Touched, Cleansed, and Sent

[This message was shared with the people of Friendship Church during worship celebrations on February 11 and 12, 2006.]

Mark 1:40-45

I’m going to do a very dangerous thing today. I usually begin my messages with a story designed to get you interested. But no story today! My plan is to simply retell the incident from Jesus’ ministry that’s in our Bible lesson. It’s about a man suffering from leprosy and how Jesus healed him.

Today, when we use the word leprosy, we have a specific malady in mind. It’s called Hansen’s Disease. It’s caused by a virus which was discovered by a Dr. Armauer Hansen back in the 1870s. According to one source, it’s a “a chronic infectious disease caused by [a] bacteria... [It]...can cause severe deformity of the feet, hands and face....The infection leads to a loss of sensation in the affected areas.”

In Biblical times though, the word leprosy was used to describe a whole host of different diseases that caused skin lesions or loss of feeling, especially in the extremities. For people who lived in those times, leprosy was much more than a physical ailment. It was also a spiritual and social affliction.

Once a person was certified as suffering from leprosy, he or she was considered dirty and unfit for fellowship with God or people. For fear that others would somehow contract their disease, lepers had to leave home, family, and work behind. They were barred from worshiping at the Temple or at local synagogues. People often threw stones at them to keep them at bay. So that others could see and avoid them, lepers were required to wear torn clothing, leave their hair dissheveled, and shout out, “Unclean! Unclean!” when they walked down the street. The leper lived a lonely and isolated life.

As our Bible lesson for today begins, Jesus is met by a leprous man. It was a cheeky thing for the leper to do, a brazen act born of desperation! He “came to [Jesus] begging Him, and kneeling he said to [Jesus], ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’”

Did the man think that Jesus was God? Some scholars say he did; others say he didn’t. But whatever the truth is about that, two things are certain: The man had heard of Jesus’ reputation as a miracle-worker and he was desperate for an end to his uncleanness. He wanted not only to be cured of his physical ailment, but cleansed so that once more, he could live, work, be with his family, and worship.

I love the way the leper puts his request to Jesus: “If you choose...” He believes unquestioningly that Jesus is capable of bringing an end to his suffering. He’s heard the reports of what Jesus has done in other places. Because Jesus is the sovereign Lord of the universe, we know as we read about this incident that Jesus is capable of saying, “Yes!” to the man’s request. But the leper also knows that whether Jesus does that or not is entirely up to Jesus.

For those of us who, like me, have never suffered much in our lives, this attitude of complete surrender may be difficult to understand. My observation is that his attitude isn't hard to understand for those who have suffered a lot, though.

My friend Ron, who many of you have met, is a wonderful and inspiring pastor. He was also among the last Americans to be hit by polio. Infantile paralysis, as it was called, is a disease of which our young people may never have heard. It was horrible and it was frightening. Then, in the 1950s and 1960s came the Salk and Sabin vaccines, effectively ending the disease in our country.

Those cures came too late for Ron, though. In the fifty-plus years since he contracted Polio, Ron has become increasingly immobilized. Today, he’s confined to a wheelchair. I’m sure that there have been times when Ron and his family have prayed that his affliction be taken away. But I have never heard Ron complain about his lot in life. I’ve never heard him rail against God. Instead, he's been a source of hope and faith in Jesus Christ for thousands of people, including me.

Like the leper who approached Jesus and asked to be cleansed, Ron also surrenders to Jesus. When he prays the words that Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your will be done,” Ron seems to really mean it! So did the leper that day he bowed at Jesus' feet.

Our translation tells us that on seeing and hearing the leper, Jesus was “moved with pity.” That’s an okay rendering of the passage, but it doesn’t quite get at how deep and dramatic Jesus’ response to this man’s pleading was.

You see, first-century Judeans didn’t think that our emotions were centered in our hearts. They thought our emotions were centered in our guts, literally in our bowels. (Anyone who's ever had to endure the stage fright associated with making a public speech will probably say that they were onto something. But it is hard to imagine a picture of bowels on a Hallmark Valentine's Day card, isn't it?) Mark effectively says that Jesus’ feelings about this man were like a mammoth volcano in His gut! He felt compassion for the leper down in the very core of His being! That’s exactly how passionately God loves and cares about each of us.

But Jesus moved beyond mere feelings to do the incredible. He “stretched our His hand and touched” the leper while saying that He did choose to cleanse him. “Be made clean!” Jesus says. Now I am amazed that Jesus cleansed this man. But I am even more amazed that Jesus touched him.

Nobody touched lepers. The person who did was considered unclean themselves. It was as though they had contracted leprosy. They would have been barred from Judea’s religious life. They too would be required, as the Old Testament book of Leviticus said of lepers, to go to a priest to be certified that they were clean and worthy of being around others. In a very real sense, Jesus exchanged places with this man. The celebrated teacher and miracle-worker had taken the place of someone spurned and rejected and sidelined.

That in fact, is exactly what Jesus has done for all of us. He went to a cross not because He deserved to be executed, but because we deserve to be executed. He went there not because of His sins--He had no sins. He went there because of our sins. The New Testament says that God the Father made Jesus the very embodiment of “sin, [He] Who had no sin.” Because Jesus exchanged places with us, accepting the punishment we’ve earned, all with faith in Him, all who surrender to Him and to His Lordship over their lives, and all who repudiate their sin can live with God forever. Don't ever get over the miracle of that, folks!

The leper, Mark tells us, was cleansed immediately. (Immediately is one of the Gospel of Mark's favorite words, appearing there some forty times.)

Then, Jesus warned the man not to tell anybody about what had happened. Why did Jesus say that?

For the same reason that Jesus had told others not to go blabbing about Him before His crucifixion and resurrection. The new life that Jesus offers, a life unencumbered by the burdens of sin and death, a life that's whole and everlasting, is free. We can’t earn the new life that Jesus offers as a free gift. But the only way we can grab hold of Jesus’ gifts is if we lay down all the junk we try so hard to hold onto: selfishness, self-promotion, self-justification, and our favorite sins, whatever they may be. The cross makes it clear that Jesus hasn't come to be a genie at our behest. He's come to deal with out most basic problem: our alienation from God, the source of life, an alienation rooted in a condition called sin.

The New Testament writer Paul says that the old self must be crucified so that the new self can rise with Jesus. Even Jesus’ closest followers had the mistaken idea that Jesus had come to do miracles for them. They thought that Jesus was a king who had come to do their bidding. It was only after Jesus died and rose from the dead that they realized He had come to change their characters, fitting them for eternity with God. That begins when we admit our need of Savior Who'll take the cross for our sins, not a heavenly rabbit’s foot.

Jesus told the leper to go straight to a priest to be certified as cleansed and therefore, worthy to return to normal life. But of course, the guy couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He told everybody about what Jesus had done for him.

I wondered as I studied this passage this week, what would I happen if I stood up here and told people not to talk about Jesus. Would we all go out and evangelize the world?

But the fact is that on this side of Jesus’ death and resurrection, you and I have been given different marching orders from those Jesus gave the cleansed man. Our call is to tell our friends, family, co-workers, and fellow students: “Jesus touched me and cleansed me of my sins. He’s made me right with God. He’s given me a new life. He can do the same for you.”

When the leper, in what one commentator called, “exuberant disobedience,” told how Jesus had made him whole, the crowds flocked after Jesus.

Maybe if, in response to Jesus’ commission that we make disciples and be His ambassadors, we told people how Jesus has made us whole, crowds would flock to Him again. Maybe if in exuberant obedience to Jesus, we told others about Christ, our community would begin to change as more and more people, like the leper, surrendered to Him and felt His touch in their lives.

One of my favorite musicians is the Canadian folk rocker, Bruce Cockburn. After he had gained fame in Canada, Cockburn became a Christian. Although he’s never lost his edge as a political radical and still can rock out with the best of them, he’s written many songs about his faith. One I especially love is called, Somebody Touched Me. It reminds us of how it is that when the God we know in Jesus Christ touches us, we’re made whole and new. Here it is. As you read the lyrics, consider how Christ has touched, cleansed, and sent you so that others can know Him as God, Savior, and Best Friend, like you do.

Somebody Touched Me (copyright 1990, Bruce Cockburn)
Somebody touched me
Making everything new
Somebody touched me
I didn't know what to do
Burned through my life
Like a bolt from the blue
Somebody touched me
I know it was you

Somebody touched me
Deep in my bones
Turned a key in the hole
There was somebody home
Some would say that I'm dreaming
But I swear that it's true
Somebody touched me
I know it was you

Somebody touched me
Like the rain on the wind
Left me alone
Feeling like I'd been skinned
But I know you're with me
Whatever I go through
Somebody touched me
I know it was you