Mark 1:40-45 When our prayers are not answered

Send us Fan MailIn the Gospel Mark describes an encounter between a man with leprosy and Jesus.  There are many things going on here.  We hear a lot about lepers in the time of Jesus and Jesus cured many of them.  Leprosy is a brutal disease.  Not only did the disease attack the body but the leper was excluded from society.   This reminds me of the early days of the AIDS crisis and more recently COVID where people were isolated from love ones.I want to draw your attention to the leper’s request.  He starts out with “if you want to”.  I could not find any other examples of a request like this in the Gospel.  The leper whose was not given a name has more of an understanding of Jesus ministry of healing than most people including the disciples.  I want to draw your attention to the fact that Jesus responds to the leper’s request.  Jesus makes it clear that he “wants to heal.”  I want to stress this point because I have experienced so many people searching for God and believing that they have to be worthy or God will not hear their prayers.   How do we respond when our prayers are not answered?Complete our 1 Minute Survey