A Friend Who Makes Me Clean
by Fr. David M. Knight
Sunday, February 11, 2024
Week VI in Ordinary Time
Lectionary No. 77
Leviticus 13:1–2, 44–46; Psalm 32; 1 Corinthians 10:31 to 11:1; Mark 1:40-45
"Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away." Psalm 32:1
Human friends can accept me, forgive me, help me to be better. But they cannot actually take away my guilt or relieve me of the burden of my past sins. I am still the person who did whatever I have done.
Not so with Jesus. He is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” He does it by dying, and by incorporating us into his body on the cross so that we might die in him.
That is the mystery of our redemption.
When Jesus died we were in him, with all of our sins, past, present, and future. In Christ, our sins went down into the grave and were annihilated. We rose out of the waters of Baptism “a new creation” (2Corinthians 9:17), with no record of sin. The person who committed our sins died. We who are alive “in Christ,” are purified, “holy and without blemish” (Revelation 21:2, Ephesians 5:27; 2Peter 3:14).
Through the relationship we have with Jesus, the blemishes of our new sins also disappear as we repent of them. Baptism reaches forward as well as backward.
Friendship is interaction. Interact with Jesus and he will purify your past, present, and future.
ACTION: When you remember your sins, also remember that the person who committed them died, and that you are a “new creation.”
PRAYER: “Lord, do this with me, do this in me, do this through me."
Reflections brought to you by the Immersed in Christ Ministry
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