6th Sunday after Epiphany
Mark 1:40-45
Sermon
"If You Will"
40 ¶ And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.”
41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I will; be clean.”
42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
43 And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once,
44 and said to him, “See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people.”
45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
Grace and Peace to you from our Lord and Saviour, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen
"There is Jesus, I have heard he has healed many people, I have heard he is a man of compassion and a man of power. I wonder if he can make me well?? No, I don’t wonder, I believe, I know deep within me that he can. I cannot go begging him to heal me, or demanding that he does, but I will go an ask that whatever he wills for my life, then so be it. I will approach Jesus and ask that his will be done in my life."
That thought came from the leper in our gospel story this morning. I like this passage of scripture because it has many important items for us to see.
First the scripture says; And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.”
Notice the first item of importance. The leper said, "If you will". If you will. no demand, no pleading, no begging, no bargaining with Jesus, just a simple statement, "if you will". The leper let his healing be in the hands of Jesus. If you will.
Being a leper, this man was taking a chance that Jesus might walk away as the scribes and Pharisees did, or cast stones at him, or taunt him like many of the people were accustomed to doing, but he felt that Jesus was different, that this man might just be the one who could change his whole life.
So he approached Jesus, not demanding that Jesus do anything, but coming to him and letting Jesus’ will be done. He didn’t come to Jesus saying, you have to heal me, but he was willing to take a risk, saying If you will. In other words, he was saying to Jesus, I am putting my whole life into your hands, if you will you can cure me, and if you decide I shall remain this way, then so be it. Isn’t that an act of faith, a tremendous act of surrender, an attitude that tells us something about this man’s convictions, and this man’s belief in Jesus Christ.
If you will. If you will heal me then I will be grateful, but if healing does not come, what then? Maybe he would tag along with Jesus to see if Jesus would do it another time. We don’t know because healing came.
The text says that Jesus is moved with piety stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, " I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy led him and he was made clean. Jesus didn’t forsake the man, he didn’t turn his back on him, he didn’t ignore him, he didn’t tell him he had to do something before he would act. Jesus was moved with petty and reached out to touch this man, and made him clean.
Jesus acted. Jesus acted because he knew how lonely, how miserable, how forsaken this man was. Jesus acted because no one else would. Jesus acted because the rest of society forsook this man, Jesus acted because this man’s own religion ignored him, because they couldn’t be bothered.
Jesus reached out when no one else would. Jesus acted.
Jesus is like the friend in the following:
A man fell into a ditch. A doctor walked by the and the man yelled out to him. The doctor walked on by and flipped a prescription into the ditch.
A priest walked by and the man yelled again for help. The priest stood over the man and offered aprayer.
Sometime later a man walked by, seeing the man in the ditch and hearing his call for help, the man jumped into the ditch.
The man in the ditch said,"How are we going to get out now that you are now here ,too.
The man said, "I have been in this ditch before and I will lead you out."
That is the mark of a true friend, one who will lead another out of the ditch.
Jesus led the leper out of the ditch of despair, of loneliness, of misery, of pain and suffering. With Jesus simple words, " I will; be clean" this man’s whole life was turned up side down. He was saved from a life of misery and pain. And it all began with a few simple words from the leper, “If you will, you can make me clean.”
This leper had great faith in Jesus. I wonder what you and I would do? Would we dare to ask, to put all of our trust in the hands of Jesus? Or would we demand, beg, plead with Jesus?
I don’t know about you but I can say for my life that I would trust in Jesus to handle the situation in His way, not mine. Over and over in my life when I have said, "if you will" I find that somehow things work out. I had to give up the ministry because of a disability. Then the Internet happened. I somehow taught myself HTML, started writing sermons for others to read, and now it has brought the joy of the ministry back into my life. I cannot speak well enough to preach, I do not have the energy enough to be in the parish, but I have this wonderful tool to reach out to others. If someone would of told me many years ago that this is what I would be doing with my life, I would of said, right!
"If you will’. These are words you and I need to say to Christ when we come to Him in prayer. If you will, period. What we are talking about is faith with trust. Trusting in Christ to act in our lives. Faith believing that Jesus can act, trust in Him to act in our best interest. Trust is the second big lesson of this text. Trust!
Billy Graham said this about trust:
I once watched a little baby learning to walk. As long as it kept its eyes on its mother it was relaxed and in perfect
balance. But as soon as it looked down at its little wobbly legs, it failed. 1
Trust is learning to keep our eyes on Jesus and having faith His grace will prevail in our lives. If you will are words of faith as well as trust. If you will do your will upon me Jesus. I trust that your will, will be in my best interest even if I at times cannot see it or understand it.
Trust and faith in Jesus can be seen in the following illustration.
In 1989 Geoffrey Gorsuch while flying his small plane in the midst of a horrible storm reports that he could:
barely see 20 feet in front of the plane. On the ground, signals were being transmitted to the five radios and three navigational aids on board the aircraft. . . .
These instruments guided us through the storm to the runway. There were moments when the confusion in the
clouds could have been fatal, times when all our senses seemed to indicate that the instruments were lying, making panic and pilot error inevitable. But I had been trained to trust the instruments. And I did. . . .
As we broke out of the clouds 100 feet off the runway and in a perfect altitude for landing, all that remained to do was to ease back the power and the stick and let her settle onto the runway. As the emergency vehicles approached with their blaring sirens and flashing lights, I knew they would not be necessary. I had trusted the instruments, I was a pilot -- and that was the day I knew it for sure.
And so it is with God. He has endowed us with spiritual instruments to get us through the storm clouds of the human
condition. But do we know how to interpret them? And, having received the message, will we trust it with our very lives? That is the essence of faith.2
If you will allow me to have the faith and trust to follow you Jesus where ever you might lead. If you will Jesus send into my life a measure of your grace and compassion as I feel all the brokenness of this world. As Geoffrey said, I trusted the instruments and it proved I was a pilot. I trust in Jesus and it shows to me and others that I am a follower of Christ.
"If you will" can be our words of faith and trust. "If you will" allows us to share with Jesus the most hurtful pains of our lives because we know that some how he will answer them.
A closing story says it well:
The tragedy left the man homeless, widowed and fatherless. Fire had swept through the trailer, and all was lost. It took some time for the full weight of the loss to descent, and when it did, he was nearly crushed. Like Job in the O.T. he would not be comforted...
When the gift of shock was lifted, anger, resentment filled every waking thought. God had not been fair to him God had not protected his family. He had not come to him with a special visitation to explain the "why" and the "what next".
He was in a wilderness as rugged as the Sinai...The greatest temptation was to add to his losses by forfeiting his faith.
He felt justified. No one would fault him. Some might even support him. He prayed angrily now, daring God to hurt him further, and challenging him to give any reason to hold on to the thin thread of his faith that was left. He prayed angrily, but he prayed, and God could handle it....
The anguish continued to mount until one afternoon he uttered a cry so forcefully, it could only be described as a scream. No word was spoken, just a loud angry scream against the forces of heaven and hell, as if to say, "I’ve hurt all I can, and I’ve paid my dues for love.... Help me.".... "if you will"
The silence that followed was quieter than silence. A peace was evident for the first time in months. Scripture might have said, "Angels came and ministered unto him."
Satan had been overthrown, and health was coming back, for he believed, at last, that God was caring for those he lost. That God was caring for Him. That God could handle his honest anger, his honest emotions, that God can handle all our pent up emotions, feelings, and denials.
"If you will"
Amen
Written by Pastor Tim Zingale February 6, 2006
1 - Billy Graham, _The Secret Of Happiness_, p. 186.
2 Geoff Gorsuch The Christian Reader
