If You Are Willing
Never The Same Again (3)
IN – the beginning God created the heavens and the earth… HE – spoke… AND - light, land, oceans, mountains, rivers, birds, trees, fish, streams… came into existence.
And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,… So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
- Genesis 1:25-27
the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
– Genesis 2:7
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. – Gen 2:15-18
QUESTION – do you agree with what Almighty God said at the dawn of creation… that it is not good for man to be alone? Have you ever been alone? Do you feel alone now? Have you ever felt like you were on the outside looking in at life? Have you ever felt like an outcast? Have you ever longed for someone to reach out to you? To hold you? To listen to you? To be with you? BUT – there was no one that would even come close?
THIS - morning as we continue taking an in depth look at some of the people that Jesus met we are going to meet a guy who has been alone for years… The truth is no one would even get near him. We meet Him in Mark chapter 1…
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: "See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them." Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere. – Mark 1:40-45
Prayer…
When I was growing up, the most dreaded disease in my world was not measles, mumps or chicken pox. It was a more subtle and mysterious disorder. There was no vaccine for it, no antidote, no known cure. There was no method of inoculation. It was highly contagious. NOW - nobody ever elaborated what would happen to you if you contracted this disease. BECAUSE - you never knew exactly what the consequences were.
The mere mention of this particular disease was enough to strike terror in me and my friends. It was a fate worse than death. The only way to be safe was to make sure that all carriers of this disease were strictly quarantined, and that you had no contact with them.
Fortunately, it was easy to recognize. This disease was carried by girls. Every girl except my mother was loaded with it. The name of this disease was "cooties" -- the dreaded cooties disease. All a carrier had to do was touch you, breathe on you or look at you real hard, and you would be infected. Nobody was crazy enough to touch somebody with cooties. I MEAN - it was like every carrier wore a big sign that said, "Don’t touch."
WE - live in a world where there are a lot of untouchable people. A world where a lot of people have been diagnosed with cooties… AND – as a result, they are at best ignored and at worse ridiculed and attacked… YOU SEE – because of the color of their skin, their economic status, their language, their education, their physical appearance OR some wrong choices they have made in life… THEY – have found themselves on the lowest rung of the ladder, at the bottom of the food chain…
YES – for many the world points their fingers, hangs a ‘do not touch’ sign and says, “ouuu don’t go near them, they have cooties.”
• It may be the homeless guy on the street corner holding up the ‘I’ll work for food,” sign whose eyes you try to avoid when you go through the intersection.
• It may be the guy or girl at school; who because of; their intelligence, the way they dress or how they look are forced to sit alone on the bus or in the cafeteria.
• It may be that person at the office who is just a little odd, talks about strange things and seems to always have bad breathe…
• It may be the person at church who is not that out going, who is hard to talk to, not too good looking and who is a little ‘weird…’ THAT - you avoid when you walk down the hallway or grab your seat.
YES – the world is full of untouchables. IT’S – full of people who are on the outside looking in. AND – do you know what? The truth be known… All of us at certain times in our lives or in certain settings know what it feels like to be unacceptable, unworthy, outsiders, untouchable.
THIS ENCOUNTER – in Mark chapter one is a story that illustrates how Jesus feels about the people that this world would rather avoid… The man that comes up to Jesus, Mark tells us, has leprosy.
NOW - let me take a moment to describe what leprosy is like. The most common form of leprosy in Jesus’ day began with a general sense of weariness and pain in the joints. AFTER – that patches would appear on the skin, which were horrifying to the person that saw it, because they were kind of like a death sentence.
These patches would grow into nodules or lumps around the face, so that the person would eventually become unrecognizable. Then they would break open, and there would be a foul stench coming from the person’s body. Eventually, the eyebrows would fall off, the vocal chords would ulcerate, the voice would become hoarse, breathing would become very difficult. THEN - there would a loss of sensation, which is one of the most dangerous parts of leprosy. YOU SEE – a leper could cut himself, burn himself, break bones and never know it because they feel no pain…
CAN – you imagine a group of people who would view pain as a good thing? MOST – of us spend our lives trying to avoid pain… BUT – these people would welcome the ability to feel pain.
But as bad as the physical effects of leprosy were the social effects were worse. When a person came down with leprosy, he was banished from the city, made to live outside the gates… Families were torn apart and lives were broken with despair…. AND WHEN – lepers came into the city, they were forced to cover themselves from head to foot, and cry out, "Unclean!" so people could avoid contact with them.
Being a leper was a horrible thing. AND - I’m sure it caused many, if not most people to wonder if God had abandoned them by allowing it or cursed them by causing it. In Scripture the leper is a symbol of the ultimate outcast: infected by a condition he did not seek, rejected by those he knew, avoided by people he did not know, condemned to a future he could not bear.
In a chapter in his book, Just Like Jesus, Max Lucado writes; the story behind the man that we meet in Mark’s Gospel.
For 5 years no one touched me. No one. Not one person. Not my wife. Not my child. Not my friends. No one touched me. They saw me. They spoke to me…But I didn’t feel their touch. There was no touch. Not once. No one touched me.
What is common to you, I coveted. Handshakes. Warm embraces. A tap on the shoulder to get my attention. A kiss on the lips to steal a heart. Such moments were taken away from my world. No one touched me. No one bumped into me. What I would have given to be bumped into, to be caught in a crowd, for my shoulder to brush against another’s. But for 5 years it has not happened. How could it? I was not allowed on the streets. Even the rabbis kept their distance from me. I was not permitted in my synagogue. Not even welcome in my own house.
I was untouchable. I was a leper… Oh, how I repulsed those who saw me. 5 years of leprosy had left my hands gnarled. Tips of my fingers were missing as were portions of an ear and my nose. At the sight of me, fathers grabbed their children. Mothers covered their faces. Children pointed and stared…
Some think I sinned. Some think my parents sinned. I don’t know. All I know is that I grew tried of it all: sleeping in the colony, smelling the stench. I grew so tired of the…bell I as required to wear around my neck to warn people of my presence. As if I needed it. One glance and the announcement began, “Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!
UNDERSTAND – like the leper many people today suffer from a condition they didn’t create. THEY – are rejected by people they know. AVIODED – by people they don’t know. CONDEMNED – to a future they can not bear…
THEY - didn’t ask for those wounds… THE - pain and heartache they carry were not of their own choosing… BUT NEVERTHELESS – they like the leper, are put outside the city… One author writes;
The divorced know this feeling. So do the handicapped. The unemployed have felt it, as have the less educated. Some shun unmarried moms. We keep our distance from the depressed and avoid the terminally ill.
We have neighborhoods for immigrants, convalescent homes for the elderly, schools for the simple, centers for the addicted and prisons for the criminals.
The rest simply try to get away from it all. Only God knows how many…are in voluntary exile – individuals living quiet lonely lives infected by their fear of rejection and their memories of the last time they tried. They choose not to be touched at all rather than risk being hurt again. Lucado
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
NOW - those last 9 words really stuck out to me this week…"If you are willing, you can make me clean." QUESTION – why did the leper say that? If you are willing I MEAN – why did he think that Jesus may not be willing to heal him?
UNDERSTAND - the leper didn’t have any question whatsoever as to whether or not Jesus COULD do something about his condition… UNBELIEF – was not his problem… NO – his problem was that… HE – just wasn’t sure if Jesus WOULD want do anything about it.
APPARENTLY – all those years of having people; avoid him, shun him, ignore him, ridicule him, throw stones at him, isolate him… HAD - made him feel pretty unworthy… “Jesus I know I am pretty disgusting, I know that I am not worth very much, I know that you have the power to make me clean… BUT – I’ll understand if you don’t want to, (who could blame you), Sorry to bother you, I’ll think, just go now, I’m probably not worth you time anyway…”
QUESTION – is that where you are this morning…? AT – a place where THOUGH you do not doubt that Jesus CAN do something ABOUT: your condition; your life; your problems; your struggles… YOU – do doubt (because of how you see and feel about yourself) that He would be willing to do anything about it?
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!"
WHEN - Jesus saw this guy… WHEN – He heard those words come out of his mouth… If you are willing He was filled with compassion… NOW - the word for compassion is the Greek word for bowels ‘splachna’ and it literally means that Jesus’ guts were stirred.
UNDERSTAND - what Jesus saw (a man being destroyed by a terrible disease) and what he heard (the voice of a man who did not think he was worthy to be healed)… really bothered Jesus, it tore Him up, it stirred His guts. IN FACT - some older manuscripts actually say that when Jesus saw this leper He was filled with anger. ANGER – at this terrible disease that was not a part of His original plan for man. AND ANGER – that this man created in His own image felt so unworthy and so alone.
HE – was angry that this man would feel that even God would not want to help him.
NOW – I am sure that this leper was blown away, was surprised, by the way that Jesus treated him (one labeled by all as unworthy and untouchable…) BUT – it should not surprised us… Because Of who Jesus is, God in the flesh.
UNDERSTAND - God has always been concerned about the pain, the sorrow and the hurts of His people… LET ME – share a few passages from the OT that underscore this truth…
The LORD said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey… - Exodus 3:7,8
CIRCLE - I have indeed seen the misery, I have heard them crying, I am concerned about their suffering
[Tim, Laurie…] - God sees, He hears, He’s cares... AND – not only that… BUT GOD - can do something about your hurts… He can rescue you, He can bring you up out of your hurt and into a new and better place…into a new and better life.
AND LISTEN – God has always had special place in his heart, for those who live on the margins of society. THERE ARE – nearly 400 biblical passages that tell of God’s
Concern for: orphans, widows, prisoners, aliens, the homeless, the poor, the hungry, the sick, the disabled…
He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. Dt 10:18,19
QUESTION – have you ever in the midst of your hurt & pain, felt like God didn’t care..? THAT – he didn’t hear your cries or see your pain, THAT – he must have forgotten all about you? God’s people in Isaiah’s day felt that way. They were hurting, the pain was real, their situation hopeless… AND - to make matters worse they felt that God had either forgotten them… or that He just didn’t care… CHECKOUT… what God said to them… in response.
Yet Jerusalem says, "The LORD has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us."
(ever felt that way – Man, I love God’s answer) "Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for a child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on my hand. Ever before me is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.
- Is 49:14-16
UNDERSTAND - when you flip through the pages of Scripture…ON – nearly every page, in nearly ever chapter and every verse – you see a God who is compassionate toward the hurting, A God who is passionate about helping his people, defending those who need Him and rescuing those who are in trouble. THAT IS WHY - Scripture repeatedly calls God; a shelter, a fortress, a rock, a refuge and a strong tower… WHY? - because that is exactly what hurting people need…
LET ME – read just a few more passages that express how God feels about the hurting and what He wants to do for them…
“Sing praises to God and to his name! Sing loud praises to him who rides the clouds. His name is the LORD— rejoice in his presence! Father to the fatherless, defender of widows— this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God places the lonely in families; he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy. Ps 68:4,5 (NLT)
”The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those who are crushed in spirit” Ps 34:18 (NLT).
You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book. - Ps 56:8
What powerful pictures…
• A father to the fatherless
• A defender of widows
• Placing the lonely in families
• Setting the prisoner free
• Giving them joy
• Being close to the brokenhearted
• Rescuing those crushed in spirit
• Collecting all our tears in a bottle
• Keeping track of all our sorrows
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
I love how one author describes what this leper was thinking that day…
Of course it was risky. Of course it was reckless. But what did I have to lose? He calls himself God’s Son. Either he will hear my complaint and kill me or accept my demands and heal me. Those were my thoughts. I came to him as a defiant man. Moved not by faith but by a desperate anger. God had wrought this calamity on my body, and he would either fix it or end it.
But then I saw him, and when I saw him I was changed…Before he spoke I knew he cared. Somehow I knew he hated this disease as much as, no – more than I hate it. My rage became trust, and my anger became hope.
From behind a rock, I watched him descend a hill. Throngs of people followed him. I waited until he was only paces from me, then I stepped out. “Master!”
He stopped & looked in my direction as he did dozens of others. A flood of fear swept across the crowd. Arms flew in front of faces. Children ducked behind parents. “Unclean!” someone shouted. Again, I don’t blame them. I was a huddled mass of death.
BUT I scarcely heard them. I scarcely saw them. Their panic I had seen a 1,000 times. His compassion, however, I’ve never seen. Everyone stepped back except him. He stepped toward me. Toward me…
5 years ago my wife stepped toward me. She was the last to do so. NOW – he did. I did not move. I just spoke. “Lord, you can heal me if you want to..”
Had he healed with a word, I would have been thrilled. Had he cured me with a prayer, I would have rejoiced. But he wasn’t satisfied with speaking to me. He drew near to me. He touched me. 5 years ago my wife had touched me. No one had touched me since. Until today.
“I am willing.” His words were as tender as his touch. “be healed!”
Energy flooded my body like water through a plowed field. In an instant in a moment, I felt warmth where there had been numbness. I felt strength where there had been atrophy. My back straighten, and my head lifted. Where I had been eye level with his belt, I now stood eye to eye level with his face. He was smiling…
He cupped his hands on my cheeks and drew me so near that I could feel the warmth of his breathe and see the wetness in his eyes. “Don’t tell anyone about this. But go and show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded for people who are made well. This will show the people what I have done.
AND SO – that is where I am going. I will show myself to my priest and embrace him. I will show myself to my wife and I will embrace her. I will pick up my daughter and I will embrace her. AND I will never forget the one who dared to touch me. He could have healed with a word. But he wanted to do more than heal me. He wanted to honor me…Imagine that unworthy of the touch of man, yet worthy of the touch of God. - Lucado
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
LIKE – I said taking a close look at the people who met Jesus is an exciting journey… NOW THERE – are 2 things that I want to say as we wrap up this morning… YOU SEE – God as He always does brought you here this morning for a reason. AND SOME – of you God brought here to tell you…
I Am Willing…
The truth is;
• Some of you are lonely
• Some of you feel like outsiders (even in here)
• Some of you have problems and issues
• Others feel ashamed and unworthy of the touch of Jesus because of some sin or mistake in your life
• Some of you don’t like where your life is or where it is headed
AND – nearly everyone of you knows that Jesus Christ has the power to do something about your condition… BUT – like the leper because of the way you see yourself… YOU – are not so sure He is willing to do anything to help you out.
BUT LISTEN – Jesus embraced the leper while he was still full of leperosy. HIS CONDITION – did not turn Jesus off… OR turn him away… IN FACT – his condition caused Jesus to turn to him.
BOTTOM LINE…
IF – you feel alone, isolated, hurt, shut out or unworthy this morning… WILL – you do what the leper did? WILL – you forget all the barriers, will you run to Jesus, will you fall down before him and ask him to hear you, to cleanse you, to empower you/ touch you.
UNDERSTAND - the time to approach Jesus is NOW! It is NOW that you need him. It is NOW, precisely when you are aware of the fact that you’re not worthy to approach him, that you need to approach Him.
All you have to do is come and fall on your knees. Say, "Here’s the problem’ -- whatever it is. ’I know I’m not worthy – but if you are willing……" AND – Jesus will look down at you with eyes full of compassion and say, “I am willing.”
“I am willing to be near you, to hold you, to help you, to touch you… YOU – matter to me!” (I matter to God…)
QUESTION – do you hear the voice of your shepherd crying out to you…
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest…” - Mt 11:28,29
"If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." - John 7:37,38
YES – some people God brought here to tell them, “I am willing…”
AND – to others, to those who have experienced the healing touch of Jesus, He brought you here to tell you;
Be My Touch In This World…
UNDERSTAND - Jesus did not call his followers or his church, to be a quarantine zone. Think of it this way. Imagine a hospital where the one rule in the hospital is no germs are allowed inside. Imagine a hospital where the doctors say, "This has been a successful day. I was not infected. My patients were loaded with filthy germs, but I kept them all outside. They all died, but I didn’t touch any of them. I didn’t get infected."
LISTEN – we were not called to avoid infection. We’re called to save souls. We are called to touch the lives of hurting people… UNDERSTAND - to consider our lives a success if we avoid infection and suffering is to make a mockery of the cross.
We live in a world where sin, where suffering, where pain is contagious. SO - we learn to keep our distance. If we get too close to somebody, we might get infected by their pain. It may not be convenient. It may not be comfortable. HOWEVER - it is only when we get close that can we touch them… UNDERSTSAND – we cannot wash the feet of a dirty world if we refuse to touch them…
“When the church stops looking out for the little guys or caring for the bottom heap or specializing in the forgotten, the freaks, and the mistakes, it has ceased being the church…” Leonard Sweet
GOD – calls us, His church, to be His healing touch for those who:
• Feel left out
• Feel unworthy, unacceptable, unclean
• Feel like they have been banished to a life outside the gates
UNDERSTAND - sin and suffering are not all that is contagious. There are other things that are infectious. Enthusiasm is infectious. Laughter is infectious. Faith is infectious. Love is infectious. Caring is infectious. YOU SEE - the secret to health and spiritual life is not to isolate yourself from sin and suffering. (Besides it is not possible, even if you wanted to do it). NO - the secret is to be so filled with the life of Jesus, to be so filled with the spirit of God that when you touch the world, it doesn’t infect you. You infect it with the love of Christ… ONE – writer calls this the immaculate infection.
AND LISTEN – that is exactly how The Kingdom works… Jesus in his ministry twice used the image of yeast in his teachings… Once to warn his disciples (Mt 16) of how the teachings and the negative and judgmental attitudes of the Pharisees can spread…
We know that…
BUT Jesus also uses the image of yeast to talk about the kingdom of God… “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast used by a woman making bread. Even though she used a large amount of flour (the word used here means about 50 pounds of flour, that’s a lot of flour, and that’s the point… despite the great odds against it), the yeast permeated every part of the dough.” Mt 13:33 (NLT)
NOW – that little bit of yeast does not seem like much in all that flour. But the woman puts it in… AND THEN - comes back latter and it’s everywhere… YOU SEE – the flour doesn’t stand a chance it’s just a matter of time..
SO - it is with the kingdom of God it cannot be stopped… The darkness does not stand a chance against the compassion and the touch of the Christ… It’s infectious.
SURE – helping one person, preparing one meal for the homeless, painting one house, may not seem like that much in this huge flour of need, called our world… But look out… BECAUSE – before long it will permeant every part of the dough.
OKAY – here’s the deal.. WE’VE – got to go out of this room and start infecting our world with the compassion, with the love, with the touch of Christ. YES – we need to start spreading germs -- little germs of joy, of faith, of hope, of love… WE - need to go out there and make people sick. That’s what we’ve got to do.
We need to identify who the hurting people are in our world are.
• It might be a neighbor.
• It might be somebody that you work with.
• It might be a person that’s difficult to love.
• It might be the person sitting next to you right now
AND – then we need to go out and infect them with the healing touch of Jesus Christ…
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
