Daily Gospel Reflection for February 11, 2024

Join us as we reflect, ponder, and pray together inspired by today's Gospel.

Today's Gospel: Mark 1:40-45

As a young person, I always wondered why Jesus kept telling people to not spread the word about His miracles. In my mind, I thought it would have been better if everyone knew. I thought that learning about the miracles would equate to faith. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

Our Gospel reading today is one of the best explanations for His request for silence. As the masses learned about Jesus’s signs and wonders, they flocked to Him, not as their Lord and Savior, but instead as their healer and magic-worker. They sought a transactional faith, a faith where if He healed them, then they would believe. A quid pro quo, if you will. We all know that is not what true faith is, nor is it the reason that God became human and walked among us.

Jesus healed the leper because He was moved with pity (cf. Mark 1:41), and the result was that a previously isolated man was able to return to society. The price was Jesus’s ability to return to society. By the end of today’s Gospel, we read,

“that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places . . .” Mark 1:45

Jesus traded places with the leper. The man was once outcast, unwelcome in the city walls, and instead Jesus took that fate.

The cured leper did not mean harm to Jesus; he only wanted to share his own amazing story. Yes intentionally or not, the result was an impediment to Jesus’s real mission: preaching the Kingdom of God. The signs and wonders were meant to serve as proof of Jesus’s divinity, not as a replacement for His true message.

Ponder:

Do I seek to follow Jesus for the glory of the Kingdom of God, or do I ever expect signs and miracles in return for my faithfulness?

Pray:

Lord Jesus, teach me to be the disciple You want me to be. Let my faith in You grow, even when the signs and wonders I pray for do not come to pass.

Click to tweet:
As the masses learned about Jesus’s signs and wonders, they flocked to Him, not as their Lord and Savior, but instead as their healer and magic-worker. #DailyGospel

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