Trading Spaces
Mark 1:39-45
A couple of weeks ago we looked at how Mark describes the first Synagogue incident. The people were amazed a Jesus teaching style. It was unique and authoritative. Add to that with words only Jesus commanded the spirit the hush and leave a church member and it did. This further amazed the witnesses.
That same day Jesus was invited over to Sabbath Lunch at Simon and Andrew’s house. They tell Jesus about Sally-Jo’s (Simon’s mother-in-law) fever and in the privacy of their home Jesus heals the woman instantly.
She pops up out of bed and starts serving them. We considered how she was saved to serve in the way that she probably enjoyed most. The when the Sabbath ended people started showing up at the gate of the house asking for healing. Also last week we heard about how everyone was looking for Jesus.
We noticed how lots of people came to see what they could get from Jesus and not what he was offering to them…and yet he met their needs with little expectation of a response from the crowds.
-- I don’t watch a lot of the reality TV shows. There is one I have only seen a few times called “trading spaces.” The basic idea of the show is that two people do a makeover on one room of a home. They get the expert help of a decorator and a carpenter and a budget of 1000 dollars and they start to work.
However, they are not redecorating “their” home they are decorating someone else’s. Most of the time the other person is complete stranger and the few times I have seen it they seem to have lass than compatible tastes. They leave their homes for a couple of days and allow the other person complete freedom to make choices.
They trade spaces and make changes…improvements?
The show ends watching the reaction to the changes.
-- Let me just say that it is not always good.
So this morning we again pick up with the story in Mark 1.
It seems to start that next morning when Simon and the others interrupt Jesus quiet time. In fact it is his response to the statement “Everyone is looking for you!”
Jesus has been alone in prayer in some quiet spot. Even thought he has had a long exhausting evening he has gotten up before daylight. He has gone away to be filled and renewed by spending time with the father.
Instead of directly resisting, he basically says, Hey, I have an Idea!!!
"Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come."
If you have ever wondered why Jesus came; here is a clear statement of the answer. As a Christian we learn that this is just the tip of the ice burg the beginning of the mission. He came to preach/teach people about Jehovah in a way that humans could accept. He came using the way man has learned about God since the Garden of Eden. .
He came to preach! His message is stated in Mark 1:15, "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
After only one day in Capernaum, Jesus is having trouble keeping the focus on his purpose.
It is not his personal focus that is the problem…it is the focus of the people that have witnessed his healing of desperate people.
They want and need something from Jesus that no one has ever been able to offer. They want healing for themselves their family and friends.
-- They want freedom in their health without having to offer a response.
They have no interest in the Good News of eternal healing of forgiveness of sins because, they are only interested in what they can have today.
-- They aren’t interested in the preaching (good news) they want a personal stimulus package with no strings.
Jesus came to teach that their sins are forgiven and they can have a closer, more personal, more meaningful relationship with God.
The crowds just call out, “what about me?” Will you heal me?
After the Sabbath the people had swarmed in with overwhelming needs and the simple mission of Jesus have veered off track.
Why did it go wrong? Jesus had compassion and healed people’s physical and mental and even spiritual problems. He sparked a human appetite!!!
That is not what he came for, however it is a wonderful understanding of how caring Jesus…God is. He had the power and the compassion to meet the needs of the people that came to him.
He provided the stimulus with no strings and instead of the people realizing that God was actively working just as prophesied… they gather wanting personal satisfaction for today.
So, as we picked up in our scripture this morning, Jesus without any anger, suggests that they head of to other villages so that he can preach.
Ok, compared to the “follow me and I will make you fishers of men,” does this time line make it any easier for us to see how men with no directly stated faith can leave their businesses and families and follow Jesus?
Don’t get me wrong, that action on the fishermen’s part is a huge deal. They made a choice that had no clear future. But they have seen some pretty amazing things and heard a unique message.
They are leaving their families in a day when the majority lived day to day. The fishing business was hard enough what happens when you take off a few weeks …. What about Three years?
The scripture matter-of-fact-ly informs us that Jesus and his companions move around Galilee and Jesus teaches in the synagogues and cast out demons. It does not directly say that he healed any natural health issues….Just demons…
It does not indicate that there are problems with crowds…
So, Jesus is moving freely into different villages and towns and preaching…caring out his mission.
Then something happens, A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, "If you are willing, you can make me clean."
Wow a dilemma, a problem. Imagine reading this for the first time, do you wonder, what will Jesus do.
To get the context of the picture, Leprosy was bad news. It could be very broad in spectrum, it could be a bacterial infection that is exhibited as bad tumors and sores with a horrible odor, it might have pain or a person could loose all feeling. On the milder side it could be on the level of as the old commercial said, “the heart break of Psoriasis.” (growing patches dry, itchy, flakey skin the looks ugly but not really harmful.)
If the disease was horrible or mild only one thing was worse.
Once diagnosed the person was an automatic outcast.
No direct contact with anyone.
No touch of family.
A person diagnosed with leprosy was viewed as being directly cursed by God for sin.
There was no cure and therefore there would be no reconciliation…no going home.
A leper was required to dress in torn clothes and to cover their upper lip and to stay a certain distance away from people. They could not sit on rocks along the roads because they may cause someone else to catch the disease should the sit in the same place later. They were not allowed to enter a town and never allowed inside the walls of a city. If they had to travel they were required to call out “Unclean, Unclean” whenever people came close.
• So it was a condition that was repulsive to look at.
• It was incurable by human means and there are only two incidents of healing recorded in the Old Testament.
• The disease meant immediate isolation outside of the community.
• If anyone came into contact with a leper they were automatically unclean and temporally isolated themselves.
• The condition was considered to be a sign of a spiritual problem, of sin and punishment by God.
So, Leprosy was bad news.
Have any of you met a leper? It is not impossible; however; it is unlikely unless you leave the Continental US.
But, I realized that if we look at how lepers of the day were thought of and treated; that we might find people that may match a similar situation.
In the most extreme case, how about a person with aids? It is an incurable situation. Many people want them isolated because of a fear of the disease. Many if not most Christians would automatically consider them to be sinners and some might even believe that their condition is a punishment from God.
What about people with mental illness. That could have similar reactions.
How about Drug addicts, pedophiles, prostitutes, prisoners.
What about a tele-evangelist or a preacher or a politician that commits a whopper of a sin and everyone finds out.
What about the homeless, the poor – aren’t they shut off from society.
How about racially different people….might we make a judgment call on what they are like.
The leper in our scripture this morning knew the rules. He did not touch Jesus; he may not have even approached Jesus. But, He did call out in his isolation to Jesus.
Can you imagine how desperate he must have been? How desperate we would be if we were stripped of our human dignity, home, family and faith community.
This man is on his knees, and verbally and visually begging not for money.
Not exactly for healing of the physical…he is begging to me made clean.
HE is begging to be made right with God. He is begging to be forgiven of whatever sin had caused his affliction.
"If you are willing, you can make me clean."
What did he have to lose? Dignity? Pride? Future? Family?
--- Not if you can, but of you are willing?
A simple statement of faith in ability of Jesus to make him clean.
Jesus’ response is described as compassion. It seems that Jesus moves toward the man and He reaches out and touches him. And according to the law, with the instant flash of a bolt of lightening Jesus is made unclean.
He says, I am willing, Be clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured.
-- I love the miracle stories. I often pray that God will just pick a place and do it again. I want to see the hospitals emptied for one week, one day.
I claim that I want to see that so that others will be amazed….I can’t deny that I want to be amazed too.
I read this miracle story and the theater of my mind sees an almost faceless man with Jesus’ hand on his shoulder. And with his words the deformity blends to normality.
Jesus makes the man clean by his faith in Jesus and at the same moment he heals the physical – visual deformity that made him an obvious outcast. The visual that made people runaway or stare with fear is gone.
In today’s reading, Jesus is said to given the man a strong warning. “Don’t tell anyone about this. Go and show yourself to the priest. (Go show But, don’t tell!) Offer the official sacrifices as a thanks to God for your cleansing and as a testimony to the priest.
Why does Jesus avoid credit for the cleansing?
First, Jesus wants to direct the understanding that it is God that has healed him. And as a Jew the man is required to respond in a specific way. The priest must certify the healing of the man by visual inspection, sacrificial offering and a letter of clean health. Only then can the man move freely back into Jewish society.
Since it has been over a thousand years since the last leper was healed the probably needed to look up how to perform the service correctly. When they did they would connect what this kind of event signaled.
When Jesus directs that this action is a testimony to the priest, He is indicating that the cleansing of a leper is a sign in the OT that the messiah has come.
But, what he did not want to happen was for the focus of his mission to be diverted again. He did not want to be identified because He knew it would take him away from his preaching.
So the cleansed man heads off to show himself to the priest. He must be so happy he feels like he is going to bust. The smile on his face the spring in his step…he just can’t help himself. He started to tell everyone that he met what had happened to him.
Here is a point for you to consider: Here is the story of a man that is told not to share what Jesus did for him however, he can’t help himself. He blabs it all over the place. And later in scripture Jesus commands believers to share the good news and to make disciples and somehow we find a way to keep quiet.
I guess it is just amazing self-control…or is it that we are not amazed by His compassion for us.
The last line of this morning’s scripture demonstrates something.
As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places.
It seems that as a direct result of Jesus’ touch and willingness to heal this man’s separation from normal life, He and the man trade spaces. The man goes to town and moves about freely testifying to what happened. He is rejoined to the community.
But suddenly Jesus is forced to stay in the wilderness. Avoiding the towns and the synagogues because of the people’s response to his compassion. The people with needs still track him down to get what they want.
This event in Mark is an example of the exact same action Jesus does on our behalf. The end of his mission on earth includes the trading of places and situations. Our sins and judgment traded for “son ship” and eternal life.
As the body of Christ we are called to have compassion on people that are isolated from community…isolated from a cleansing healing relationship with God. Sometimes we may be called to trade spaces in order to help someone, but more often we are expected to join people in their space and invite them to move into ours – God’s.
Something important to notice this morning. People that are touched – healed – cleansed by Jesus are changed immediately. For ongoing success people must be welcome and allowed to be a part of a community.
The demon possessed was returned to real relationship in the Synagogue. Simon’s mother-in-law as returned to the family. The Leper was returned to all three communities.
What Lepers will we touch for Jesus this week, month and year? What outcast will we invite into our community?
What worldly deformity will we watch Jesus change into a kingdom normality?
Have you reached out to any lepers or outcast lately or have you walked on by leaving them isolated and untouched by human hands and no hope of being changed by the word and touch of Jesus in this world.
All Glory be to God!
