Coming Clean

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

To be made clean means something much different than "coming clean". To "come clean" means that you have done something wrong and you are admitting to your fault. To be made clean means that someone has done something for you that you could not do yourself. In today's Scripture was a man that had the most dreaded disease of that time. You could equate Leprosy or Hansen disease with the AIDS epidemic today. It not only wrecked a person but made that person unclean and alienated from his family and community. It actually made the person feel cut off from society and from God. These people were not allowed to worship or to be around people that were religious. These people were unclean. They were required to wear a cow bell around their neck in order to let people know they were in the area. Everywhere they went they were not only labeled unclean but they were reminded that they were unclean. But Jesus changed all that. He cleansed the man and reinstated him but the man cared more about coming clean than he did being made clean. This story has a real twist in the end. make sure you are in worship this week as we see how we should respond when we are made clean.
Now you may be saying to yourself but I am not in need of being made clean. Now well this week may bring you to the realization that you do need a cleansing and Jesus is willing to give you that opportunity. To be made clean is to become whole again.