6th Sunday After
Epiphany
Mark
1:40-45
Changed in Exchange
There are three
parts to the healing story in today’s gospel: 1) A sick person approached Jesus
with a request; 2) Jesus responded, and 3) both were changed by the exchange.
Let’s take a look
at each aspect of the story to see what it meant for the people who were there,
and what it means for us today.
First: a sick
person approached Jesus. Specifically he was a leper. In the Hebrew language, the word “leper” or
“leprosy” can refer to any of a number of skin conditions. Whatever his condition, it was visible to
everyone and it meant the leper was considered “unclean,” and had to be
isolated from the rest of society.
By coming to Jesus,
the leper was breaking the rules. He was crossing a boundary, and he knew it,
but he was desperate. So we see that he
came in humility – begging and kneeling, hanging his head. And he also came in faith, stating a fact: “If
you choose, you can make me clean.”
To be made clean
would not only heal the man’s skin condition, it would also restore him to life
in his community. If he was clean, he
could participate in the rituals of his faith and interact with his family and
friends.
He didn’t know if
Jesus WOULD make him clean, but he had no doubt that Jesus COULD do it.
Now, we move to
Jesus’ response:
The first thing we
hear is that, Jesus was “moved with pity” or “moved with compassion.” Jesus
truly felt for this man. He understood and identified with his suffering.
And, as always
happens when we Jesus is moved emotionally, he follows up with an action.
“Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.” Jesus compassion moves from his
heart into his arm and through his hand.
He touched the man.
Now that is really
something! Not only did Jesus risk
infecting himself with a skin disease, he broke the rules. He touched someone who was “unclean,” thereby
making HIMSELF unclean, too.
And then Jesus
spoke. He said to the man, “I do choose.
Be made clean!” And Jesus’ words brought about an instant transformation, which
leads us to the third part of the story: both men were changed by the exchange.
First, the leper
was changed. “Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.”
The next part of
this exchange is interesting. Jesus “sternly warned” the man and sent him away
with two instructions. First – “say nothing to anyone” and second – “go, show yourself
to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a
testimony to them.”
Remember that the
man’s problem was not only his disease, but his separation from society. So,
for the healing to be complete, the man had to be restored to the
community. For that, he would need to
follow the rules the community provided for such restoration.
Why did Jesus tell
the man not to say anything to anyone? This
is a puzzle. There is no one answer that
everyone agrees upon. The answer that
makes the most sense to me is that Jesus was on a mission to save the world – a
mission that would lead him to death on a cross. And while healing was a major
part of his ministry, it wasn’t the main point and he didn’t want people to be
distracted by it. He didn’t want his
main mission to be compromised
But, in fact, it
was. The man did not follow Jesus’
orders. Instead, we are told, “He went
out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word.” That’s when things changed for JESUS. Because
of the man’s proclamation, “Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but
stayed out in the country.”
A more literal
translation is that Jesus stayed out side the city in desert or wilderness
places. The word describing those places
is “eremos” which means solitary, lonely, desolate or uninhabited. Isn’t it
interesting that, before, the leper was cut off from the rest of the people and
now Jesus finds that he needs to remove himself from day-to-day life in the
community in order to control the response of the crowd.
Jesus is not alone
in the wilderness, however. Because of
the man’s proclamation, the people seek him out and find him there. Jesus’
healing changed the life of the man and, in exchange, Jesus’ life was changed,
too.
All three parts of
this story have something to say to us today.
Like the leper, we
are “unclean” because of our sin – cut off from fellowship with God. And just as the leper came to Jesus in
humility and faith to ask for healing, we, too, are encouraged to come to Jesus
recognizing our need for forgiveness and restoration, and Jesus’ power to make
us whole.
And just as Jesus
responded to the leper with compassion, so does he respond to us. Whatever our situation – whatever uncleanness
separates us from fellowship with God and with one another – whatever condition
deprives us of peace and wholeness – Jesus identifies with our grief and
reaches out to touch us in the midst of our brokenness and repentance.
And just as there
was an exchange of cause and effect between the leper and Jesus, there is an
exchange between Jesus and me, and between Jesus and you when we, by faith,
receive God’s grace and forgiveness.
Our sin is not
without consequence. The scripture tells us in Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin
is death.” For us to receive
forgiveness, Jesus had to take our sin upon himself and suffer the death that
is our rightful due.
The whole verse of
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Forgiveness and eternal life is free to
us, but it was very costly to Jesus. Isaiah 53:5 says, “But he was wounded for
our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment
that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.”
Jesus became unclean so that we could become
clean. He entered into our sin, so that
we could enter into his glory.
What a deal for us!
There is one big
difference in the story for us today, though.
Jesus isn’t telling us to keep quiet anymore. He calls us to tell everyone the good news of
salvation. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus gave
his disciples the great commission, “Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything that I have commanded you.”
As the leper
responded in spite of Jesus’ warning,
we are to respond because of Jesus’
command: proclaiming freely and spreading the word of God’s bountiful grace and
forgiveness that frees us and heals us and makes us whole by faith in the death
and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.
“I DO choose. Be
made clean!” Jesus told the leper who came to him in humility and brokenness
and faith. “I DO choose. Be made clean!
Be made whole. Be restored. Receive my peace, ” Jesus responds when we but ask.
Thanks be to God to
the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Let us
go out and share this good news which the world desperately needs to hear.