Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Who is Jesus? | The Gospels | Mark 1:29-45

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Who is Jesus? What is leprosy and why was it so damaging? Is Jesus willing to heal me? In today's episode, Keith shares how Mark 1:29-45 reminds us that Jesus is able and willing to cleanse us from our sins. Read the Bible with us in 2026! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Download your reading plan now. Want to learn even more about the Gospels? Tune into Not Just Sunday. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Mark 1:29-45

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. This is the first Monday of the new year, so I want to personally wish you a happy 2026. It's also the first Monday of our new series through the Gospels. I hope you'll join us at TMBT to learn more about Jesus this year. And ultimately, I hope and pray that you and I end 2026 closer to Jesus than we are today. I'm super pumped to go through the Gospels together and focus this entire year on Jesus.

I mean, just think about Jesus. Even if you set aside your faith commitments, it's obvious that Jesus is the most compelling figure in world history. He changed the world. But what's so crazy is that when he was crucified in 33 AD, no one would have expected that. Jesus was an unlikely candidate to be a world changer. He never led an army. He never wrote a book.

he never traveled more than 200 miles from his hometown. Most of Jesus' followers were unimportant people. In fact, their enemies referred to them as unschooled ordinary men. But as unlikely as it seems, you can't argue that Jesus changed everything. He changed the calendar. Our calendars are divided based on his birth. BC means before Christ. An AD stands for the Latin words,

Anodominy. It means in the year of our Lord. Jesus changed how we treat the vulnerable, from widows to women to sick and the children. His followers started hospitals and schools. They were leaders in science and politics. They served the poor and abolished slave trade. Jesus redefined compassion and humility. The ancient world looked down on the compassionate and humble,

but Jesus demonstrated those traits and called his followers to do the same. Who is this man, Jesus? He is the hinge of history. He's the hope of the oppressed and distraised. sparing. And Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever taught. He's the greatest gift that's ever been given. He mastered life and conquered death. He overcame sins. Jesus is the son of God. The crucified carpenter is the hope of the nations and the savior of the world. So yeah, I'm pumped to focus on Jesus this year and every year. We are working our way through the gospel of Mark and we're still in

the first chapter. Mark starts by saying the beginning of the gospel of the gospel of the about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then in verse 15, Jesus says, the time has come, the kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe the good news. The word gospel literally means good news. So Mark begins his gospel by saying that Jesus is the good news and that he comes preaching the good news. What's the good news? Well, the good news is that Jesus is the true king of the universe and that he's returned to establish his kingdom of love, justice, and mercy on earth. The good news is that Jesus forgives sins and restores sinners. He defeated sin and Satan.

He's come to claim his rightful place as king of creation. The gospel of Mark was most likely written from Rome, where Caesar ruled the empire. Caesar was considered the son of God. His birthday was hailed as the gospel, or good news for the world. But Mark, at great risk to himself, declares that Jesus is the true king, not Caesar. In the Greco-Roman world, the word gospel was always plural. It always had the sense that this was one good tiding among others. But in the New Testament, the word gospel is never plural, but always singular.

Jesus is not some good news, he's the good news. Jesus is the good news that there is hope for sinners like us. In Mark chapter 1, verses 40 to 45, we have a picture of the good news of the gospel, and it comes to us through an encounter between Jesus and a leper. Let me read it. A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees. If you are willing, you can make me clean. Filled with pity, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said.

Be clean. Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. 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. Leprosy was a horrible skin disease, one of the most feared in the ancient world. What we think of leprosy is now called Hansen disease after the man who discovered the bacteria that caused it.

It was a skin disease that was hard to diagnose and impossible to heal. Today there are over a thousand leper colonies in India. In the book of Leviticus, there are two chapters devoted to leprosy. They read almost like they're a dermatology manual. Here's Leviticus 13. Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face, and cry out,

unclean, unclean. As long as they have the disease, they remain unclean. They must live alone. They must live outside the camp. This was not simply an illness. It was a sentence to a life alone and being cut off from the community. A leper wasn't just robbed of his health, but as a consequence, he was also robbed of their name, their occupation, their family, their friends, their worship.

When you understand the social, religious, and health issues, you begin to see how offensive this leper's actions were. Lepers were required to stand 50 paces away from other people, but instead this leper approaches Jesus. You just didn't do that. But this leper is driven by need, and so he risks everything. He breaks the law. He breaks the social customs, just on the chance that Jesus would heal him and restore him. Nothing is going to keep this man from Jesus. So he comes to Jesus and he falls on his knees.

He's humble. He knows that he's needy. He's not negotiating with Jesus. He just cries out, If you are willing, you can make me clean. If you are willing. The leper doesn't question Jesus' ability to save him. I mean, he's seen Jesus heal other people.

The leper questions Jesus' willingness to heal him. And Jesus' response is no less scandalous than the leper's boldness. You would expect an observant Jew like Jesus to turn away from the leper, but that's not what he did. Verse 41. Filled with pity, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. So instead of showing contempt, he shows compassion. And Jesus reaches out and touches him. When Jesus touches this leper, he's breaking down all the social, spiritual, and physical barriers.

Jesus' touch speaks more loudly than his words, and his words change this man's life. Life. Filled with pity, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said, be clean. Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. Jesus wasn't reluctant to help this man. He's never reluctant to help those who come to him in faith. And Jesus says, I am willing. An ordinary rabbi would have been polluted by this leper's disease. But Jesus isn't ordinary. The leper is cleansed and healed by Jesus. It turns out. out that leprosy isn't contagious, but Jesus's holiness is. Jesus told him to keep this quiet, but the leper couldn't. His life had been changed. So verse 45 said, 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. Jesus traded places with this leper. And Jesus relieved this man of his burden, but now the notoriety burdens Jesus, so that he has to,

withdraw and be by himself. Mark began this story with Jesus on the inside of the Jewish community and the leper on the outside. But at the end of the story, they've switched places. The leper is on the inside, having been integrated back into the community, and Jesus is on the outside in lonely places. The Old Testament says that leprosy gives us a picture of sin. Mark never says that Jesus healed this man. The word healing doesn't even appear in this story. Instead, four times Mark uses the word cleansed. This leper didn't just need to be healed. He needed to be cleansed of sins. He was being healed physically and spiritually. God doesn't turn away from us in our time of need, but in compassion, he touches the leper and he becomes one of us in the incarnation.

How can Jesus make me clean? Well, just like he traded places with the leper, he trades places with us. He doesn't become unclean, but he's counted among the unclean. He doesn't become a sinner, but he's punished for our sins. 2 Corinthians 5. God made Him, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. We must be like that leper. Admit that we cannot save ourselves, but cast ourselves on the mercy of Jesus.

Jesus saves. Jesus heals. Jesus makes whole. Jesus, we are like this leper. We are sinful and we can't save ourselves. We need the good news that you forgive, that you heal, that you cleanse. I pray Jesus, that we would lean in to your grace and your mercy. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.