And a man with a skin disease came to Jesus, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”

This morning I was struck by a phrase as I prayed through Mark 1:40-41.  The story showed a man without options coming before Jesus.

As the man was kneeling and begging with a visible disease–Jesus was moved with pity.

Pity is such a troubling word.  We don’t want people’s pity.  Pity seems rather pathetic.  Pity makes us seem weak and inadequate.

But while most of us think “pity” means to cause disappointment, what it means in the Greek is to show deep sorrow and compassion for someone suffering misfortune.

Christ is moved to deep compassion for us once we see our inadequacies.