Now a leper came to Him, imploring (ðáñáêáëÝù - continually calling for help) Him, kneeling down ( falling down on knees continually) to Him and saying to Him, "If You are willing, You can make me clean. (êáèáñßîù to make clean)"
Then Jesus, moved with compassion, (óðëáã÷íßîïìáé to be moved with compassion) stretched out (Ýêôåßíáò to stretch out) His hand and touched (ἄðôïìáé to touch) him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed. (êáèáñßîù APM Be clean!)" As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. (Not healed but cleansed)
And He strictly warned (ÝìâñéìÜïìáé to scold, censure, warn sternly) him and sent him away at once, and said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things which Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." However, he went out and began to proclaim (êáèáñßîù to make clean) it freely, and to spread the matter (äéáϕçìßæù to make known by mouth, to spread), so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.
Mark 1:40-45
A Redeeming Ministry
Introduction – A Heavy Price for Sin
The price Jesus paid for our redemption was terrible indeed. When we think of the extreme suffering He endured to purchase our freedom from sin’s penalty, our hearts should overflow with love for Him.
An orphaned boy was living with his grandmother when their house caught fire. The grandmother, trying to get upstairs to rescue the boy, perished in the flames. The boy’s cries for help were finally answered by a man who climbed an iron drainpipe and came back down with the boy hanging tightly to his neck.
Several weeks later, a public hearing was held to determine who would receive custody of the child. A farmer, a teacher, and the town’s wealthiest citizen all gave the reasons they felt they should be chosen to give the boy a home. But as they talked, the lad’s eyes remained focused on the floor. Then a stranger walked to the front and slowly took his hands from his pockets, revealing severe scars on them. As the crowd gasped, the boy cried out in recognition. This was the man who had saved his life. His hands had been burned when he climbed the hot pipe. With a leap the boy threw his arms around the man’s neck and held on for dear life. The other men silently walked away, leaving the boy and his rescuer alone. Those marred hands had settled the issue.
Many voices are calling for our attention. Among them is the One whose nail-pierced hands remind us that He has rescued us from sin and its deadly consequences. To Him belongs our love and devotion.
There are cries everywhere for help. When we finally realize the depths of our depravity and desperation, we will cry out to God.
A PERSONAL DESPERATION 40
The leprous man knew he had a problem. He was unable to fix it himself. No doctor could cure him. He was a desperate man!
Notice four things regarding his personal desperation:
There was the danger of his disease. No one wanted to be around him. He was untouchable, unlovable and unforgettable. Leprosy was a picture of sin. We are infected by it. It is a dangerous disease.
We see the disgrace of his disease. Standing away from people, lepers were commanded to cry out concerning their uncleanness. It was a family and permanent disgrace. One was forsaken and expected to live in communities of lepers. Sin is a disgrace to the image of God.
Notice the disgust of his disease. Again, no one wanted to be around him. He stunk and was repulsive. If we saw ourselves the way God sees us we would understand how repulsive we are to God. We are disgustingly sinful.
I have heard it said that beauty is only skin deep but ugliness goes all the way through. Well, this is true of leprosy. It is here we see the depth of his disease. Leprosy was beyond skin deep. Digits, noses and toes were often lost by this dreaded disease. For us, sin is worse than leprosy. It costs us eternity unless we experience the Great Physician.
In his book, Homesick for God, Joel Gregory described a horrible pit from which Tony Chain was rescued.
Tony and J. R. Hounchell went hunting the first day of duck season in 1981. They were in an area called Duck Flats, northeast of Anchorage, Alaska. Hours before, 10 feet of tidal water had covered the gully where they anchored their boat. As they made their way through the thick mud, Tony’s left wader stuck fast. He struggled to free himself, but both feet became stuck. Every effort to free himself only caused him to sink deeper.
Tony’s frantic call, “J. R., help me,” startled his companion. Both men knew about Alaska’s glacial silt-like quicksand. This quicksand, formed by grains as fine as talcum powder, looks like dark gray mud; but it is deadly. J. R. tried to pull Tony out with his belt, but J. R. felt the surface become spongy beneath him. If he got caught, both of them would drown. J. R. pulled loose and ran for help, knowing that time was against him. Alaskan tides are among the fastest and most dangerous in the world.
J. R. reached Elmendorf Air Force Base where a rescue team scrambled to help Tony. Numerous rescuers tried to help, but they, too, began to sink. Next, the rescuers passed a strap attached to a helicopter beneath Tony’s arms. As the helicopter tried to hoist him up, the pain was so severe they had to stop for awhile. By 1:45 p.m. the mud was up to Tony’s armpits. The tide could come in any minute. Finally, as the helicopter began to pull again, Tony felt a slight movement upward. Little by little, the waders slipped off his body and disappeared into the mud. He was pulled free just in the nick of time.
Just like quicksand, sin can have disastrous results. We find that sin is contagious, scandalous, repulsive and complete. Romans 3:23 tells us that “The wages of sin is still death.”
We now move from a personal desperation to…
A POWERFUL DEMONSTRATION 41-42
Jesus revealed His compassion. He FELT love for the man. He saw his wretched condition and felt empathy for him. Notice that it is the bowels of emotion that Jesus felt. We would say that Jesus loved him from the bottom of His heart. The picture here is of a deep felt love and compassion. Jesus shows compassion to us. He reaches out and touches our unclean lives and cleanses us.
Notice his comfort. Jesus reached out and TOUCHED him! How long had it been since this man had been touched? Jesus comforted him in his filth and foulness.
But there was more! We see his cleansing. No person is too disgusting or beyond redeeming in the presence of Jesus! He was not cured but he was cleansed!
Hand Washing Ridiculed
In 1818, Ignaz Phillip Semmelweis was born into a world of dying women. The finest hospitals lost one out of six young mothers to the scourge of “childbed fever.” A doctor’s daily routine began in the dissecting room where he performed autopsies. From there he made his way to the hospital to examine expectant mothers without ever pausing to was his hands.
Dr. Semmelweis was the first man in history to associate such examinations with the resultant infection and death. His own practice was to wash with a chlorine solution, and after eleven years and the delivery of 8,537 babies, he lost only 184 mothers—about one in fifty. He spent the vigor of his life lecturing and debating with his colleagues.
Once he argued, “Puerperal fever is caused by decomposed material, conveyed to a wound. I have shown how it can be prevented. I have proved all that I have said. But while we talk ,talk, talk, gentlemen, women are dying. I am not asking anything world shaking. I am asking you only to wash. For God’s sake, wash your hands.”
But virtually no one believed him. Doctors and midwives had been delivering babies for thousands of years without washing, and no outspoken Hungarian was going to change them now!
Semmelweis died insane at the age of 47, his wash basins discarded, his colleagues laughing in his face, and the death rattle of a thousand women ringing in his ears.
Source unknown
Jesus loves the unlovable, touches the untouchable and reaches the unreachable….even through us!
It does not say what Jesus warned him about. Was it a warning about immorality and society? We don’t know but He did warn him sternly.
Jesus gives the FORMER leprous man…
A PROPER DIRECTION 43-45
The first Jesus does is give him a severe warning. Part of the warning was to go and tell NO ONE but the priest! This was to allow Jesus to continue to minister and God to receive the glory.
However, what we have now is a shocking witness. He proclaimed it loudly and publicly! He was free of his leprosy and he wanted everyone to see it.
Then we see Jesus make a sudden withdrawal. Because of the miraculous nature of the cleansing, Jesus had to depart into the wilderness where the people continued to seek Him.
The Lost Boat
Tom carried his new boat to the edge of the river. He carefully placed it in the water and slowly let out the string. How smoothly the boat sailed! Tom sat in the warm sunshine, admiring the little boat that he had built. Suddenly a strong current caught the boat. Tom tried to pull it back to shore, but the string broke. The little boat raced downstream.
Tom ran along the sandy shore as fast as he could. But his little boat soon slipped out of sight. All afternoon he searched for the boat. Finally, when it was too dark to look any longer, Tom sadly went home.
A few days later, on the way home from school, Tom spotted a boat just like his in a store window. When he got closer, he could see—sure enough—it was his!
Tom hurried to the store manager: “Sir, that’s my boat in your window! I made it!”
“Sorry, son, but someone else brought it in this morning. If you want it, you’ll have to buy it for one dollar.”
Tom ran home and counted all his money. Exactly one dollar! When he reached the store, he rushed to the counter. “Here’s the money for my boat.” As he left the store, Tom hugged his boat and said, “Now you’re twice mine. First, I made you and now I bought you.”
We are made in the image of God. We have lost that image through sin. We are unclean, unfit and unworthy. Jesus came and died on the cross that all men and women may come to Him and be cleansed through His blood.
