Introduction:
If I were to ask those of you who are mothers, do you like for your children to come up and give you a big hug, I suspect you would say, “Of course!” But, let me ask you, are you always anxious and willing to have your beloved child run up to you and put their arms around you?
Most of you know that our son Josh is working at Makoto’s. Sometimes he clears the tables, sometimes he washes the dishes, sometimes he helps prepare the food. But, no matter what he does, he always seem to come home smelling like shrimp and covered in grease. It’s not uncommon for him to come in the door, walk toward Sueanne with his arms open and say, “I love you, Mom. Give me a hug!”
And invariably, she will say, “Get away from me! Don’t touch me! Go get cleaned up and then you can hug me.” She doesn’t like to touch that which is unclean.
Now that’s not always the case. Mothers don’t always shy away from dirty children. Imagine this: You hear the distressed cry of your child and look up: Your 2-year-old son has tripped out in the yard, he’s skinned his knees and he’s covered in mud. And now he comes running toward you, tears streaming through the dirt. He’s got mud on his clothes, his face, his hands, he’s got blood dripping down his leg.
What do you mothers do? Do you say, "Don’t come near me!" Do you say, "You made your mess -- now go clean it up!" Now to an older, responsible child, you might say that. But not to a young child, one who can’t clean himself. No, you take him in your arms, not concerned a bit that you’re getting your own clothes dirty. You comfort him, then gently clean off all the dirt and the blood. You love him, you clean him, and you comfort him.
That child comes to you, in effect saying through his tears: "I’m a mess. I can’t clean myself. If you’re willing, you can make me clean." And you’re always willing.
Today we want to see how Jesus responded in exactly this way to a leper -- for a Jew, the ultimate in uncleanness. And this incident will leave us with a couple of lessons -- one that has to do with how we ought to treat those around us that are in less than desirable circumstances. The other lesson has to do with the realization that Jesus is willing to cleanse us, just as he did the leper, when we humbly come to him.
The story begins in Mark 1:40. It simply says, “Now a leper came to him…”
Here was a man who had leprosy. Now in the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, the word “leprosy” is a broad term which includes a wide range of skin diseases. The very worst of those diseases was what we know as leprosy today, a condition which is also called “Hanson’s Disease”. We don’t know how severe the problem of this particular leper was, but let’s assume he had modern leprosy.
It’s a horrible disease. It begins with little specks on the eyelids and on the palms of the hands. Then it spreads over the body. It bleaches the hair white. It covers the skin with scales and oozing sores.
But that’s just what happens on the surface. Down under the skin, leprosy eats its way through the nerves. And soon the victim loses all sense of touch and pain, initially in the fingers and toes, then spreading up the arms and legs. So, a leper can’t feel anything. That may not sound so bad. The last time you stubbed your toe when you trip over a chair on your way back to bed, you probably wished that you didn’t feel anything. Or the last time you hit your thumb with a hammer or burned yourself on a hot pot. But what sounds like it might be nice is absolutely horrible. Because without the sense of touch, a person with leprosy eventually damages his toes, fingers, and feet. He will bump into objects, cut himself, get infections -- and not even notice.
Dr Paul Brand is a missionary who has conducted a great deal of research on the disease. He explains that in a leper colony in India, many of the lepers were missing fingers and toes. A lot of them seemed to lose them at night, for no apparent reason, they just disappeared. When someone finally stayed up all night to watch and see what happened, they found that rats were chewing off their fingers and toes at night -- but the victims didn’t wake up, because they didn’t feel anything.
So as leprosy advances, a leper doesn’t even look human. No fingers. No toes. Many of them blind. Ulcerated growth all over their face. Nobody wants to get near them, nobody wants to touch them. A leper becomes utterly repulsive -- both to himself and to others.
It might surprise you to know that leprosy is not regarded as highly contagious disease. And today, leprosy can be treated with drugs, and it can be cured.
But there was no cure in Bible days. And so the Old Testament sets forth some very strict instructions regarding those who had the disease because there was no other way to slow the spread of a disease that led to such a horrible result.
The society in which Jesus lived went to great lengths to separate the clean from the unclean. There were clear-cut boundaries between the two.
In Leviticus, leprosy is the most serious of all forms of uncleanness. Some forms of uncleanness -- such as the result of touching an unclean animal -- were cleansed simply by waiting until evening and washing. Other forms of uncleanness, such as the result of childbirth, required a longer waiting period and the offering of a sacrifice.
But leprosy was much different. You see, all the other forms of uncleanness required that the person stay away from the temple, but leprosy required the person to live outside the camp, to be utterly cut off from the congregation of Israel.
“Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ’Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” (Leviticus 13:45-46).
The leper dressed like a mourner going to a burial service -- his own burial service. And he had to constantly cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” lest anyone get too close. And people did keep their distance. In his book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Alfred Edersheim reports the standard practice of the day. He writes, “No one was to salute a leper...no less than a distance of six feet must be kept from a leper or if the wind came from that direction, a hundred were scarcely sufficient.”
And so, you can imagine that as this leper walked down the street, he was shunned. Little children looked at him, got scared, and ran away. Older children kept their distance by throwing rocks at him and making cutting remarks. Adults walked on the other side of the street, shaking their heads in disgust or just looking away.
A leper had to live in exile from the mainstream of society. He was excluded from the sacrifices, religious festivals and worship services. In many ways, he was not only separated from God’s people; he was separated from God.
The leper’s life is one of isolation and loneliness. Like the disease itself, the isolation progresses gradually. When he first gets the disease, his acquaintances drop out of sight. Then his closer circle of friends gets smaller or smaller until finally he’s left only with the association of a few immediate family members. And then one by one, they stop coming so often. Until one day he realizes that his mother is the only one who comes around anymore. Even her visits are shorter and less frequent. And she stands farther away, without looking him in the eyes as she used to do.
And so there he lives in his cave. Without love. Without hope. Without the simple joys and dignities of life: being smiled at, being greeted on the street, buying fresh fruit in the market, talking politics by the public fountain, laughing, getting up to go to work, getting a wedding invitation, singing hymns in the synagogue, celebrating Passover with family. All these things are forbidden to him. Forever.
As I read about this leper in Mark 1, I wonder. How long has it been since someone has shaken his hand, patted him on the back, put an arm around his waist, hugged him, touched his cheek, wiped a tear from his eye, or kissed him? The truth is, all those things were merely a memory as he lived in the leper colony in his cave.
But one day he heard that Jesus was in town. Jesus, the one claiming to be the Son of God. The one who heals the sick, makes the lame walk, and opens the eyes of the blind. And so, the leper comes to him, and our story begins.
I. The Approach of the Leper
“Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’” (Mark 1:40).
Notice that Jesus doesn’t come to the leper -- the leper comes to Jesus. Remember that this was a violation of the rules and regulations concerning lepers. He was supposed to shout, "Unclean!" to keep Jesus away! But instead he runs to Jesus. And Jesus does not run away like all the rest. Like a mother welcoming her crying, mud-covered son, Jesus allows the leper to approach him.
It’s also significant what the leper says to Jesus. He doesn’t say, “Heal my disease.” He says, “Make me clean.” While those two things may seem to be one and the same, there’s a subtle but significant difference. You see, this leper’s disease was what caused him a great deal of physical distress, but it was his uncleanness which separated him from God’s people.
I think there is within this leper’s request a cry. He’s saying, "I want to worship God!" "I want to be a part of God’s people!" "I want to sit in the synagogue and sing with the others!” “I want to touch people!" “I want to be clean!”
That’s what the leper is asking for. Now, of course he wants physical healing. But becoming clean is much more than just becoming healed!
And so the leper falls on his knees before Jesus, and begs him, pleads with him, saying, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." His words tell us three things about this leper.
First of all, he knows he can’t heal himself or make himself clean. He probably has never even heard of a leper being cured. For years he has lived with no hope at all. He’s absolutely helpless, and he knows it.
Secondly, there is a faith in Christ’s power. He says, “You can make me clean.” Now exactly how he comes to this knowledge, this assurance, we don’t know. But he believes with all his heart that Jesus is the one person in all the world who can cleanse him. And notice it’s not just, “You can heal leprosy”, but “You can do it for me.” Sometimes we believe that God is able to help everyone else no matter how great their problems may be, but we’re not so sure that he can do anything for us.
Thirdly, there is a submission to God’s will. This leper says, “If you will, you can make me clean.” He had no idea if Jesus was willing or not. But his request showed a certain level of spiritual maturity. No doubt this man desperately wanted to be clean. Yet he left it in the hands of the Son of God. He knows that Jesus has the right to refuse. He makes no demands. And in fact he has no basis for his request, other than Jesus’ mercy and goodness.
Every now and then I’ll come across someone who is involved in a movement which teaches that healing is provided by God for every physical ailment Christians have, that it is wrong not to be well, and that we do not have to ask God whether or not he wants to heal us or not. In fact, they would say it is a lack of faith to pray, "If it be your will, heal me." They say instead that we need to be bold and claim our healing, just demand that God heal us. No, a much more biblical approach is that of the leper who said, "If you will, you can make me clean."
It’s very difficult for some of us to handle the concept, but the Scriptures teach that sometimes it is not God’s will for us to be healed. I think of Paul who came before the Lord and asked three times for the removal of a "thorn in the flesh," {2 Cor 12:7}. Finally God’s answer came, "My grace is sufficient for you," (2 Corinthians 12:9). Whatever this ailment was, Paul wanted to be rid of it, but God knew that there were spiritual benefits which Paul would receive by not being healed. And so instead of taking away the problem, God supplied the strength Paul needed. God gave Paul more grace. In so doing he took care of Paul’s needs, even though it was in a different fashion than Jesus took care of the needs of this leper.
And what was the response of Jesus to this man’s cry for help?
II. Response of Christ
“Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.” (Mark 1:41)
Jesus granted the leper’s request. Not slowly or in stages over a number of days, but right then and there the leprosy left him. Now the healing itself is not that different from any of the other healings Jesus performed, but there are a couple of significant phrases in this passage that I want us to notice.
First of all, we read Jesus was “moved with compassion”. It wasn’t just that Jesus looked at him and said, “You need something, I’ve got it. Come here. OK, now you’re better.” No, the word “compassion” suggests a depth of feeling. In fact, the word “compassion” literally means “to feel with.” Ten times in the gospels, we are told that Jesus had compassion on the people around him.
What that means is that Jesus hurt when people around him hurt. It bothered him to see people suffering and in need. It touched his heart when someone came to him and said, “Please help me.”
Don’t be in too much of a hurry to get beyond this point. I know it’s easy to say, “Yes, Jesus cared. Of course, he cared.”
Don’t take it for granted. Think for a moment about the other religious leaders of that day -- the Pharisees, the priests and Levites -- and how they were much more concerned about being religious than they were about caring. In story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus painted a picture of the typical attitude of his day.
But it’s not just his day. Think for a moment about us. Let’s be honest. It’s so easy not to care. We see so much suffering, so much pain. And it’s easy, if we’re not careful, to build a shell and shield ourselves from the suffering around us, to become hardened and callused. That’s one thing Jesus refused to do.
And I’m so thankful for that. The Hebrew writer talks about how significant that point is: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses…Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16).
The fact that Jesus cared about people while he was on this earth gives us the assurance that he cares about us right now.
But there’s something else in this story that I want you to notice: “Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him.”
Jesus touched him! When do you suppose was the last time someone had touched this leper? Remember that this man was physically and spiritually unclean. To touch such a one would be the last thing any Jew would want to do. And even if they were allowed to touch him, nobody would want to because he looked so repulsive.
Here was a man who for years had never known the sympathy or the affection of another human being. For years he had to ensure that no-one would touch him. He cried out, “Unclean” to keep everyone away from him. If he was married, he wouldn’t be allowed to hold his wife’s hand or put his arms around her and hug her. If he had children, they wouldn’t be able to take his hand and say, ’Let’s go for a walk, Daddy.’ I can’t even begin to imagine how it must feel to go through life without being able to touch anyone or have anyone touch you.
Only one person could touch him according to the Old Testament law - the High Priest. And he could touch him only when he had been healed. The touch of the priest would pronounce that he was clean.
So there is something spiritually significant about Jesus’ touch because he is our High Priest. But I think it’s much more than that. Jesus certainly could have healed this man from a distance, but he knew that this man needed the physical closeness of another human being just as much as he needed to be rid of his leprosy.
And what was the result of Jesus’ touch? Verse 42: "Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed."
Notice that there are two results: Jesus healed the disease and he cleansed the leper. He healed him -- that’s physical. And he was cleansed -- that’s spiritual.
This man wanted to worship God, and Jesus gave him the ability to do that. He wanted to be a part of God’s people, and Jesus gave him that. He wanted to be able to touch others, to have a close relationship with the people of God, and Jesus made that possible.
Conclusion:
There are two applications I want to leave with you this morning, then the lesson will be yours.
First of all, I want us to come away from this lesson with an appreciation for the compassion Jesus showed, and a commitment to be a people of compassion as we deal with the lepers all around us. I don’t mean people who actually have the disease of leprosy. I understand there are over 12 million people in the world who do have it, but chances are you don’t know any of them. But I suspect you do know someone who suffers in a way similar to that leper
Because, in our contemporary society, we also have our "unclean" people. Although they may not be lepers, they may feel that way because of how they are treated by the so-called "clean" people in our society. If you talk with someone who has AIDS or cancer, or maybe even the mentally and physically handicapped, or those in a nursing home, you will likely find that these are people who feel like that leper Jesus met -- very alone and forgotten by the mainstream of society. It’s not just the physical suffering, though there may be plenty of that. It’s the isolation, the loneliness, the feeling that nobody wants to be around them. When’s the last time you made the effort to reach and touch someone like that?
As the body of Christ, we need to be a people of compassion. Compassion is a quality that you experience as a child, but we tend to suppress it as we get older and become we cynical toward life’s hurts. What happens when there’s a news story on TV that talks about people in another country starving because of a famine? We change the channel because we don’t want to hear it. When we see someone obviously in need on the street or in the mall, we try to ignore them, try not to have any eye contact. Sometimes we even stay away from the hospital or the funeral home or the nursing home because it’s just too hard to see people hurting. It’s much easier to close ourselves inside a shell and ignore it.
I realize we can’t take personal responsibility for every tragedy we see or go into clinical depression because of our inability to heal all the world’s hurts, but neither can we afford to shut our eyes to the fact that these situations really exist and that there are people all around who have physical needs, but much more than that they just need to know that someone cares. I challenge you to leave this building with the commitment to be more like Jesus in the compassion you show.
Secondly, I want us to come away from this story about the leper with the realization that Jesus still has the power to cleanse. In many ways, leprosy is like sin. Sin does its worst damage by eating away at us, penetrating deep inside, causing us eventually to lose all feeling toward those things that are good and right. Sin will cause us to be isolated from God’s people, from God himself. And eventually, like leprosy, sin will destroy. Oh, and a more important similarity -- just like the leper, there’s nothing we can do to get rid of sin by ourselves. All we can do is to come to Jesus, as this leper did, and say, “I want to be cleansed.”
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9).
