Sermon - Epiphany 6 - “You Can Make Me Clean” - Mark 1:40-45 - 2/15/09
February 18th, 2009Click play to listen to the audio version of this sermon.
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Today’s gospel reading is all about Jesus. It’s really not so much about a leper or leprosy as we might think. If it were about lepers, we could all tune the rest of this sermon out right here, because there aren’t any lepers among us this morning, at least not that I’m aware of. And even if there were, there’s nothing here that tells us what we should do. We can’t shift the focus onto ourselves and say that we should imitate Jesus. ‘Jesus healed lepers, so, be like Jesus. Heal some lepers.’ That can’t be right. This is not about us or what we should do. It’s all about what Jesus does.
A man with leprosy came to Jesus. “If you will you can make me clean.” Now, where did he get an idea like that? That’s an easy one. Just before this, Mark told us that after Jesus had healed Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever, “the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he helped many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons…” (Mark 1:32-34).
Sometimes we’re just not sure why someone isn’t in the congregation when it gathers around Jesus. Maybe its because they’re too sick to make it in. Maybe they feel that they’re not sick, no demons bothering them at the moment, no real need for Jesus. Or maybe it’s simply that there are other things to do. Who knows? But we do know why this man wasn’t in the congregation. He was a leper. And lepers were excluded from the congregation.
Lepers were the ultimate ‘untouchables.’ If a leper touched you, you became unclean whether you caught the disease or not. If you touched a leper, the same thing. If you touched something a leper had touched, same thing. In any case, you got kicked out of the congregation too.
But this man came to Jesus. Interestingly, the gospels record several accounts of lepers coming to Jesus. There were those 10 with leprosy who came to Jesus which Luke tells us about. They must have believed He wouldn’t turn them away. They must have turned to Him as their only hope. Not a bad example for us all really.
“If you will you can make me clean,” he implored Jesus. He had no doubt that Jesus had ability to help him. The only question was whether He was willing. ‘Will he heal me?’ ‘Does He desire to heal me?’ ‘I know that He cared about the crowds lined up at the door. I believe that Jesus cares about the whole world. But does He care about me? Care enough to help me?” Luther always said that the hardest part of the gospel to believe was that little word, ‘you,’ as in ‘I forgive YOU all your sins. Not too hard to believe that Jesus has taken away the sins of the world. Very hard to believe He has taken away ‘my’ sins.
So, “WWJD.” What would Jesus do? All eyes are on Jesus, which is just the way it should be. This is not about this man making a decision for Jesus. It’s all about what decision Jesus will make for this man.
Mark writes, “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I will, be clean.’” “Moved with pity.” There’s that word that keeps popping up whenever we fix our eyes on Jesus. “Splagnidzo.” His spleen was about to burst with pity for this man.
“And he touched him.” ‘No, Jesus, don’t touch him. He’s a leper. You healed so many others just by the word from your mouth. You heal the official’s son and the Centurion’s servant from clear across town. For goodness sake, don’t touch this man. You’ll become unclean. You’ll be kicked out of the congregation. Taken outside the city walls and your flesh will get eaten up by whips and thorns, nails and spears.”
I think that most sermons I’ve ever heard and most that I’ve ever preached on this text, all make about the same move at this point and begin to talk about this man’s leprosy in spiritual terms. Supposedly, the man’s leprosy signifies the man’s sin and Jesus deals with this man’s sin and He deals with your sin and my sin too. And I suppose that there’s nothing too terribly wrong with making that move because after all, it is absolutely true.
But Jesus doesn’t make that move here and so maybe we shouldn’t either. He doesn’t say to this man with leprosy, ‘don’t you know that I’m not here because of your physical problems? I’m here to deal with your spiritual problems. I’m here to take away your sins, renew your spirit, cleanse your heart. Don’t you know that flesh and blood do not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t bother me with fleshly, physical things.”
What we do read is this, “He touched him and said, ‘I will, be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.” His flesh was made clean. His stinking, rotting flesh was made pink and wrinkle free, smooth as a baby’s bottom. It was as though his sin had been nullified, reversed, taken away, no trace of any damage done by his sin.
The point here is that Jesus restores this man’s flesh, his physical body. Sometimes I am afraid that we over-spiritualize the work of God in Jesus Christ. Somehow we’ve picked up this Gnostic notion that the body really doesn’t matter to God. Everything is spiritual and the only thing that matters to God are spiritual matters.
Maybe this at least partly explains why we use our bodies as carelessly and adulterously as we do. We think that God cares nothing for the flesh, only for the spirit, so we can do whatever we ‘will’ with our body and still actually believe this has nothing to do with our spiritual relationship with Jesus.
But Jesus is the Word made flesh, dwelling among us. He is not the spiritual Word dwelling among us but the enfleshed Word, and He is very much interested in this man’s skin and muscle tissue, tendons and ligaments.
Maybe this helps make some sense of what happens next. “And Jesus sternly charged him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
So why does Jesus send this man on his way with strict instructions to “say nothing to anyone?” I thought we were to tell everybody about Jesus. He told His disciples to “go into all the world… teaching them everything I have commanded you.” (Mat.28:20). But to this man He says, “See that you say nothing to anyone.”
Was this just clever Jesus using reverse psychology? You know what happens if you say to someone, “now promise me you won’t tell a soul.” No, this is not the way Jesus works. When Jesus says to this man, “see that you say nothing to anyone,” what He means is, “see that you say nothing to anyone.” He always means what He says.
“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 desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.” Here’s an example of a man whose enthusiastic witness for Jesus gums up the whole works and does more harm than good.
Oh, but he was so excited about this miracle that happened to him, that who could blame him for blabbing about Jesus? Who can blame him for doing exactly what Jesus “sternly” told him not to do? And what does this mean for us? Does it mean that there is a time for everything under heaven and that there may be a time for telling people about Jesus and not telling? How are we to understand this? Let’s try this.
What Jesus did for this man was a miracle, a genuine miracle, no doubt about it. But there were many lepers in Israel, yet Jesus just touched this man and just made this man clean. Jesus said, “There were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” (Luke 4:27). Why just one? Why not all? Answer. What Jesus did for this man, is an example. It’s a sign. Signs are things that point to something beyond themselves. It’s an example of what Jesus wills to do more all men and women.
Our problem is that we tend see no further than the sign. We think that the sign is the destination. We fail to see what all these signs and miracles are pointing to. If all your witnessing does is to point people to signs and wonders, it’s probably better to say nothing to anyone, because you’ve missed the whole point.
Jesus told this man to say nothing to anyone because He knew they would chase Him down for another sign. Which is exactly what they did. What Jesus does for this man was not a call to come and have Him do a miracle for you. It was a call to put all your hope and trust in Jesus who will make all things new again.
This was an epiphany. A bright light announcing that the Kingdom of God has come. A sign pointing to Jesus, declaring the light has come into the world and the darkness would not overcome it. This is a foretaste of the feast to come, but not the end in itself.
This man, whose rotting flesh Jesus restored, died. His restored flesh rotted in the grave. Without exception, we will all one day experience a decomposition of our flesh that will make this man’s case of leprosy look like acne by comparison. But because of what we have seen Jesus will to do for this man, we believe and do not doubt that He will do for us. And so we may confess freely and tell everyone, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”
By His flesh, crucified on the cross and by His flesh, risen from the grave, Jesus has effected the restoration of the human body as well as the soul to its original holiness. By canceling the curse of our sin in His flesh, He has nullified the effect of our sin even upon our body.
Paul calls it a mystery, you can call it what you will. But this perishable body of yours must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (1 Cor. 15:54). And it will, because Jesus has had compassion upon you, He has touched you in the waters of your baptism. Not a spiritual touch but a physical touch. And to you He has said, “I will, be clean.” And immediately Liam’s leprosy left him, and he was made clean.”
There will come a day when Jesus will come again, in the same glorified body with which He ascended into heaven. In the same flesh and blood that He comes to you even now, hidden under this bread and wine for you to eat and drink. This is not a spiritual eating but a very physical eating and drinking of Christ’s body and blood.
When He comes again, He will raise your mortal body from its grave and restore your decomposed flesh and give you a whole new body, a pure and perfect body, a glorified body just like His. This was surely the day that Job saw coming when, loathing his own flesh, he cries, “After my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.” (Job 19:26).
Until that day comes however, you may feel free to tell everyone about Jesus and all that He has done for our body and our soul.
Related Entries:
» Sermon Index - Lutheran - LCMS» Sermon - Epiphany 1 - “United To Christ Through Baptism” - Mark 1:4-11
» Sermon - Pentecost 15 - “Keeping Your Spiritual Score” - Mark 7:1-23 - 9/17/03
» Sermon - Epiphany 4 - “Teaching With Authority” - Luke 4:31-43 - 1/31/10
» Sermon - Epiphany 2 - “The First Of His Signs” - John 2:1-11 - 1/17/10
» Sermon - 17th Pentecost - “The Fear of Rejection and the Joy of Acceptance” - Mark 8:31-37 - 10/1/06
