Mark 1:40-45
"Trading Places"
We've been in Mark Chapter 1 for three weeks.
There is a lot packed into this one chapter.
We started in the synagogue where Jesus cast a demon out of a person.
Then, "After leaving the synagogue, Jesus, James, and John went home with Simon and Andrew" where Simon's mother-in-law was in bed, sick with a fever and Jesus healed her.
Now we have arrived in an open field, where the impure or unclean people wander, hopeless and cut off from society, family and friends.
They can't hang out in the city.
These lepers suffer from a social illness: they are considered to be dangerous and contaminated.
Because of this, when a priest discovers their disease he has to send them outside, away from society.
No longer could they pray in the Temple or go to the synagogue.
They were no longer welcome in their own homes.
They couldn't eat or play with their families.
Instead, they became isolated, solitary people...
...a separate species altogether, really...
...nomads, left to wander in the empty fields.
Can you imagine the feelings of desperation?...
...the loneliness...?
...the sense of self-loathing?
Have you ever felt like a nomad?
Have you ever felt all alone, cut-off, marginalized, cast-out?
Studies indicate that people, in general, live much more isolated and lonely lives than they did just 15 or 20 years ago.
One author writes, "It's no longer the rule that you know your neighbors.
Communities increasingly tend to be virtual, the participants either faceless or firmly in control of the face they present.
Transportation is largely private: the latest SUVs are the size of living rooms and come with onboard telephones, CD players, and TV screens; behind the tinted windows of one of these high-riding I-see-you-but-you-can't-see-me mobile PrivacyGuard units, a person can be wearing pajamas or a licorice bikini, for all anybody knows or cares."
In a New York Times magazine article, an author reflected on social media sites—specifically, Facebook.
Soon after starting a Facebook account the author had accumulated about 700 on-line "friends."
In his own words, he was "absurdly proud of how many cyberpals, connections, acquaintances, and even strangers [he'd] managed to sign up."
But he went on to point out that he had fewer in-the-flesh friends to hang out with than he'd ever had before.
So he decided to have a Facebook party to push his virtual friends into actual friends.
He invited all 700 of his "friends" to a local bar for a party.
People could respond to one of three options: "Attending," "Maybe Attending" and "Not Attending."
Fifteen said they would be there, and sixty said they might be there.
He guessed somewhere around 20 would show up.
He writes about what happened next: "On the evening in question, I took a shower. I shaved. I splashed on my tingly man perfume. I put on new pants and a favorite shirt.
Brimming with optimism, I headed over to the neighborhood watering hole and waited. And waited. And waited. Eventually, one person showed up."
And the one woman who showed up to meet him?
He didn't know her. She was a friend of a friend.
They ended up making small talk and then she left.
The author waited till midnight but no one else showed up. So, he ordered a beer and sulked.
He concludes his article with these words: "Seven hundred friends, and I was drinking alone."
As our population booms, we may not have as many open, and lonely spaces on the earth...
...in the literal sense.
But we have many, many lonely spaces in our homes, in our cars, in front of our t-v' s and our computers.
And these are spaces where much time is spent.
Right before our Gospel Lesson for this morning, Jesus is having a discussion with Simon Peter.
Jesus says to Peter, "Let's head...to the nearby villages so that I can preach there too..."
Then we are told that "He traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and throwing out demons."
Of course, on the roads and paths between these villages there were a lot of deserted, empty spaces.
And it must have been along one of those "lonely roads" that "A man with a skin disease approached Jesus, fell to his knees, and begged, 'If you want, you can make me clean.'"
Of course, in reading the Bible we become accustomed to persons with problems and diseases coming to Jesus and begging for help.
And we are also accustomed to Jesus healing the persons.
What we are not accustomed to is what comes next in this particular instance in Mark 1:41.
It reads, "Incensed, Jesus reached out his hand, touched him, and said, 'I do want to. Be clean.'"
Jesus was "incensed"?
How come?
Was Jesus annoyed at this guy for interrupting His day?
Apparently not, since Jesus did want to heal him.
Now, before I go further, it might be good to point out that not all translations use the word "incensed" to describe how Jesus felt.
The New Revised Standard Version, for example, reads that Jesus was "Moved with pity".
But the latest New International Version says, "Jesus was indignant".
And of course, the translation I am using this morning, The Common English Bible says that Jesus was "Incensed".
And this translation is the one that most modern scholars tend to think is most accurate.
So, if Jesus wasn't angry at the man for interrupting His day...
...what was He "incensed" about?
Is Jesus angry at the disease itself?
Perhaps.
The most likely answer, though, may be that Jesus is angry, "indignant" or "incensed" at a social system that demonizes and excludes an entire group of people who are guilty of nothing more than "being different."
And isn't this how we, as Christ's followers, feel (at least to some extent) at the way our culture stigmatizes the human beings among us who are different: the diseased, the disfigured, the immigrants, the very poor, the homeless, the slow to learn--the social misfits of every sort?!!!
Isn't this why East Ridge United Methodist Church, in conjunction with some other churches in our area, are starting a new ministry which kicks off this Wednesday called East Ridge Cares?
Isn't this kind of indignation, which caused Jesus to reach out and touch and thus heal the leper, the same thing which is motivating you to start picking up the (officially homeless) children who live at the Superior Creek Lodge down the street and bring them here in order to tutor them, feed them, mentor them, and (Lord willing) bring healing to their lives through the love, mercy and compassion of Christ?
Just think how isolated, how deserted, how separated-out the children and families who suffer and live at these extended-stay hotels must feel.
How do these kids relate to their classmates who live in homes where they do not have to worry, from day to day, where their next meal will come from?
How will they be able to grow up to be healthy, happy, productive members of society if they are not shown that there is a way out of the cycle of addiction, abuse and other social ills which have landed them, at no fault of their own, in such tragic circumstances?
Does it not make you feel "incensed" to know that there are children, every bit as important and with every bit as much God-given potential as our own children, who are living in lice infested, drug infested, crime infested places just down the street from us...
...without proper clothes, nutrition, care, and without a church home...
...without a working knowledge of the love that God has for them in Jesus Christ?
...without a working knowledge that anyone loves and cares for them?
The word used to describe Jesus' reaction to the leper's condition in our Gospel lesson describes a profoundly intense emotional response that propels a person into action on behalf of others.
It is radical compassion!!!
It is Christianity in action!!!
It is Love with flesh!!!
"Jesus reached out his hand, touched [the leper], and said...'Be clean.'
Instantly, the skin disease left him, and he was clean."
The word here which is translated as "touched" means that Jesus "caresses-ed" the man.
Jesus gave the man His "personal presence," His "healing contact."
And this "healing contact" is the exact thing that the purity law which kept the poor guy isolated and alone forbade!!!
The only thing which could save the leper was something which was against the law to do!!!
And you know what the penalty was for what Jesus did?
Well, according to the Law, Jesus Himself became unclean.
Jesus, in essence, traded places with the leper!
Notice that at the end of verse 45 we are told that Jesus, "remained outside in deserted places, but people came to him from everywhere."
What an amazing God we have!!!
How could we not rejoice and just shout out in joy and thanksgiving: "Praise the Lord!!!!????"
God loves us that much!!!
"God so loved the world, that God sent his only Son," to trade places with us so that "whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life!!!!"
What is our response to this love...to this healing?
This is an awesome passage of Scripture!!!
Look at what Jesus tells the man after he is cured: "Don't say anything to anyone.
Instead, go and show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifice for your cleansing that Moses commanded.
This will be a testimony to them."
In other words, Jesus sent the healed man back to the priests to show them that cleanliness and healing now happens, not by adhering to any codes or laws, but by being touched by Jesus, Who, ironically enough, is now ritually unclean Himself, but Who has the power to make even a leper clean!!!
But even though Jesus tells the man not to say anything to anyone, "he went out and started talking freely and spreading the news..."
And Jesus, of course, knew this would happen!!!
The Truth of the healing, the miracle of God, the Good News of the Kingdom can never be kept silent!!!
It is free, it is living, it is active, it is sharper than any double-edged sword!!!
It has to be shared "freely"!!!
And as a result, the leper is no longer isolated and excluded.
He is no longer a prisoner of the system.
Jesus has released this former "captive"!!!
And he becomes the first of the evangelists.
Again, what is our response to the healing Jesus has done and is doing in our lives?
It has been said that when Jesus answered, "I do want to" to the leper's question of, "If you want, you can make me clean," a new family of disciples was founded--the church of the sick and the outcastes!!!
And isn't this what we are, what every church is?
For no one is healthy, we are all sick with sin, isolation, loneliness.
We all need Jesus!!!
And Jesus is here for all!!!
Lord enable us all to go spread the news!!!
Amen.
