Jesus and the Leper
Text: Mark 1:40-45
Core Idea: Jesus exchanged His place with us so that we can have life through His death. Then wherever you may be in life, just like the leper, throw yourself at the mercy of Jesus – and hear His gracious words to you: “I am willing. Be clean.”
INTRODUCTION
Good afternoon, Lighthouse. Hope everyone’s doing well. I’m so thankful that you’re able to join us to worship together. With another lockdown, it can be discouraging, exhausting – wondering when this will ever end. But let’s remember not to put our guards down knowing that we’re engaging in a spiritual warfare every single day – we need to continue to fight the good fight. Then as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, let us “rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Friends, this is God’s will for you today. I pray that you’ll make every effort to live this way as you cling to Christ everyday.
We are going through the Gospel of Mark. This will be my sixth sermon just from chapter 1 – and some of you may be thinking, “When are we ever going to finish this book?” That is a legitimate concern – but by God’s grace, we will. We’re taking our time here because chapter 1 really serves as an introduction to this book; we’ll hopefully move faster in other chapters. But more importantly, I hope that you are learning and growing from these sermons. Personally, this has been challenging but rewarding and enjoyable because it’s forcing me to slow down and go deeper to make each passage come alive to you – to somehow make the truth a little more personal, tangible, and relatable. At the same time, I’ve been constantly praying that the Spirit will minister to you (because my work will be meaningless unless He opens your minds and hearts), that God will be magnified, and that you will come to see this indescribable beauty and glory of Christ that will captivate your hearts. That has been my goal in the way I’ve been preparing these messages. I know that I still lack a lot of things as a preacher – but I pray that God will still speak through me; that because of these messages, you’ll come to know a little more about Jesus, be gripped by the person of Jesus, and find Him irresistible and unforgettable that will hopefully leave you in awe of Him.
Well, last Sunday, we saw Jesus intentionally prioritizing His time with God in solitude and prayer – in fact, this was the rhythm of His life, foundational to who He was. And this enabled Him to be in the will of God despite the distractions and temptations – He stayed true to His mission to preach the gospel to as many people as possible. And maybe that’s what He was doing when He encountered this leper who we’re about to meet. Then if you have your Bibles, please turn to Mark 1:40-45. Let me read this for us.
40 A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” 41 Jesus was indignant. He reached out His hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to Him from everywhere.
Amen. This is the Word of God for you today.
I want to point out three things from this story:
THE DESPERATION
THE HEALING
THE WARNING
1) THE DESPERATION
Let’s start from verse 40. “A man with leprosy came to Him and begged Him on his knees, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’” Leprosy was a skin disease that would inhibit your ability to feel pain. Maybe because of this, a leper was often prone to infections which led to degeneration of tissues in organs and limbs to the point that they began to literally fall off your body. It was a horrible disease that people feared even more so because it was extremely contagious and had no known cure. It left a person completely disfigured and hopeless. But the lepers weren’t just suffering physically; as you can imagine, they were socially ostracized. Leviticus 13-14 records strict regulations about the way a leper was to be treated. For example, Leviticus 13:45-46 says, “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.” By law, they were confined to live away from society, which meant that they were shunned, rejected, and deserted by the people – even by their own friends and family members. They were deprived of any kind of human contact or intimacy – being forcefully isolated from the rest of their community. Recently, we’ve experienced a glimpse of what isolation feels like – going through multiple lockdowns in our city. We can only imagine the effect this is having on all of us physically, mentally, emotionally, relationally, financially, and of course, spiritually – which is why we can only imagine how devastating it must have been for these lepers to know that this would be their life until they died. The hopelessness they must have felt. The loneliness. The hunger. The sorrow. The anger. The fear. Now, if the lepers, for whatever reason, chose to go toward where people were, they had to purposely wear torn clothes and leave their hair messy so that others can identify them as lepers. Not only that they had to cover their mouths and constantly cry out, “Unclean! Unclean! A leper coming through” – and the moment people heard this, they ran for their lives or even possibly threw rocks at them.
But that wasn’t all. Because of their condition, they were excluded from the Temple. They were excluded from the presence of God. In fact, they were considered cursed by God. Then we can only imagine the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual sufferings that the lepers experienced every day. No wonder the Israelites regarded leprosy as a living death. The lepers were alone, afraid, and ashamed; and there was absolutely nothing they could’ve done to change any of this.
The reason I share so extensively in detail was to show how shocking, scandalous, and horrifying this scene was in verse 40 when a leper came to Jesus begging on his knees. He was violating every known social, religious regulations just by coming to Jesus. He was moving into a place that would make others uncomfortable and possibly put himself in danger. Then why did he do this? Why did he risk everything just to get to Jesus?” Well, it must have been because he was desperate. He knew that there was no other hope for him – no other way of getting rid of this source of unbearable torment. So, even though he knew the cost of going to Jesus, he could not bear to live with the cost of not going to Jesus, which was to live in hopelessness, darkness forever.
Friends, have you ever felt like the leper? Do you feel unclean and dirty because of something you’ve done? Do you feel ashamed and defiled because of something that happened to you? Are you struggling with guilt over your sins? Do you feel scared or alone because of what you’re doing, experiencing? Are you anxious, terrified because you don’t want to be exposed? Are you carrying this burden all by yourself today? Then I invite you to run to Jesus with desperation. Don’t delay. Don’t try to clean yourself. Don’t look for other things to bring you hope for there’s nothing that can offer that to you other than Christ. Don’t try to protect your dignity. Come as you are. He will not turn you away. He will hear your cries. He will embrace you. He will meet you wherever you are. So, throw yourself at the mercy of Jesus Christ because that’s what the leper did – he came with the heart of humility, meekness.
How do we know this? Just look at his posture – he came begging on his knees. This could not have been good for a leper because any infection could’ve disfigured his legs; but he did it anyway. And listen to what the leper says to Jesus: “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” He doesn’t say, “If You are able,” or, “If I can prove myself that I’m worthy of Your time and power, You can make me clean.” No, he doesn’t question Jesus’ power or question his own worth. At the same time, he doesn’t say, “I heard what You can do. So, I’ve risked everything to come to You; You better make me clean.” No, he doesn’t demand things from Jesus – he doesn’t come with this heart of entitlement. And lastly, he doesn’t say, “If You make me clean, I’ll do everything for You.” He doesn’t bargain, negotiate with Jesus – he doesn’t see Him just as a means to an end. Instead, he says, “If You are willing, if You see fit, I know You can make me clean.” In other words, he was saying, “I’m at Your mercy, Lord. Do what You please. Do what is impossible by human means. Do what only You can do.” And as we’ll see next, Jesus responds with grace.
Friends, do you believe that Jesus is able? More precisely, do you believe that Jesus alone can do what no one, no thing can do? Then come to Jesus with desperation. Come to Him by throwing yourself at His mercy. Tell Him, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me whole again.” And as you do, I pray that He will respond to you with grace. Dane Ortlund beautifully writes, “When sinners and sufferers come to Christ, given their sinfulness, they are shocked to find that their sins cause Him to be all the more ready to plunge them into His heart. They unexpectedly find Him with open arms to embrace them, ready forever to forget all their sins as though they had never been. In other words, when we come to Christ, we are startled by the beauty of His welcoming heart.” Then as you come to Jesus, may you be startled by His welcoming heart for you.
2) THE HEALING
Let’s turn to verse 41. “Jesus was indignant.” Let’s stop here for a moment. I’ll be honest. I was kind of confused here – “Did I miss something? Why was Jesus angry?” But it all makes sense when you realize that Jesus must have loved and cared about the leper. Think about it. When you love someone and see them suffer or hurt, your anger toward whatever that’s causing that would be intense. In the same way, when Jesus saw this leper, His anger was burning not against the leper, but against leprosy. He was seeing the horror that sin had brought into the world that He so beautifully created. And He was indignant that this man was experiencing the effect of sin in this world: disorder, disease, and death. And it’s this anger that moved Jesus to respond with grace. Brothers and sisters, do you know what this means? It means that Jesus cares about all of the effects of the fall in our lives as well. He is angry for us; He is distressed to see us in pain; He is suffering with us – which is why He will not stay neutral; He’s not going to be passive; He’s not going to let sin continue to destroy what God has made. He will rise up. He will restore. He will rescue us for He is mighty to save.
So that’s exactly what He does for the leper. Let’s continue in verse 41, “He reached out His hand and touched the man.” Now, we know that Jesus is able to heal without touching anybody. He is able to heal with words alone; He doesn’t even have to be in proximity to heal like the centurion’s servant in Matthew 8; and at times, He’s able to heal even when someone just grabs His cloak like the woman in Mark 5. In other words, Jesus didn’t have to touch the leper in order to heal him. He could’ve done it from a safe distance – but He did it anyway. Why? Because He knew that what this leper needed wasn’t just physical healing – he needed emotional restoration as well. Here was someone who was starving for love, connection – a human touch. And Jesus meets all of his needs. And that’s not all. Listen to what He says to this leper, “I am willing. Be clean.” He doesn’t begrudgingly comply – He was literally moved from the depth of His love. He wanted to cleanse Him. Friends, Jesus will take all of your shame and stains of your sin and make you clean. And rather than withdrawing in disgust, He will draw near, reach out, and touch us when we come to Him with our filth. And the best part is that He wants to do this – He wants to see us whole again. Isn’t that amazing? Jesus is far more wonderful than we could ever imagine.
And notice what happens. Verse 42, “Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.” This happened right away, right before their eyes. The shriveled, disfigured skin was suddenly made clean. And you probably saw this man being filled with hope again knowing that he didn’t have to cover up, he didn’t have to expose himself with shame and guilt by constantly shouting, “Unclean, unclean” wherever he went, he didn’t have to be alone anymore, he didn’t have to fear. For the first time in a long time, he was able to joyfully look forward to the days to come with great anticipation.
Now, it’s so important to remember that touching a leper would make anyone unclean. In fact, one of the Jewish canons actually said, “If a leper stands under a tree and a clean man passes by, he renders him unclean.” In other words, just being in proximity of a leper would make you unclean – no wonder people fled from the lepers. But for the first time in history, the effect was reversed. When Jesus touched the leper, rather than becoming defiled by the leper, the leper became clean. Do you see how incredible this is? Jesus should’ve been made unclean. But when Jesus touched the leper, the curse of leprosy wasn’t passed onto Jesus, Jesus passed on life to the leper. Anyone can take what is clean and make it unclean – we do it all the time. Only Jesus can reverse defilement. And this is what makes Christianity so unique. Other religions say, “Make yourself clean so that you can enter the presence of what is clean.” But Jesus alone says, “You’ll never be able to make yourself clean by yourself. You can’t do it. But I can. And I will. So, come to me. Let me touch you. And I will make you clean.” I love what Sam Allberry says, “Jesus’ cleanness is a far more powerful contagion than any dirt we can bring to Him. There is always more that’s right in Jesus than there is what’s wrong in us, more grace in Him than offense in us, more forgiveness in Him than sin in us. The very worst in us cannot compete with the best in Christ. However deep our mess goes, His holiness goes deeper. We will never exhaust it.” Many of us unfortunately find this hard to believe. We think we must be the exception – that our mess, our sin, our stains are somehow too much for anyone including Jesus. If you feel this way, if you feel unlovable, please hear these words: Jesus welcomes you. He wants to make you whole. He will not reject you, deny you; He will embrace you and love you. He only asks that you come to Him.
3) THE WARNING
Let’s turn to verse 43, “Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: ‘See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.’” Jesus gives this man two commands. First is to be silent and the second is to show himself to the priest and offer sacrifices. The second command was to show that Jesus honored the Old Testament laws but also to reinstate this man’s status in the community knowing that the local priest can declare him clean so that he’s welcomed back into the society – again, showing that Jesus cared for this man.
Now, regarding the first command to be silent, we briefly talked about it a few verses ago when Jesus silenced the demons from speaking out. He commanded this because though the miracles were good, they can become a distraction to what He ultimately came to do: preach the gospel and be the good news to the world. In other words, He wasn’t trying to keep His power a secret; He simply wanted to stay true to His ultimate mission. He didn’t want people to have misunderstandings about who He was – that He wasn’t just a miracle-worker, but that He was the Promised Messiah, the Savior King.
Now, how did the leper respond? Verse 45. “Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to Him from everywhere.” We don’t exactly know why the leper disobeyed. Maybe he really was overflowing with joy and praise for Jesus that he just couldn’t keep this to himself. Or maybe he wanted to brag. We will never know. But what we do know is this: because of his disobedience, Jesus and the leper exchanged their places. Do you see this? The leper goes into the city and Jesus is cast out from the city. The leper goes to be with others and Jesus is now in the lonely places. The leper who was an outcast receives new life and Jesus who is the Giver of life becomes an outcast. What’s happening here? It was foreshadowing of what’s to come – the ultimate substitution that will make a way for sinners to become the children of God.
The Bible tells us that we are all spiritual lepers. Sin disfigured all of us – our hearts, thoughts, and desires. It distorted our words, actions, and ambitions. It left us broken, hopeless, and helpless. And the devastating reality was that there was no cure for our sin that we could’ve found in ourselves. We were destined for death and the wrath of God – until Jesus went through the ultimate exclusion, not just from the people but ultimately from God the Father. You see, because of our disobedience, Jesus exchanged His place with us – at the cross, our sins were laid upon Him. And because Jesus was forsaken by the Father, we were welcomed into His presence. Because Jesus was disfigured on the cross, we were made whole again. Because Jesus died for us, we now have life and life to the full. This of course doesn’t mean that we will never feel unclean again – we probably will until God calls us home because there’s still this ongoing attack from the accuser. Satan will continue to use his lies and every tactic he knows to corner us to the place of shame and guilt so that we’re stuck in the dark, to remain in hiding, never to see the light again. But what we have now is Someone who we can look to, who can guide us, encourage us to come out of that darkness because He has conquered sin. And He’s telling us, “It’s okay to come out. I’ll cover you with my light.” Death and evil will retreat in the presence of the One who, according to Revelation 21:5, is now seated on the throne and says, “I am making everything new!” Brothers and sisters, He is making everything new in our lives.
Friends, maybe you’re completely dejected, oppressed by the power of your sin. No matter what you do, you continue to find yourself sinking in that sin deeper and deeper again. And you feel like you can never break out of this – that you’ll never be freed. This story of a leper tells us that that’s just not true. Jesus is able. Jesus is willing. So, throw yourself at His mercy. Rest in the power of His blood. And receive His grace, His forgiveness. Our hope is found in Christ alone. Then let us humbly, honestly come to Jesus, telling Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, Jesus exchanged His place with us so that we can have life through His death. And the amazing thing is that Jesus joyfully endured the cross because of His love for us (Heb. 12:2). So, wherever you may be in life, I invite you to hear His words because they are for you: “I am willing. Be clean.” May you experience His gracious healing today.