the stairs, in and out of the kitchen, and right up until the “Boy of Steel” had expended all of his energy.  My Wife had never seen anything like that.  I’m guessing that the leper kind of felt that same little boy inside of him coming out in exuberating fashion.  He just couldn’t contain himself.  Like a puppy unleashed in a yard full of freshly-fallen snow, he shot out across the town singing the Praises of Jesus.  Jesus knew what the leper would do even before the leper did it.  The leper here should serve as an example to all of us of the life-transforming Power of the Almighty God.  So, let’s be transfigured by the King of kings and bring that contagious energy to as many people as we can in what little time that we all have left.