Immersed in Christ: February 14, 2021
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Leviticus 13:1–2, 44–46; Psalm 32; 1 Corinthians 10:31 to 11:1; Mark 1:40-45
A Friend Who Makes Me Clean
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.
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. Insofar is our past sins are concerned, we who are alive “in Christ,” are guiltless, purified, “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband… holy and without blemish” (Revelation 21:2, Ephesians 5:27; 2Peter 3:14).
Through the unique relationship we have with Jesus, the blemishes of our present sins will also disappear as we repent of them. He is a friend who can actually make us clean.
ACTION: When you remember your past sins, also remember that the person who committed them died, and that you are a new creation.
PRAYER: “Lord, because you wished it enough to die on the cross, you have made me clean.”
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