Scripture: Mark 1:40-45 (Call to Worship - Psalm 30)
Title: "Love - In - Action"
Jesus reveals the pathway of true ministry -
1. Reaching Out to People
2. Connecting With People
3. Restoring People to Wholeness and Community
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God our Father and from His Son Jesus Christ who came to take away the sins of the world!
During his three and half years of ministry we know that Jesus took on the role of being a Rabbi. A rabbi was a Teacher who would devote his time to interpret the Torah, explain the Scriptures and quite often taught valuable life lessons through the use of parables. Most rabbis did not rise from the ranks of the wealth nor from the priestly classes. Most of them arose from the ranks of common everyday people. Individuals who were metal workers, farmers, shop keepers, tent makers, fishermen, wood cutter, and of course, carpenters and construction workers.
Some of these rabbis would work seasonally, traveling and teaching in the months when they were free. They would work for a while, save us some money and then set on a spiritual campaign. It was not uncommon for a rabbi to also take on some disciples and they would live together, learn together and travel together. Their classrooms most often would be in the local synagogues, in the open fields, in the marketplaces and in the vineyards.
The goal of any rabbi was to instill within his disciples a certain way of life. A way of life they believed was the life that God desired for His People to live here on His Good Earth. A way of life that would be a living example of what it meant to be an authentic human being reflecting God's image, honor and glory.
At the time of Jesus, rabbis/teachers were held in high esteem. The Jews believed that the greatest achievement any person could attain was to be a person who not only knew Torah but lived out a life of Torah on a daily basis. This way of life was seen to be more important than any amount of riches, wealth and/or popularity a person could accumulate. Knowing how to live a holy life and then living out that holy life was the ultimate human experience for the Jews.
Anyone who followed a rabbi did so because they wanted to become a person so similar to the rabbi that no one would be able to tell the difference between them and their rabbi. While the goal of a rabbi was to pour his holy life into others the goal of the disciples was to one day be able to be a rabbi themselves and do the very same ministry - to pour one's life into others and be an example of what it means to be an authentic human being reflecting God's glory and honor.
That is exactly what we see Mark trying to do in the Gospel of Mark. Mark is doing more than just providing us some academic information about Jesus. His desire is more than just letting us know that Jesus is Messiah, Redeemer and Lord. His desire is to be our rabbi, teaching us scripture, sharing with us the life of Jesus so that we can read, understand and live the life that Jesus wants us to live.
Mark had been following the life of Jesus for years. At first Mark followed from a distance and then as a close and trusted disciple of the Apostle Paul and Barnabas. Following that Mark was a disciple and co-worker with the Apostle Peter. From all of them, Mark learned what it meant to follow and live like Jesus. Now, he wants to share with us how Jesus lived here on earth so that as we read these stories we capture the way that we are to live. Mark is literally being a writing rabbi.
When we read a story about Jesus in the Bible it is to be more than an academic exercise. It is to be more than the uploading of certain data into our brains concerning this man called Jesus from Nazareth. We are to hear the words of our writers as they explain in detail that Jesus from Nazareth is God in Flesh, Israel's Messiah, Our Redeemer and LORD. We are to read how Jesus died on the cross for our sins and was raised again on the Third Day. We are to read how through Jesus Christ we can be cleansed of our sins, freed from the power of sin and infilled with His Holy Spirit. We are to read how Jesus lived, what He said so that we can know how to live a Spirit-filled life here on God's Good Earth.
This is all very simple and yet it so vital for us to understand. We must understand that as we read Mark's Gospel that he is taking on the role of a writing rabbi. He invites us to become his disciples so that as we read we are therefore able to capture the true essence of Jesus' life. We are to begin to understand what it means to live the life that Jesus made possible for all of us to live here on THIS EARTH. We are to understand that these are more than stories, they are sign posts of how we are to live - how we are to follow God - how we are to treat one another - how we are to spend our time here on earth.
Mark's gospel like those of Matthew, Luke and John are written to be our life books. They are to show us the way to RIGHT LIVING. They are to share with us the way that through Jesus and His Holy Spirit we are to live life here and now. They are to show us how we are to become authentic human beings who reflect God's image, glory and honor here on His Good Earth. The more we capture this idea the more wonderful and amazing the Bible will become to us and the more we will enjoy what it means to follow Jesus.
With all of that in mind let's get into our passage. Again, it is a passage that is more than an informational story about how Jesus one day met this leper and after some dialogue declared that the man was now clean (healed) and then they both went on their own ways. It is more than a story about how the healed leper then goes and tells everyone about Jesus which results in Jesus having to adjust his traveling schedule to include more rural areas than urban ones.
It is a story that teaches us the way that Jesus (Our Lord, Redeemer, Messiah, Rabbi) wants us to do ministry. It's a story that Mark teach us that in following Jesus we are to be People whose 1. Reach out to Others 2. Connect with Them and 3. Do our Best To Restore Them
I. Jesus Teaches Us that We are to REACH OUT TO OTHERS
If we back up to verse 39 we see that Jesus was on a mission to reach out to others. Especially to those who needed someone to explain the Scriptures to them and to free them from the bondage of sin.
It is also important that we see that Jesus did not abandon the use of synagogues. Jesus was not out to destroy what His and His Heavenly Father had already put into place. The synagogue was the perfect place to share and teach on scripture. It was also the perfect place for people to be freed from the bondages of Satan, sin and evil.
What we see is that Jesus wanted to enlarge the ministry of the local synagogues throughout the area of Galilee. Jesus wanted them to be more than academic houses of learning about the ins and outs of God's Word. Jesus wanted them to be more than meeting places where people attend to give thanks to God, to pray and to have a time of fellowship. They were to be places where God's Word would come alive. They were to be places where people would literally have their lives transformed. They were to be places where those who needed God the most would be welcomed and their needs would be meet.
Just like the watering well was a place of community fellowship and where basic needs (water) were meet, Jesus wanted these local houses of worship to function in the same way. They were to be places where everyone could gather, share God's Word, learn God's Word and be transformed from the inside out. They were to houses of prayer, houses of healing and houses of transformation.
So, too today are to be our houses of worship. Yes, we are to gather together and have fellowship. Yes, we are to gather together and praise the LORD. Yes, we are to gather together and spend time in prayer, interceding, thanking and confessing before the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. Yes, we are to gather together and studying Scripture seeing its vast truths and receiving knowledge, wisdom and insight. But they are also to be places where people are freed from the power of sin. They are to be places where we see an exchange of power - people going from being under the bondage of sin to enjoying the freedom of what a life in Christ can be in this life.
People are to know that when they come to God's House it is a House of Healing. It is a House where if you have a problem then you are welcomed. It is to be a House where if you have an addiction then you are welcomed. It is to be a House where if you have a physical, emotional, social or issue of any kind that is hindering you from being the person God wants you to be you are welcomed.
Ancient synagogue worship lasted for more than three hours on a Sabbath morning. Afterwards, the people would share a meal and spend the majority of the rest of the day in fellowship. They would take short walks together and share life together. It was a time when people could pour their lives into one another. The late afternoons were normally spent with people returning home to rest and relax as they prepared their hearts, minds and bodies for the upcoming week.
There was a formal and informality part of Sabbath worship. There was a great deal of lingering and spending time together. After the service the local rabbis or teachers would be available for further study, insight, prayer and fellowship. People were not in a hurry to leave because there were no shops open, no places to go to work, hunt or watch sports. Sabbath was a time of rest, worship and fellowship.
Many times in our modern churches we do offer a time of praise and worship, a time to give and a time to hear a message. But to linger either before or after worship is something that sadly is going by the wayside. There is a feeling that we need to leave so that the building can be locked up and so those in charge can go and do whatever they need to go and do. I have been to some places that the crowds didn't show up until about seven minutes before service and then everyone was gone after about ten minutes after worship. We seem to be in such a hurry. There is this over arching sense that we have something else to do and somewhere else to go.
But do we? Should we? What would it hurt if we approach our worship times with a three to four hour window leaving enough time on both ends to have fellowship, prayer, worship, praise, thanksgiving, celebration along with helping people become free of their bondages be they financial, emotional, social or spiritual? What would happen if we gather together to experience life together - helping one another - getting involved in one another's life? So many people worship together for years and never know one another's name, one another's families and one another's pain, joys, sorrows or celebration.
I wonder what would happen if we opened our doors a little earlier and left them open a little later? If we let people know that if they want to come in before service to pray, to talk, to share life and if they want to stay afterwards for the same. I wonder what would happen if we adopted Jesus' mission of coming to share worship but to also see people free of their bondages?
II. Secondly, Jesus Teaches Us to Connect In Love
One of the things that kept coming back to me over and over again as I read this passage was this question - What made this man believe that Jesus would not only listen to him but connect with him? What was it about Jesus that was so different than other teachers, rabbis and priests?
Lepers in Jesus' time were seen as living corpses waiting only for their bodies to give up and die. To be cured of leprosy was seen a type of resurrection. There were some lesser forms of skin diseases that people did recover but a cure from full blown leprosy was rare if ever. Most families would hold a funeral service for a loved one that had contracted leprosy before they were sent away. People with chronic skin diseases were considered untouchable. They were isolated, stigmatized and feared. No one wanted to be around a person with such a skin disease.
Later rabbinic traditions (Pesah 67a) tells us that if a leper ventured to be too close to a populated area he or she was to be rounded up and given 40 lashes.
According to Lev. Rab 16:3 - "when he (a rabbi) saw a leper, he would throw stones at him and shout - 'Go to your place and do not defile other people.'"
And yet, we gather from what we hear in verse 40 that this certain leper believed that Jesus would talk to him. He also believed that Jesus had the power to heal him. He came to Jesus, begging him and kneeling before him asking for his help.
It is then that Jesus does something that had to unnerve everyone around him. I am sure that if there was anyone there at the time they were already trying to get away as far as possible. No one wanted to be near a leper because they might themselves contract the disease. No one wanted to share space because in a few days or weeks you could find yourself having the disease and being condemned to live the rest of your days as a living corpse.
It is here that Mark shares with us a very important Jesus lesson. It is the lesson of reversed infection. Jesus' healing touch infected the man instead of the man's disease infecting Jesus. Holiness and purity triumphed over sickness and disease. Jesus reached out and connected with the man.
David McKenna says that "to match the most difficult of human needs, Jesus responds with the deepest of human feelings."
The word used here for compassion is a word that means "viscera, bowels, intestines". It's a word that goes way beyond pity, sympathy or empathy. It is a word that tells us from the very core of Jesus' being came forth compassion and love.
We all know this morning that Jesus did not have to touch that man. He did not have to connect with him. He could have merely spoken the word and sent him on his way. He could have told him that his condition was beyond him and that he would have to seek another rabbi, priest or healer.
But he didn't. Jesus reached out in love and touched this man. I wonder how long it had been since he had felt the touch of another human being? I wonder how long he had seen anything more than fear, hatred and anger flashing from any eyes that were cast in his direction? I wonder how long it had been for someone to look at him, smile at him and reach out their hand to gather him close to them?
I believe firmly this morning that Jesus wants us as His disciples to understand that we are to connect with those today who we would see as lepers and are outside our social realm to be touched, hugged and loved.
Who would that be?
+For some it would be those whose bodies are covered with all kinds of tattoos.
+For others it would be those who suffer from the addictions of alcohol, drugs, sex or some other addiction.
+For some it would be those who have contracted a STD, or who have a mental handicap or a social handicap.
+For others it would be those who live a certain lifestyle that we don't approve of or that we don't endorse.
+For some it would be merely a difference in the pigmentation of their skin or in the choice of clothes that they are wearing.
+ For others it might be in the ways that the view things or the choice of language they use.
It is easy for us in the Church to declare who are the "spiritual lepers" who we need to stay clear of and who our families need to stay clear of. If they dare show up in our worship services we give them clear space, we avoid conversation and we do our best to sit opposite where they are sitting. We would be most comfortable if they would merely choose another location to worship.
But none of that will cut it with Jesus. Jesus teaches us to connect. Jesus wants us to understand that in the power of the Holy Spirit we are not to get infected by sin but for sin to be infected by God's cleansing Holy Spirit.
Jesus was not afraid of this man. The man's leprosy was afraid of Jesus. Jesus had the power to cast down its power. Jesus had the power to bring this man out of bondage and into a state of wholeness and healing.
We do not need to be afraid of people. Especially those whose lives have been affected adversely to sin. Instead, sin, evil and the Devil should be afraid of us - for we have the power through the Holy Spirit to cast down sin, to cast out darkness and to bring healing and wholeness to people's lives.
Jesus reminds us that we are to connect person to person in our ministries. I have been to places that had all kinds of plaques and awards all over their walls proclaiming all the good work that they have done on the mission field. They have given well beyond the norm in sending money to another location that then disperses monies, supplies and resources to people in hard hit areas.
All of that is both good and needed. We are a global community. But we are also a local community. We are to connect with those around the world but we also are to connect with those up the street, around the corner and across the aisle.
What good does it do to send money half way around the world when the person ten feet away cannot pay their bills, afford food or is having to live a life of isolation? What good does it do to have a plaque on the wall saying what we have done 3,000 miles away when there are people who need our help less than a half a mile away?
Jesus plants us to do ministry where we are. Jesus plants us to reach out to those around us and connect with them as much as we reach across the globe and connect with others that need our help. We cannot touch those globally like we can those across the aisle, across the street or around our neighborhoods. We have been put where we are to infect those around us with holiness, with cleansing, with purity and with healing.
III. Finally, Jesus Teaches us the Ministry of Restoration
At the words of Jesus the man was cleansed. He was healed. The power of sin, evil and disease was broken. If the man had a mirror he could have looked at it and seen visually what had been done inside of him and throughout his whole being. He was free. Totally and radically FREE.
But Jesus knew the Law. Just as Jesus worked inside the system of the synagogue so too did Jesus work inside the system of the Mosaic Law.
Jesus gave the man very specific instructions. He was to not talk to anyone but to go and show himself to a priest and then offer what was necessary to be restored back into the community.
You see, Jesus wanted the man to experience a complete healing; a community healing. Jesus wanted this man to be able to return to his family, to be able to once again earn a living, return to being a vital part of his community and to return to being able to join others together in worshiping and praising the LORD.
Jesus was not looking for a partial healing in this man's life. This man's healing was to be a complete restoration so that he could now experience the life God had designed for him in the first place.
We have to understand that our problems in this life do not originate with God. The pain, the suffering we see around us is manmade. God created for us this wonderful place called Eden. He provided us with all we would ever need. All we had to do was to follow Him. All we had to do was to stay connected to Him and to allow Him to be who He is - Our Creator and LORD.
We humans were the ones who invited Hell to enter into our Paradise. We choose to believe the lies of the Evil One over the truths of the Holy One. All the pain, suffering, death, disease and chaos we see all around us is a result of mankind's drive to be self-sufficient, greedy, prideful and his own god. You would think after all the time that we have been on this planet that we would finally realize that as long as we try to rebel against God and do things our own way that things will never get any better.
Our society is like a walking leprosy. It acts like it knows how to get better but as each year passes we are full of more disease, corruption, violence, hatred, brokenness and sin.
The question we have to ask ourselves today is:
ARE WE READY TO BE JESUS TO SUCH A LEPROSY FILLED WORLD?
Do we have what it takes to stay clean and infect them with holiness or are we afraid that they will infect us if we reach out to them, connect with them and try to bring restoration into their world and ours?
Back in the time of Genesis chapter 6 - 9 the LORD needed a Noah, his family, a bunch of creatures and a big boat. Mankind had developed such a leprosy of sin, disease and death that the planet needed a reboot. Mankind was given a second chance to follow God's Will. Sadly in only a few generations we were once again rebelling against God's Will and destroying His Good Creation.
The Bible tells us that God in Flesh (Jesus Christ) came to give us the Final Solution. Jesus came and paid the price of sin and defeated sin, hell and the grave. On the cross Jesus defeated Satan once and for all and made it possible for mankind to be rescued, redeemed and restored. Jesus made it possible for us to live an authentic human life on this earth. Jesus made it possible for us to help others find freedom from both the penalty of sin and the power of sin.
We today live on this side of Jesus' resurrection. We today live on this side of the Outpouring of God's Holy Spirit. We have at our disposal a power that no other generation has had before us. We have the power of God's forgiving grace, His sanctifying power and the infilling power of His Holy Spirit.
We have enjoyed that experience now for over 2,000 years. And when you look at the world we have made tremendous progress. From the original 120 people in the Upper Room we now have over 2 billion today professing Jesus as Savior and LORD. We need give God praise, honor and glory.
However, we can't give up. We can't decide that 2 billion is enough. We can't retreat to our houses of worship and think that we are doing our part when we get together for an hour or two of singing, praying and worshipping.
We must be constantly reaching out. We must be dedicated to connect with others. We must be actively engaged in the restoration business.
For years we in the church, especially we pastors who have gone to college and seminary have seen ourselves in some type of specialized ministry service. Too often, we have believed that we are to only operate in these prescribed areas - spirituality, discipleship, small group studies, end of life services, etc...
We have left others to do the work of ministry when it comes to the body, to the mind and to issues like finances, counseling, family issues, social work etc... We have felt like they could do it better, have more time to dedicate to such things and over all we would work together. And for many years that plan worked in amazing ways. The Church, the government, the state, the different charities, the educational arm and other areas all worked together for the good of people everywhere. We saw ourselves as a part of a complete picture - a picture of how we could reach out, connect and restore people to a state of wholeness and health.
However, times have changed. It appears that we no longer want to work together and we have become myopic. We have so dissected people into little different areas - education, health, social services, financial services, emotional services, spiritual services - that we have forgotten that people are whole beings. Whole beings that need to be reached out to, connected to and helped towards a complete process of restoration.
We have gotten so specialized that people no longer know who to go and where to go to for what. And since we in the church have reduced our role to mere worship and praise on a Sunday morning for an hour or two we have lost our edge in reaching out to the needy, connecting in meaningful ways with those who need us most and have left the job of restoration to others.
Thank the LORD that is not the case in many churches. Many not only open their doors to sharing the Gospel but also in healing the body, mind and soul. Many have involved themselves in such ministries as Celebrate Recovery, AA, NA, Second Harvest, Counseling ministries, Financial Freedom Classes and more. Many have picked up on what Jesus did here with this man who was suffering from leprosy and sought to bring a whole healing into his life - body, mind, spirit and soul.
To do all of this means we have to lay aside the notion of being only religious specialists. To do this means that our doors are open for more hours. To do this means that we have to pray with people more than ever - interceding for them - joining with them in their fight to find freedom and wholeness. To do all of this means that we must open up our resources for more than just meaning our comfort needs on a Sunday morning. To do this means that we must rely more on the power, presence and leading of the Holy Spirit than we have done before. To do this means we have to get into the messy parts of people's lives which of course means that our Sundays may not go like clockwork as they have before - our times to open our doors may change and our time to close our doors may change. To do so means that we who are called into ministry are to be more available on Sunday so that those who work through the week may have time to actually come and see us, share life with us and see us model the life before them that Christ modeled for His disciples. To do this means that we must lay down our lives for others.
I know this is not comfortable for anyone to hear, read or understand. But the truth is passages like the one before us this morning are not mere stories to read, to gather some information and to then put away for a year or two. They are not mere facts to be read about the life of Jesus. They are not things that can just sit on the page.
No, Jesus models before us the life we are to live. As our Rabbi, our Teacher, our Redeemer and LORD, Jesus left behind these teaching stories for us to understand our true mission and purpose in life. Not just the religious elite but all of us. We are all to be in the business of reaching out, connecting and helping people find restoration - physically, emotionally, socially, financially and spiritually. We have been called to be Jesus to those that we meet.
Sermon Closing -
Today, we want to offer everyone here the opportunity to begin a path of righteousness; of right living. If you are here today and want to be freed from sin, from its power, from any bondage that it holds over you - our altars will be open for you to come and pray. The altar will be open for you to come and receive God's forgiveness, cleansing, freedom and power.
If you are here today and want to talk - to share - we will be available after the service to spend time with you. We are not in a hurry. And if you cannot meet today then we would love to set up a time that we could meet, perhaps over a cup of coffee and share life together.
Closing hymn/open altar/prayer/blessing/receiving
