Jesus Wills and Makes the Leper Clean August 21, 2016 Mark 1:40-45 Matt Rawlings

1 Jesus Wills and Makes the Leper Clean August 21, 2016 Mark 1:40-45 Matt Rawlings Mark 1:40-45 And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, "I will; be clean." 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them." 45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. [Pray] As we are working our way through the parables and miracles of Jesus Christ, the goal is to see who Jesus is more clearly. Unfortunately, in His own day, most people did not understand the parables about His kingdom and so didn t see what kind of king he was nor what kingdom it was he brought. In Jesus day, most people did not see the miracles he performed for what they really were either. You see, the miracles of Jesus were meant to reveal His character and nature. They were than just mere miracles revealing his power too. Unfortunately, many just wanted Jesus to get them something. To do something materially for them. To give them something they thought they needed most. The miracles of Jesus are like parables in themselves, that symbolize what He can do and point to who Jesus was and is. For us today, the miracles of Jesus are not meant to just be nice stories about what Jesus did in the past they are meant to point to what Jesus still does now. But the question for us, is will we see Jesus, do we see Jesus just for what He can give to us or do we see Jesus for who He really is? Who do you see Jesus as? Is Jesus just someone who can give us the American Dream, or someone to just give us physical security, or financial peace, or relational healing, or success in life? Do you see Him as just the answer to the problems you think you have and the things you think you need? Or do you see Jesus as the only answer to the biggest problem you really have? The story of the leper, that we just read is a story of a need to be made clean. The opening scene in fact shows us the leper s cry, in verse 40. 1. The Leper s Cry (Jesus hears the Leper s cry) Mark writes, And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, If you will, you can make me clean. This was a desperate cry, a humble cry and at the same time, a faith-filled cry. To understand the story and the leper s cry though, we need to go back and understand the problem the man with leprosy faced. 1

2 Today, we live in a very sanitized world. We keep hand-sanitizer in our cars and we expect hand-sanitizer to be positioned at the entry and exit of stores. We like to keep clean on the outside and it has a positive effect, that we spread disease and sickness less and we don t have diseases like leprosy very much anymore. We can still get cancer or aids or heart disease or other diseases and ailments, but they are more often hidden until they are so bad that we are near death. So, we get used to appearing to be healthy. We do the same thing with our lives metaphorically sometimes too though don t we? We sanitize our lives, so that they appear clean on the outside. We try to dress to look nice. We know how to act nicely and be acceptable. We know how to look like we have it all together on the outside. But inside, many times, we can be sick you just can t tell, unless we get really out of control. But that doesn t mean we don t have a need, even if we aren t aware of it. In the first century, it was very hard to hide external diseases like leprosy, because there wasn t any known cure for leprosy. Even though there is hope for lepers today, Leprosy was an incurable disease and there was no cure and no hope. Now, the word used for leprosy can mean a specific disease or it can refer to a whole range of chronic skin diseases. No matter which is meant, if anyone was identified as a leper, it was devastating news. People would contract leprosy and could have it for years but not know it right away. By the time you knew you had it though, a few years after exposure, it was too late. The symptoms started with extreme fatigue and muscle weakness. Skin lesions or boils develop that will not heal after months, the skin in those areas would be lighter and it quickly became apparent that you had contracted the disease that would eventually lead to your slow, lonely death. As the disease progresses, you lose your eyebrows and eyelashes. Then the leper would start to experience numbness in the hands, feet, arms and legs that grew more severe and the feeling never came back. You develop permanent nerve damage in your arms and legs. Chronic nasal congestion and bleeding, inflammation of your eyes and then optic nerve damage and blindness can follow. If not treated, kidney failure can follow and your body can eventually shut down and you die. The problem is, that a person with leprosy can suffer anywhere from 5 to 20 years. It was an awful, hideous, disfiguring disease. The body would be open to trauma and the person suffering might not know that they burned their hand or that they had an open cut. They wouldn t feel a rat eating at their wounds at night. Most people cannot imagine the terrible plight of a leper or relate to the extreme hopelessness they felt as their bodies suffered and progressed towards their impending death. There was nothing sanitized about leprosy. But the physical aspects of the disease were just the beginning. You see, the leper was a social outcast as well. It meant that not only did they struggle with a chronic disease, they would be considered unclean or impure from then on out. The law in Leviticus dictated that if you had leprosy, you were unclean and there were some strict social guidelines imposed on you as well. Leviticus 13:44-46 he is a leprous man, he is unclean. The priest must pronounce him unclean 45 "The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, 'Unclean, unclean.' 46 He 2

3 shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp. They had to wear torn clothes and cover their upper lip and everywhere they went, they were supposed to cry out a warning to everyone that they were unclean. This uncleanness was not a sin in itself, but it was widely recognized as a symbol for sin. In fact, all throughout the Old Testament, leprosy was seen as an indicator of the depth and depravity of a person s sin. A leper was seen as the worst kind of sinner. So they weren t just a leper physically, they were leper s spiritually. I think we are meant to identify in some way with this leper. You see, all of us are spiritual lepers, infected with the truly incurable disease of sin. We can t get rid of it on our own. If left unchecked, it only gets worse, and we begin to stink. The spiritual reality is that we are this bad off. We all have spiritual leprosy, apart from being made clean by God. All are under the curse of the disease of sin. Romans 3:10-18 None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." 13 "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." 14 "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." 15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience- 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. The question is though; do you know you have leprosy? Do you know you are unclean? Or are you numb to your sin, blind to it and thereby in more danger of decay? You see, you must first understand your plight because of sin. Martin Lloyd Jones spoke about this when he said, Unless you realize you are a sinner, you cannot possibly have felt the need of Christ. You may have felt the need of help and advice and comfort, but until you awake to the fact that your nature itself is evil, until you realize the trouble is not that you do this and that which is wrong, but that you yourself are wrong, that your whole nature is wrong, until you realize that, you will have never felt the need of a Savior. Christ cannot help or advise or comfort, until he has first of all saved you, until he had changed your nature Oh my friends have you felt this? God have mercy on you if you haven t. Do you know that you need Christ? Leprosy back then kept the person from approaching God s presence in the temple. And if you were unclean like this, you would be isolated from your family and loved ones - you would be all alone and you would have to go and live by yourself. Can you imagine how discouraged and desperate you would be? Imagine today, if when you contracted cancer, or kidney or heart or lung disease, if you not only had to deal with the horrible news of your illness, but all of a sudden, you were considered unclean and impure and everyone you knew kept their distance from you. Imagine that you had to leave your home and all those you know and go live by yourself. And if you did decide to come into town, you had to yell unclean, unclean everywhere and you couldn t touch anyone, 3

4 because it would make them unclean - so everyone avoided you like the plague. You couldn t enter the temple to come near to God. And you could never go into someone else s home again. Imagine the incredibly pervasive, deep physical and mental anguish you would experience. Interestingly, the Bible never speaks of healing leprosy. It only refers to cleansing from leprosy which indicates that leprosy was a symbol of sin that a person needed to made clean from. So, if you were in this state, you would want to be made clean again, wouldn t you? This leper that Mark tells us about, somehow had heard about Jesus and knew that Jesus must have the power to make him clean. So, the leper comes and humbly kneels before Jesus, in a posture of submission and reverence and implores or begs Jesus. The problem is, that in coming so near to Jesus, he was violating the law. But notice what he says. He makes a faith-filled statement, saying, "If you will, you can make me clean." He is desperate for Jesus to remove this dreadful disease from him and to restore him back to wholeness physically. He probably longed for companionship and the ability to be with God s people freely as well. Humanly speaking, his disease could not be removed his situation was impossible unless Jesus were to do the impossible and make him clean. Clearly, though, this man believes that Jesus can heal him and make him clean, it is only a matter of whether or not Jesus wants to heal him or not. The next scene we see though, is the Lord s compassion. 2. The Lord s Compassion (Jesus Responds to the Leper s need) Notice that Jesus isn t revolted by this man. He doesn t turn him away for being leprous and unclean. He doesn t say, don t you know who I am? I am the Son of God and yet you dare come into my presence get out! He doesn t tell the man how gross he is and throw stones at him, like the other rabbi s in that day would have done. He doesn t keep his distance, as one rabbi taught stay at least 6 feet away upwind and 150 feet away downwind from a leper to stay clean. No, Jesus lets him appeal to him, Jesus actually allows this unclean man to bow before him. But he doesn t stop there. Jesus is not revolted and he doesn t cast this unclean man out of his presence. Instead, Jesus is moved with pity for this unclean man. The word here has the connotation of feeling deep within your guts and being moved. Have you ever felt that kind of compassion? The man needed Jesus and Jesus didn t turn away. The man s incurable disease was no match for the great Physician. No case is too difficult. In Luke s version, he said the man was full of leprosy. But he wasn t too far gone for Jesus. Maybe you believe the lie of the devil that you are too far gone you ve done too much, you are too dirty, too numb to sin, too ugly and hideous that God would turn his face away from you, because you know that s what you deserve. Maybe you believe the lie of the devil that Jesus doesn t care. Maybe you think you are too gross for Jesus. See the compassion of Jesus to this leper and know He looks on you with the same compassion. He is moved with compassion towards you, spiritual leper. But his pity wasn t just limited to feeling empathy for the man. Jesus didn t just feel sorry for him, he had compassion on the man. He saw the effects of the ravages of sickness and sin in the man s body. He saw the man s helpless plight and his utter inability to help himself and He was moved. 4

5 This should encourage everyone who has been sick or who has a disease or physical ailment or disability. Consistently, we see the character of Jesus, as He is moved with compassion for the helpless plight of people who are experiencing the effects of sickness and sin. Jesus isn t disgusted by people who are afflicted by weakness and sickness, He is moved with compassion towards those who are weak and sick and helpless. This interaction reveals that Jesus has compassion on those who society despises and marginalizes. He cares for those who are suffering physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. But His pity or compassion wasn t merely an emotional response alone it was a feeling of pity or compassion that led Jesus to take action and reach out to the man. So, we see, the final portion of the story is that of 3. The leper s cure (Jesus Makes the Leper clean) Now, you need to understand, that Jesus stretching out His hand towards the man and touching him was a very big deal. It was a social and cultural taboo, because the ritual systems of the Jews demanded that no one should touch a leper, because they were unclean. It was also a bold move on Jesus part, because sickness and disease could be conveyed by touching someone with a disease and Jesus was hypothetically risking contracting leprosy himself. This man may not have experienced even a handshake from another human for quite some time. Now, Jesus stretched his hand out to the man and touched him. He didn t have to touch the man. Jesus could have just spoken a word and healed the man. But He showed that the law was subject to Him, that He is Lord of the law. And He also showed that He could not be defiled by any defilement of man. So, when Jesus touched the man, instead of the unclean man making the clean Jesus unclean, Jesus makes the unclean man clean. In touching the leper, Jesus was also identifying with the man and his condition personally. It would have been a sign that Jesus identified with leprosy, which symbolized sin, and so, He symbolically identified with sin willingly. What a beautiful picture and foreshadowing of how Jesus identified with our sins on the Cross. Jesus took our sins on His own body He became defiled for us and in our place, that we might no longer be defiled. Then, we see, that Jesus willingly healed the leper and made him clean. Not only did Jesus touch the man, he also declared, I will; be clean. Jesus was declaring his desire to heal the man, to make the man clean, to restore the man to wholeness. I can only imagine how amazing those words sounded to that leper to hear that it was the will of Jesus for him to be made clean, coupled with Jesus touching him, must have been so hope-giving in that moment. 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. The result of Jesus reaching out and touching the man and declaring His sovereign will, was that the man was immediately healed from his leprosy. Jesus wasn t hesitant and didn t make the man wait immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. The man s lesions were healed. His feet became whole and toes appeared where there were none. Where the hands were discolored and fingers gone, new flesh and fingers now held onto Jesus. The man with no eyebrows had hair again. His skin all over was made new. His ears and nose were back. It all happened instantly. He had strength and healing in his bones now! 5

6 I cannot imagine seeing something like that happen in front of me. I can imagine he would be shouting I m clean, I m clean and we would be shouting he s clean, he s clean! This was nothing that could be explained by any other means this was an instantaneous, undeniable miracle. Immediately the leprosy left him. But that wasn t all Mark writes with what I think is intentional double meaning. He says, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. He was healed AND he was made clean - he was made pure, he was made ritually acceptable. The man was dramatically healed and made clean. This would have meant that he had hope again, that his life was restored to him, that he could go back to his family and friends and that he could worship unhindered. He must have been ecstatic. In touching the man, in healing him and making him clean, Jesus had undeserved grace and mercy on the man. Isn t that the very definition of God s grace God pouring out His undeserved favor on those who only deserve His wrath? He didn t give the man the rebuke he deserved, instead, He gave the man what he didn t deserve, mercifully touching, healing and cleansed the man immediately. But, in response, Jesus did something that we might find strange. Look in verses 43-44: And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them." Jesus sternly commanded him to not tell anyone about what had happened, but to just go to the priest, and make the required offering, so that the priest could declare him clean and reinstate him back to his old life. Jesus was also sending the man to the priests to show Himself as, what the ESV translates a proof to them. The words here can also be translated as a testimony against them. This man s healing was meant to serve as evidence of who Jesus is and of the legitimacy of the message of the gospel of the kingdom of God to the religious leaders of that day. This man s healing was clear evidence that a new era had dawned, where God had done something new, through Jesus. The Law of Moses provided only the means to certify a person as ritually clean if they were somehow healed, but it lacked any ability to make someone actually clean. In sending the man to give proof to them, he was also showing that Jesus has power to make clean from sins and to reconcile men back to full fellowship with God and His people as well. Jesus came to preach the arrival of God s powerful kingdom, where people could be healed and made actually clean through Jesus Himself. And when Jesus makes clean, He makes free in regards to the law as well. If the priests acknowledged that the man had been healed and failed to acknowledge Jesus, through whom the healing came, then the man would serve as a testimony against the unbelief of the priests. Jesus also didn t want the man to tell anyone else and that can seem strange to us today. After all, why in the world wouldn t Jesus want everyone to know about what he could do? Well, it seems that the reason why Jesus wanted the man to be quiet, was because Jesus wanted to be able to freely proclaim the good news of God s kingdom wherever he went. Jesus knew that the more people heard about his ability to heal, the more they would get the wrong idea about Him and think that He came to establish an earthly kingdom. Jesus also knew that if this guy started talking, he wouldn t be able to carry out his mission to preach the gospel in all the cities in 6

7 Galilee. For Jesus, the gospel proclamation was more important than people coming to get physical healings. 45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter. Unfortunately, we see that the man didn t obey Jesus, instead, he went and spread the good news about what Jesus had done for him. It must have seemed baffling to the man after all, isn t Jesus bringing physical healing good news? Well, it isn t if people don t understand their need to repent and believe in the gospel of the kingdom of God. The effect on the ministry of Jesus was that Jesus could no longer go into the towns and preach in the synagogues. Why was this a big deal? Because people s greatest need isn t to be healed from physical leprosy it is to be healed from spiritual leprosy. Jesus desires that all people might hear the good news, come to him, repent from living for themselves, repent from living their own way, believe that He is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God come as a man, to rescue and redeem mankind from the soul-eating leprosy of sin and all its debilitating effects. Jesus desires that all might come, cry out unclean, fall at His feet in faith and be made clean by His touch. What is the effect? The man was excited by his healing but he may have missed his true healing. Do we get so excited by our healing from leprosy? If not, we may not know we have it. But if we do, what joy it is to be made clean. Jesus hears our cry. Jesus has compassion on us. He touches us. Jesus was made sin for us. The Father turned His face away from the hideous sin and disease of spiritual leprosy that Jesus bore for you. Jesus was declared unclean and punished for us, so that we might be made clean. If you are aware that you have leprosy you stand at the threshold of the kingdom and no reason not to take his hand because he feels it, he has compassion, he will reach down and lay his hand on you and you will be healed from leprosy of sin. Can you humble yourself and say Lord I am willing, make me clean. 2016 Redeeming Grace Church. This transcribed message has been lightly edited and formatted for the Website. No attempt has been made, however, to alter the basic extemporaneous delivery style, or to produce a grammatically accurate, publication-ready manuscript conforming to an established style template. 7