I Gotta Tell Somebody

Intro: Mark gospel has the Lord Jesus on the move. It is reportedly written to the Romans because they were supposedly those that wanted detail instead of point by point and precept upon precept. This account of the Lord Jesus is also recorded in Matt.8:2-4 and Luke 5:12-14. In the gospel of Matthew the Lord Jesus had finished “The Sermon on the Mount”. He had instructed the disciples and those who were there in a new and living way. Knowing the blessing that God has for them that Love Him, The power of prayer, That we stand in judgement for judging others, that God will supply all of our needs, that we are sent to preserve this world until the Lord Jesus returns and to continue building on the Rock. There were those in attendance that heard Jesus when He said in Matt. 7:7-8 “7: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”.

40 Every time you do or say something good there is another that hears all that we say. That one is the Devil. He it is that will try and test you at your word. He wants to trap you just as he trapped Eve in the garden. You remember when he asked her in Gen.3:1b “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden”? He wanted to trap Jesus at His word and he does it in a subtile way. The Devil uses a leper. He will use the hardest physical disease and the most wretched persons he can find to try your faith, my faith and all believers’ faith. When we say we love all people, do we love those who are out on the street and do not look like we look or smell as good as we smell? Who are bound by sicknesses and diseases that there have no cure for. Do we love those who have gotten so sick that there is no hope for them and they are not allowed to mingle in society or come into church for fear that their disease is cause us to be as sick as they are? Here comes into the congregation of the righteous one such man. A man that was in Luke 5:12 “full of leprosy”. This man had a severe disease that was very contagious. A disease in which the doctors had no cure. A disease that caused the limbs and the skin to become deformed. A disease that put fear into all that came into contact with you, a disease that cause the sufferer to become alienated from family, friends, associates; all mankind, to become alienated from the city and it citizens and society and most of all to become alienated from the church. A disease that could eventually lead to a painful, horrifying and lonely death.

A And yet here he comes to the Lord Jesus. Can we imagine the shock and the horror of the multitudes as he draws near the blessed savior, draging his wretched carcass before the Lord and crying to the masses ; unclean, unclean unclean. A sight and sound that caused the mightest of men to shrink back in fear and alarm. I can imagine that there was none in close contact with this man other than the Lord Jesus. Yet he came with a belief in his heart that here is One that is able to do for me what all the doctors in Israel have been unable to and that is to heal my body and take away the curse of his deadly disease.

B Let us consider his manner in which he came to the Lord. He came beseeching or with fear and trembling before the Lord Jesus and he came worshipping the Lord Jesus with praise and with prayer. He humbled himself before the mighty hand of God in a hope that the Lord God would exault him in due time. He did not come with demands as most of us do; he came in spirit and in truth. His request is “if thou wilt , thou canst make me clean”. He knew Jesus had the power to cleanse him of his disease and make him whole.

41 Jesus then does what we would regard as the unthinkable; no not just the compassion for this poor soul, for we are all at one time or another moved wit compassion at some person that is suffering from hunger, an incurable disease or has lost portions of their limbs. We are quick to feel sorry, and mayby even give a love offering to help purchase something to make their lives a little more comfortable, but to actually get close to them, or extend a hand to help them up or have them at our dinner table could be another matter to consider. Here is our Lord not only having a moment where He feels grief for this mans condition but He determines to have a relationship with this man to the extent that He also touches him. What courage and love that the Son of Man has for the children of God that He touches the uncleanest person that is in the midst of them all and speaks words of comfort in the process. Let us observe Him. His response to the prayer is “I will; be thou clean”. Had He just said be clean all those there would have been cleansed of their illnesses. Therefore Christ spoke to the man by saying “be thou clean”.