Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Changing a Leper’s Spots, Part 1

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Changing a Leper’s Spots, Part 1 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll reminds us of
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  Speaker 1: two words that sent crowds fleeing for the exits. And
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  Speaker 1: for one man, those same two words became the sum
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  Speaker 1: of his existence, a life of isolation, shame, and untouchable despair.
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  Speaker 1: Can you guess the two words? Well, one day, this
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  Speaker 1: marginalized man finally stepped out of the shadows and came
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  Speaker 1: face to face with the only person who could change everything.
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  Speaker 1: What happened next is one of the most tender, surprising
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  Speaker 1: encounters in all of Scripture. Chuck titled today's message, Changing
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  Speaker 1: a Leper's Spots.
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  Speaker 2: If you've not yet done so, you will find in
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  Speaker 2: your worship folder an outline for the morning message. And
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  Speaker 2: you will also locate the scriptures found in the second
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  Speaker 2: gospel of the New Testament, the gospel by Mark. We're
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  Speaker 2: looking at the last six verses of Mark chapter 1,
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  Speaker 2: verses 40 through 45. And a leper came to Jesus saying,
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  Speaker 2: beseeching him and falling on his knees before him and saying,
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  Speaker 2: if you are willing, you can make me clean. Moved
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  Speaker 2: with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him
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  Speaker 2: and said to him, I am willing. Be cleansed. Immediately,
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  Speaker 2: the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. And he
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  Speaker 2: sternly warned him and immediately sent him away. And he
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  Speaker 2: said to him, see that you say nothing to anyone,
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  Speaker 2: but go show yourself to the priest and offer for
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  Speaker 2: your cleansing what Moses commanded as a testimony to them.
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  Speaker 2: But he went out and began to proclaim it freely
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  Speaker 2: and to spread the news around to such an extent
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  Speaker 2: that Jesus said, could no longer publicly enter a city,
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  Speaker 2: but stayed out in unpopulated areas. And they were coming
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  Speaker 2: to him from everywhere.
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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the gospel according to Mark, be sure to purchase a
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks. by
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: going to insight.org slash offer. Chuck titled today's message, Changing
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  Speaker 1: a Leper's Spots.
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  Speaker 2: Two identical words would empty the room. Those same two
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  Speaker 2: words would clear out a marketplace. In fact, whenever those
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  Speaker 2: words were shouted, everybody ran for cover. I'm clean. I'm clean.
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  Speaker 2: And as soon as the words were heard, Everybody knew
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  Speaker 2: that they were in danger of being near a leper.
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  Speaker 2: Leprosy today is virtually unknown and never enters our mind. However,
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  Speaker 2: in ancient days, it was the dreaded plague. The closest
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  Speaker 2: we could come today to how they must have felt
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  Speaker 2: when those words were used would be for us to
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  Speaker 2: find ourselves in the middle of a busy mall and
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  Speaker 2: someone screams, suicide bomber! And we would skirt for the
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  Speaker 2: exit as quickly as we could get out of there.
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  Speaker 2: But in ancient days, suicide bombers were unheard of. But
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  Speaker 2: leprosy was everywhere. In fact, it was such a pathetic
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  Speaker 2: thing dreaded disease that when God gave the law to Moses,
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  Speaker 2: he included an extensive section of the book of Leviticus
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  Speaker 2: to address how one would know he has the disease
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  Speaker 2: and then followed by 57 verses, count them out of
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  Speaker 2: Leviticus 14, on how to deal with it when you
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  Speaker 2: think you have been cleansed from leprosy. For example, listen
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  Speaker 2: to the words of that Moses recorded out of Leviticus.
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  Speaker 2: As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes
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  Speaker 2: shall be torn and the hair of his head shall
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  Speaker 2: be uncovered. The Hebrew word means unkempt, disheveled. The hair
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  Speaker 2: of his head will be disheveled and he shall cover
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  Speaker 2: his mustache, that is the lower part of his face,
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  Speaker 2: and cry, unclean, unclean. He shall remain unclean all the
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  Speaker 2: days during which he has the infection. He is unclean.
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  Speaker 2: He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
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  Speaker 2: Leviticus 13, 45 and 46. In our antiseptic 21st century world,
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  Speaker 2: we're so removed from the fear of leprosy, even the
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  Speaker 2: thought of being contaminated is foreign to us. And admittedly,
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  Speaker 2: great strides have been taken in the disease so that
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  Speaker 2: we do now know more about it than we did, say,
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  Speaker 2: 50 and more years ago. One whom we have to
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  Speaker 2: thank for that knowledge is Dr. Paul Brand, the late Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Paul Brand. unfortunately died within recent years. He wrote the
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  Speaker 2: fine book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, as well as Pain,
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  Speaker 2: The Gift Nobody Wants. In that more autobiographical work on pain, Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Paul Brand describes how he had an aversion to medicine
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  Speaker 2: while growing up. His father and mother were missionaries in
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  Speaker 2: the southern hills of India, And while there, his father,
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  Speaker 2: who practiced medicine among the people of India, dealt with
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  Speaker 2: all kinds of diseases and maladies. Brand remembers many of them,
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  Speaker 2: and they turned him off, frankly. Listen to his words.
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  Speaker 2: Over time, childhood memories of medicine had distilled into a
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  Speaker 2: few scenes of suffering, and I now found these scenes abhorrent.
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  Speaker 2: There was the revolting scene of my parents working on
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  Speaker 2: a woman tormented by guinea worms, including one whose dragon
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  Speaker 2: tail poked out of the corner of her eye. And
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  Speaker 2: the memory of my father's most challenging patient, a man
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  Speaker 2: who survived a mauling by a bear, his scalp torn
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  Speaker 2: from ear to ear. And there was one more scene, too,
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  Speaker 2: perhaps the most haunting of all. My father would not
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  Speaker 2: even let us watch him work on the three strange
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  Speaker 2: men who approached the clinic one afternoon. He confined us
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  Speaker 2: to the house, but I sneaked out and peered through
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  Speaker 2: the bushes. These men had stiff hands, covered with sores.
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  Speaker 2: Fingers were missing, bandages covered their feet. And when Dad
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  Speaker 2: removed these bandages, I saw that their stumpy feet had
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  Speaker 2: no toes. I watched my father mystified. Could he actually
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  Speaker 2: be afraid? He did not banter with the patients, and
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  Speaker 2: he did something I had never seen him do before.
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  Speaker 2: He put on a pair of gloves before dressing their wounds.
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  Speaker 2: The men had brought a basket of fruit as a gift,
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  Speaker 2: but after they left, mother burned the basket along with
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  Speaker 2: my father's gloves, an unheard of act of waste. We
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  Speaker 2: were ordered not to play in that spot. Those men
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  Speaker 2: were lepers, we were told. Isn't it just like the
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  Speaker 2: Lord to take an experience that was so, so disgusting
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  Speaker 2: to a little boy and over the passing of years
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  Speaker 2: turned his attention to the study of medicine and ultimately
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  Speaker 2: to giving his life, truly, to the people of Carville,
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  Speaker 2: a leprosarium in Louisiana, where the man studied this strange
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  Speaker 2: disease that makes the limbs numb so that feelings no
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  Speaker 2: longer are attached to the nerves in our bodies They
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  Speaker 2: scraped themselves and cut themselves and often bruised themselves so
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  Speaker 2: deeply that, well, they wind up with such stubs for
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  Speaker 2: hands and feet that it is tragic to behold. Dr.
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  Speaker 2: Brand poured himself into those lives as he devoted himself
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  Speaker 2: to the study of leprosy. So that today we realize
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  Speaker 2: what they never knew back in ancient days. However, there
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  Speaker 2: are on occasion a leprosarium located far removed from the
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  Speaker 2: people of the world, away from populated areas. But in
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  Speaker 2: ancient days, Jewish colonies were preserved from any of that
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  Speaker 2: plague by the one who had the disease announcing, should
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  Speaker 2: he or she ever be out in public, unclean, unclean.
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  Speaker 2: which makes this narrative we're looking at in Mark chapter one,
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  Speaker 2: verses 40 through 45, all the more intriguing. Our Lord
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  Speaker 2: cleanses a leper here, but what is remarkable is that
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  Speaker 2: there is no shout. Maybe there was something that the
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  Speaker 2: leper had observed from a distance away about Jesus that
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  Speaker 2: caused the leper to know he wouldn't need to shout
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  Speaker 2: that when coming to the master. We're not told, but
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  Speaker 2: the absence of the shout tells us there must have
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  Speaker 2: been something that drew him to the one who could
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  Speaker 2: bring cleansing. And by the way, leprosy all the way
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  Speaker 2: through scripture is rarely described as being healed or cured.
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  Speaker 2: Leprosy is a symbol of sin, and we're never healed
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  Speaker 2: or cured of sin, only cleansed. And so appropriately, All
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  Speaker 2: the way through time, the victim of leprosy would announce
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  Speaker 2: that he needs cleansing or the hope as he would
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  Speaker 2: be attended by a physician. Could there be cleansing of
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  Speaker 2: my condition? And that's the cry in the heart of
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  Speaker 2: this man. Two surprises actually meet us as we get
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  Speaker 2: to verse 40. There is no shouting of the word unclean.
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  Speaker 2: And second, what he says... seems amazing to us. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: read the verse with me. A leper came to Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: beseeching him and falling on his knees before him and saying,
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  Speaker 2: if you are willing, you can make me clean. Initially,
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  Speaker 2: we're to understand the heart of this leper. He acknowledges
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  Speaker 2: completely his condition. There's no hiding of the disease. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: Luke 5, verse 12, Dr. Luke, the physician who writes
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  Speaker 2: the one of the gospels, states that the man is
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  Speaker 2: full of leprosy. So it's in its advanced stages. Perhaps
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  Speaker 2: by then there was no nose, there were no lips.
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  Speaker 2: If not one, perhaps both of the ears were gone
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  Speaker 2: by then. Perhaps no fingers or just a few. Luke
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  Speaker 2: tells us that he fell on his face and implored
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  Speaker 2: the Lord. Matthew states he bowed down before him. Both
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  Speaker 2: of those writers tell us that he used the word Lord. Lord. Kurios.
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  Speaker 2: A word for submission to a supreme one. And so
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  Speaker 2: he calls him Lord and has no sense of entitlement.
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  Speaker 2: See the way he puts it. If you are willing,
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  Speaker 2: you can cleanse me. The way Mark writes this is
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  Speaker 2: in a particular condition that suggests maybe you are and
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  Speaker 2: maybe you're not. It's undetermined. There is, at best, we
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  Speaker 2: could say hopeful doubt. The man has spent years of
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  Speaker 2: his life isolated from family and friends, and now he
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  Speaker 2: comes and says to the only one who could give
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  Speaker 2: him hope, if you're willing, you can cleanse me. Let
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  Speaker 2: me pause here for a little sidebar of information. It
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  Speaker 2: occurred to me it might help all of us to
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  Speaker 2: learn from this need for relief. The Bible speaks of
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  Speaker 2: four areas of relief, relief, which is a magnificent experience,
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  Speaker 2: relief of anything. First, regarding disease, the Bible speaks of
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  Speaker 2: healing a disease. Surgeons can't heal. Only God can heal.
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  Speaker 2: Physicians cannot bring about a removal of a disease. They
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  Speaker 2: can prescribe medicine and often do great work in analysis, diagnosis,
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  Speaker 2: and even the work of surgery. But the healing of
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  Speaker 2: the body to take away the pain of a disease
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  Speaker 2: rests in the hands of God. So the first kind
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  Speaker 2: of relief would be the relief of pain that comes
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  Speaker 2: through the healing of a disease. Here's a second. Regarding sin,
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  Speaker 2: we are hopelessly lost in our sins should God not intervene.
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  Speaker 2: Sins must be forgiven and only God can forgive sins.
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  Speaker 2: Sin brings guilt and condemnation. The only way to find
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  Speaker 2: relief from either or both is through forgiveness. And we
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  Speaker 2: are promised forgiveness through the cross. He who knew no
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  Speaker 2: sin became sin on our behalf. What a grand statement.
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  Speaker 2: That we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
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  Speaker 2: So there's the relief of guilt and condemnation that sin
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  Speaker 2: brings through the forgiveness that only God can give. There's
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  Speaker 2: a third, death. Death plagues virtually every person alive, certainly
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  Speaker 2: those without Christ. One psychologist writes, the last place anyone
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  Speaker 2: can ever imagine herself or himself is in a casket.
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  Speaker 2: We are so repulsed with the thought that we can't
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  Speaker 2: imagine ourselves ever being in that box.
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  Speaker 1: Why?
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  Speaker 2: Because most feel the helplessness and hopelessness that death brings.
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  Speaker 2: The only way to find relief from such hopelessness and
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  Speaker 2: grief is resurrection. Only God can resurrect the dead. And
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  Speaker 2: he promises to do so, yet future. There's a fourth,
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  Speaker 2: and that's what we're dealing with here, and that's leprosy.
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  Speaker 2: Leprosy speaks, don't miss this, leprosy speaks of the stigma
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  Speaker 2: of shame. That's why when you ever witness in your lifetime,
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  Speaker 2: and surely most of you never have, when you ever
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  Speaker 2: are seeing a leper, you will rarely have eye contact.
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  Speaker 2: They look down. It's a disease that brings shame to
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  Speaker 2: the victim. The stigma of having leprosy. Miriam was judged
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  Speaker 2: by God and made a leper. King Uzziah was judged
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  Speaker 2: by God and became a leper till his death. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: his gravestone reads, he is a leper. It is such
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  Speaker 2: a dread disease that the person with this disease is
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  Speaker 2: set aside and quarantined in a place that not even
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  Speaker 2: family can reach them. They live in isolation, which makes
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  Speaker 2: this man's coming out into public and meeting the master
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  Speaker 2: all the more remarkable. You and I can't imagine the
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  Speaker 2: magnetism of a life like Jesus. There was something about
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  Speaker 2: his presence that drew the man out of the shadows
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  Speaker 2: and brought him face to face with the master saying,
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  Speaker 2: if you are willing, you can cleanse me. Now, the
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  Speaker 2: second I noticed in this passage versus 41 and 42
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  Speaker 2: is a compassionate response followed by a miracle. Don't rush
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  Speaker 2: to the miracle before you take time to see the
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  Speaker 2: first thing that occurred in the life of Jesus is
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  Speaker 2: his being moved with compassion. It's a tough Greek word
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  Speaker 2: to pronounce. Splachna is the word. It's a guttural term.
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  Speaker 2: Splachna means the innards. We would call it the guts.
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  Speaker 2: Deep within the body is, in the Greek term, the splachna,
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  Speaker 2: the entrails. the visceral part of one's inner being. Jesus
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  Speaker 2: down in the depths of his being feels deeply. He's
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  Speaker 2: filled with tenderness for this man in his helpless condition.
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  Speaker 2: So that's the first response. He is moved with compassion.
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  Speaker 2: Following that twinge of compassion, please observe, and I love this,
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  Speaker 2: Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. You never
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  Speaker 2: touched a leper. You never sat where a leper sat.
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  Speaker 2: You never ate anything a leper would give you, which
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  Speaker 2: explains the reason the mother would burn the basket and
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  Speaker 2: the fruit. But Jesus breaks with the years of tradition
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  Speaker 2: and condemnation and reaches out to Bishop of Westcott, makes
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  Speaker 2: the statement that the Greek term suggests a firm grip,
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  Speaker 2: not just a pat on the head, but perhaps a
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  Speaker 2: gripping of the shoulder or of both shoulders. He reached
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  Speaker 2: out and he touched him. This man who has no name,
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  Speaker 2: who has no history, and has no value to Jesus
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  Speaker 2: is suddenly touched by the master he had not been
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  Speaker 2: embraced by his wife for as long as he can
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  Speaker 2: remember if he is married and with children the children
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  Speaker 2: have not touched him for as long as he's had
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  Speaker 2: the disease think of it he had forgotten what it
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  Speaker 2: felt like to have an arm around his shoulder or
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  Speaker 2: a hand on his head I want to pause here
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  Speaker 2: and talk to all of us about the value of touch.
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  Speaker 2: I hope all of you know the joy of being
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  Speaker 2: loved by those who touch you. We live in a
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  Speaker 2: strange time. Teachers are no longer to touch their students. Well,
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  Speaker 2: I remember teachers that touched me. We had a coach
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  Speaker 2: that touched me rather regularly in a place I will
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  Speaker 2: not describe. with a great big paddle. We no longer
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  Speaker 2: touch people. It's not politically correct. I'm not talking about
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  Speaker 2: an inappropriate touch, you know that, please. I'm talking about
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  Speaker 2: an embrace that means something. I can tell you in
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  Speaker 2: my own life that there is nothing like the embrace
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  Speaker 2: of my wife when the bottom is dropped out of
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  Speaker 2: my life. And I can tell you there are times
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  Speaker 2: that our grown children come near me and know that
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  Speaker 2: I'm going through a tough time and their touch means
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  Speaker 2: more than I can put into words. Just to be touched.
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  Speaker 2: I make it a habit regularly when I see someone
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  Speaker 2: in a wheelchair to lean over and touch them. Most
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  Speaker 2: of them are never touched. I've watched people in wheelchairs
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  Speaker 2: and the best they get is a little pat on
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  Speaker 2: the head. When you see someone who is in need
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  Speaker 2: like that, don't be afraid to touch them. And by
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  Speaker 2: the way, I also know we're in Texas, where men
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  Speaker 2: don't touch. What nonsense is that, huh? If you're a
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  Speaker 2: father and you are no longer touching, I regret that
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  Speaker 2: for your family. Your family needs to feel your arms
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  Speaker 2: around them. And I'll tell you, there's nothing like a
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  Speaker 2: grandson or granddaughter I was getting firewood years ago when
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  Speaker 2: our little Parker, one of our grandchildren, was just really small.
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  Speaker 2: Came up about to my waist and just big enough
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  Speaker 2: not to carry firewood but thought he was strong enough
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  Speaker 2: to do so. So I'm carrying the firewood and I
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  Speaker 2: bring it in to put in the fireplace and he
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  Speaker 2: says later, we carried all that wood in here, didn't we?
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  Speaker 2: And I said, we sure did. We sure did. And
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  Speaker 2: the warmth came from the fireplace and it got cozy
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  Speaker 2: and I'm standing there warming my hands and little Parker
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  Speaker 2: puts his He puts his arms around my legs and
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  Speaker 2: he looks up at me and he says, Bubba, I
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  Speaker 2: love you with all my heart. I said, would you
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  Speaker 2: like a Porsche? Or something like that. I mean, it
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  Speaker 2: moved me. It moved me. Kent Hughes tells the moving
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  Speaker 2: story of speaking to a person who didn't know Christ.
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  Speaker 2: And the man is so lonely, he didn't belong to
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  Speaker 2: a church. And in describing his loneliness to Kent, he
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  Speaker 2: said that he had his hair cut once a week
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  Speaker 2: just to have someone touch him. I realize I've taken
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  Speaker 2: a little excursion from the story, the narrative, but it's
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  Speaker 2: worth our time. Don't forget in this busy, cold, windy world,
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  Speaker 2: to touch the people you love. Please. He reached out
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  Speaker 2: and he touched him. I'm willing. Be clean. I pause
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  Speaker 2: here so you can feel what that man must have felt.
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  Speaker 2: For the first time, he's cleansed. Mark goes immediately to
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  Speaker 2: his favorite word, immediately. Immediately the leprosy left him and
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  Speaker 2: he was cleansed. I love it that it's in the
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  Speaker 2: passive voice. This Greek term, he was cleansed. His faith
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  Speaker 2: did not cleanse him. How wrong of these so-called faith
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  Speaker 2: healers to say when someone isn't healed, you just didn't
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  Speaker 2: have enough faith. What an insult. This man has no faith.
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  Speaker 2: He doesn't even have fingers or toes or a name
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  Speaker 2: or dignity. He's helpless. And he was cleansed.
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  Speaker 1: Love that.
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  Speaker 2: He was cleansed.
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  Speaker 1: He was cleansed, not by his own faith, not by
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  Speaker 1: anything he did, but by the sheer compassion of a
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  Speaker 1: Savior who reached out and touched the untouchable. Maybe today
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  Speaker 1: you've been hiding something that you thought made you unclean
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  Speaker 1: or unworthy or beyond reach.
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  Speaker 2: Well, hear this.
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  Speaker 1: The same Jesus still cleanses, still touches, still restores dignity
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  Speaker 1: to the helpless. This is Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll
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  Speaker 1: titled today's study in Mark Chapter 1, Changing a Leper's Spots.
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  Speaker 1: We hope this new series has whet your appetite to
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: learn more. If so, you'll want to own the Searching
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks for Mark. Because of the
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: size of Mark's gospel, Chuck split this teaching series into
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  Speaker 1: three volumes, and all three Bible study workbooks are ready today.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: You'll find all the details for Volumes 1, 2, and
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  Speaker 1: 3 at insight.org slash offer. And then I'd like to
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  Speaker 1: Insight for Living. The holiday season is just around the corner.
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  Speaker 1: And it's the perfect time to focus on the coming King, Jesus,
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  Speaker 1: and your family. It's called Everlasting Light, A Journey from
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  Speaker 1: Promise to Presence. Written by Pastor Carlos Azueta along with
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: Chuck Swindoll, this 25-day devotional will elevate your holiday season
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  Speaker 2: I'm Bill Meyer.
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  Speaker 1: Join us when Chuck Swindoll presents a truth that reorders everything.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Changing a
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Leper's Spots, was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026, and the
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  Speaker 1: sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc.
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