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

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  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. Unclean! Unclean! And
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  Speaker 2: as soon as the words were heard... Everybody knew that
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  Speaker 2: they were in danger of being near a leper. Leprosy
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  Speaker 2: 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 today would be for us
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  Speaker 2: to find ourselves in the middle of a busy mall
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  Speaker 2: and someone screams, suicide bomber! And we would skirt for
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  Speaker 2: the 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 and over the passing of
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  Speaker 2: years turned his attention to the study of medicine and
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  Speaker 2: ultimately 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 and
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  Speaker 2: They scraped themselves and cut themselves and often bruised themselves
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  Speaker 2: so deeply that, well, they wind up with such stubs
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  Speaker 2: for 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 1,
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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 chapter 5, verse 12, Dr. Luke, the physician who
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  Speaker 2: writes the one of the gospels, states that the man
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  Speaker 2: is full of leprosy. So it's in its advanced stages.
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  Speaker 2: Perhaps 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. Why? Because most
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  Speaker 2: feel the helplessness and hopelessness that death brings. The only
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  Speaker 2: way to find relief from such hopelessness and grief is resurrection.
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  Speaker 2: Only God can resurrect the dead. And he promises to
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  Speaker 2: do so, yet future. There's a fourth, and that's what
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  Speaker 2: we're dealing with here, and that's leprosy. Leprosy speaks, don't
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  Speaker 2: miss this, leprosy speaks of the stigma of shame. That's
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  Speaker 2: why when you ever witness in your lifetime, and surely
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  Speaker 2: most of you never have, when you ever are seeing
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  Speaker 2: a leper, you will rarely have eye contact. They look down.
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  Speaker 2: It's a disease that brings shame to the victim. The
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  Speaker 2: stigma of having leprosy. Miriam was judged by God and
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  Speaker 2: made a leper. King Uzziah was judged by God and
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  Speaker 2: became a leper till his death. In fact, his gravestone reads,
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  Speaker 2: he is a leper. It is such a dread disease
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  Speaker 2: that the person with this disease is set aside and
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  Speaker 2: quarantined in a place that not even family can reach them.
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  Speaker 2: They live in isolation, which makes this man's coming out
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  Speaker 2: into public and meeting the master all the more remarkable.
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  Speaker 2: You and I can't imagine the magnetism of a life
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  Speaker 2: like Jesus. There was something about his presence that drew
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  Speaker 2: the man out of the shadows and brought him face
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  Speaker 2: to face with the master saying, if you are willing,
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  Speaker 2: you can cleanse me. Now, the second I noticed in
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  Speaker 2: this passage versus 41 and 42 is a compassionate response
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  Speaker 2: followed by a miracle. Don't rush to the miracle before
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  Speaker 2: you take time to see the first thing that occurred
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  Speaker 2: in the life of Jesus is his being moved with compassion.
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  Speaker 2: It's a tough Greek word to pronounce. Splachna is the word.
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  Speaker 2: It's a guttural term. Splachna means the innards. We would
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  Speaker 2: call it the guts. Deep within the body is in
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  Speaker 2: the Greek term the splachna, the entrails. The visceral part
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  Speaker 2: of one's inner being. Jesus down in the depths of
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  Speaker 2: his being feels deeply. He's filled with tenderness for this
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  Speaker 2: man in his helpless condition. So that's the first response.
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  Speaker 2: He is moved with compassion. Following that twinge of compassion,
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  Speaker 2: please observe. Now love this. Jesus stretched out his hand
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  Speaker 2: and touched him. You never touched a leper. You never
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  Speaker 2: sat where a leper sat. You never ate anything a
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  Speaker 2: leper would give you, which explains the reason the mother
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  Speaker 2: would burn the basket and the fruit. But Jesus breaks
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  Speaker 2: with the years of tradition and condemnation and reaches out
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  Speaker 2: to Bishop of Westcott, makes the statement that the Greek
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  Speaker 2: term suggests a firm grip, not just a pat on
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  Speaker 2: the head, but perhaps a gripping of the shoulder or
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  Speaker 2: of both shoulders. He reached out and he touched him.
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  Speaker 2: This man who has no name, who has no history,
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  Speaker 2: and has no value to Jesus is suddenly touched by
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  Speaker 2: the master he had not been embraced by his wife
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  Speaker 2: for as long as he can remember if he is
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  Speaker 2: married and with children the children have not touched him
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  Speaker 2: for as long as he's had the disease think of
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  Speaker 2: it he had forgotten what it felt like to have
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  Speaker 2: an arm around his shoulder or a hand on his
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  Speaker 2: head I want to pause here and talk to all
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  Speaker 2: of us about the value of touch. I hope all
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  Speaker 2: of you know the joy of being loved by those
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  Speaker 2: who touch you. We live in a strange time. Teachers
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  Speaker 2: are no longer to touch their students. Well, I remember
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  Speaker 2: teachers that touched me. We had a coach that touched
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  Speaker 2: me rather regularly in a place I will not describe.
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  Speaker 2: with a great big paddle. We no longer touch people.
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  Speaker 2: It's not politically correct. I'm not talking about an inappropriate touch.
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  Speaker 2: You know that, please. I'm talking about an embrace that
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  Speaker 2: means something. I can tell you in my own life
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  Speaker 2: that there is nothing like the embrace of my wife
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  Speaker 2: when the bottom is dropped out of my life. And
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  Speaker 2: I can tell you there are times that our grown
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  Speaker 2: children come near me and know that I'm going through
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  Speaker 2: a tough time and their touch means more than I
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  Speaker 2: can put into words. Just to be touched. I make
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  Speaker 2: it a habit regularly when I see someone in a
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  Speaker 2: wheelchair to lean over and touch them. Most of them
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  Speaker 2: are never touched. I've watched people in wheelchairs and the
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  Speaker 2: best they get is a little pat on the head.
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  Speaker 2: When you see someone who is in need like that,
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  Speaker 2: don't be afraid to touch them. And by the way,
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  Speaker 2: I also know we're in Texas, where men don't touch.
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  Speaker 2: What nonsense is that, huh? If you're a father and
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  Speaker 2: you are no longer touching, I regret that for your family.
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  Speaker 2: Your family needs to feel your arms around them. And
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  Speaker 2: I'll tell you, there's nothing like a grandson or granddaughter
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  Speaker 2: I was getting firewood years ago when our little Parker,
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  Speaker 2: one of our grandchildren, was just really small. Came up
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  Speaker 2: about to my waist and just big enough not to
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  Speaker 2: carry firewood but thought he was strong enough to do so.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm carrying the firewood and I bring it in
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  Speaker 2: to put in the fireplace and he says later, we
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  Speaker 2: carried all that wood in here, didn't we? And I said,
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  Speaker 2: we sure did. We sure did. And the warmth came
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  Speaker 2: from the fireplace and it got cozy and I'm standing
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  Speaker 2: there warming my hands and little Parker puts his He
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  Speaker 2: puts his arms around my legs and he looks up
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  Speaker 2: at me and he says, Bubba, I love you with
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  Speaker 2: all my heart. I said, would you like a Porsche?
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  Speaker 2: Or something like that. I mean, it moved me. It
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  Speaker 2: moved me. Kent Hughes tells the moving story of speaking
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  Speaker 2: to a person who didn't know Christ. And the man
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  Speaker 2: is so lonely. He didn't belong to a church. And
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  Speaker 2: in describing his loneliness to Kent, he said that he
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  Speaker 2: had his hair cut once a week just to have
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  Speaker 2: someone touch him. I realize I've taken a little excursion
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  Speaker 2: from the story, the narrative, but it's worth our time.
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  Speaker 2: Don't forget, in this busy, cold, windy world, to touch
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  Speaker 2: the people you love. Please. He reached out and he
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  Speaker 2: touched him. I'm willing. Be clean. I pause here so
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  Speaker 2: you can feel what that man must have felt. For
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  Speaker 2: the first time, he's cleansed. Mark goes immediately to his
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  Speaker 2: favorite word, immediately. Immediately the leprosy left him and he
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  Speaker 2: was cleansed. I love it that it's in the passive voice.
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  Speaker 2: This Greek term, he was cleansed. His faith did not
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  Speaker 2: cleanse him. How wrong of these so-called faith healers to
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  Speaker 2: say when someone isn't healed, you just didn't have enough faith.
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  Speaker 2: What an insult. This man has no faith. He doesn't
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  Speaker 2: even have fingers or toes or a name or dignity.
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  Speaker 2: He's helpless. And he was cleansed. Love that. 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. Well, hear this. The same
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  Speaker 1: Jesus still cleanses, still touches, still restores dignity to the helpless.
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  Speaker 1: This is Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll titled today's study
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  Speaker 1: in Mark Chapter 1, Changing a Leper's Spots. We hope
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  Speaker 1: this new series has whet your appetite to learn more.
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  Speaker 1: If so, you'll want to own the Searching the Scriptures
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: Bible Study Workbooks for Mark. Because of the size of
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  Speaker 1: Mark's gospel, Chuck split this teaching series into three volumes,
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  Speaker 1: and all three Bible study workbooks are ready today. You'll
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  Speaker 1: find all the details for Volumes 1, 2, and 3
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  Speaker 1: at insight.org slash offer. And then I'd like to tell
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  Speaker 1: you about a special resource created and published by Insight
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  Speaker 1: 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
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  Speaker 1: King Jesus and to find ways to reflect His love
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  Speaker 1: and generosity. Well, we're pleased to offer an Advent devotional
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  Speaker 1: book for you and your family. It's called Everlasting Light,
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  Speaker 1: A Journey from Promise to Presence. Written by Pastor Carlos
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  Speaker 1: Azueta along with Chuck Swindoll, this 25-day devotional will elevate
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  Speaker 1: your holiday season as you anticipate the Advent of Christ.
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  Speaker 1: It's our gift to you when you make a donation
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  Speaker 1: to support the ministry of Insight for Living. You know,
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  Speaker 1: our times are urgent. People need the hope of the
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  Speaker 1: everlasting life. And your contribution to Insight for Living will
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  Speaker 1: be applied directly toward broadcasting this message far and wide.
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  Speaker 1: To give a generous donation and request the Advent devotional
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: called Everlasting Light, write to us at Insight for Living,
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  Speaker 1: Post Office Box 5000, Frisco, Texas, 75034. You can also
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: call us at 800-425-7000. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when
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  Speaker 1: Chuck Swindoll presents a truth that reorders everything. Friday on
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  Speaker 1: Insight for Living. The preceding message, Changing a Leper's Spots,
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  Speaker 1: was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026, and the sound recording
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  Speaker 1: was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All
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  Speaker 1: rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial
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  Speaker 1: use is strictly prohibited.