6th Sunday After the Epiphany
February 12, 2006
Rev. Dr. Kenneth Wieting
Text: Mark 1:40-45
To the Church of God at Luther Memorial Chapel and University Student Center, called as saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ, Dear Christians, cleansed by the blood of Christ;
A leper came to Him. He wasn’t supposed to. The Old Testament code of holiness prohibited such an act. Lepers were the preeminent class of the unclean. They were the lowliest of the low. The law made them outcasts, isolated and quarantined. If they journeyed, they were to stay at a far distance from any one else and cry out in a loud voice “unclean, unclean”. They were considered walking dead mean who were to warn others to keep their distance. Recall the king of Israel’s lament when he was asked to cure Naaman of his leprosy, “Am I God to kill and make alive…”
A leper came to Him. He wasn’t supposed to. Leprosy was a dread incurable and contagious disease. The outward infection that marred the skin usually went much deeper. Flesh was eaten away disfiguring face and limbs. Sometimes the rotting of the flesh left only stumps where hands and feet once were.
A leper came to Him. He wasn’t supposed to. Nobody was considered less worth caring about than a leper. Nobody was more feared and more excluded than one infected with this frightening disease. Perhaps he had heard from loved ones about the healing Jesus did at Capernaum. The details of his knowledge we are not told. But we are told, A Leper came to Him.
A leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” The Greek grammar indicates that the leper had no doubt that Jesus could heal him. The only question in his mind concerned the will of the one before whom he knelt. Would this healer of men bother with him? Would Jesus consider his isolated, hopeless lot with compassion? Did he, infected, disfigured, dirty, excluded, despised, matter to Jesus. He was at the Jesus’ point, the point where everything was up to Jesus. “If you will you can make me clean.”
The right action according to the law would have been for one approached by a leper to withdraw in horror. The safe action would have been to stand back. Modern day fears of a bird flu epidemic were far outweighed by ancient fears of a leprous outbreak. The prospect for contamination was real. The presence of medical help was rare. The requirements of the law were clear and caring. But Jesus is the Lord of the law.
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” Jesus is not subject to the law. He who made the law may set it aside. He does not abolish it, but He does fulfill it. He stretched out His hand and touched him. Behold Christ at work, both God and Man! He didn’t heal from a distance. Jesus reached out his hand to take hold of that rotting man. As He did so, he answered the man’s question with life-changing help. “If you will you can make me clean”. “I will; be clean.”
Beloved, this is the miracle! Jesus becomes unclean with the uncleanness of the leper. He touches the untouchable. He extends His hand to the outcast. He wills to help the helpless. Does Jesus care? Incredibly, He cares like no one else! The Lord of the law cares about someone cast out by the law. The Lord of all the world cares about someone so utterly rejected as a leper. Jesus sets aside the law that can identify the leper’s disease but cannot heal it. “If you will you can make me clean.” I will, be clean”. Without any fuss, without any show, the healing flowed from Jesus as if He couldn’t help it. “I will, be clean!”
And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to 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.” 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 desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.
First a word about Jesus’ command, “See that you say nothing to anyone.” This doesn’t seem to be very mission minded. With statements like this Jesus might get a negative review by modern day mission boards, even of our synod. The thought sometimes seems to be, “say something, even anything about Jesus to get results”. Don’t worry so much about doctrine – about Jesus words – just tell what you feel Jesus has done for you. Sometimes it seems as if the new gospel is “go tell”, whatever it is that you go and tell.
Some have therefore said that Jesus was using clever psychology, kind of like telling someone “it’s a secret”. The thought is that Jesus knew the man would then do just the opposite, which is what Jesus really wanted. But Jesus does not teach us how to manipulate one another. That skill we develop as infants. If screaming doesn’t work, maybe holding our breath will. No, Jesus was not playing mind games with the man he healed. In fact the healed leper’s blabber-mouthing of the miracle hindered Jesus. Jesus’ plan was to go to the towns preaching in the synagogues (1:38, 39). He was not superman Jesus or medical clinic Jesus. The message He preached in the synagogue was Jesus, friend and forgiver of sinners. But after the healed leper talked freely, Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places.” His stated plan was hindered by the disobedience of the healed leper.
When is it better for you not to tell about Jesus? When do you and I hinder Jesus by telling about Him? When we promote a jack-in-the-box Jesus! When we get carried away as a hot shot Christian with all the answers! When we misrepresent Jesus or get in His way! When we view others as a spiritual statistic - a notch in our evangelism belt! When we bubble so much that we unintentionally give the impression “why would my shiny Jesus bother with little old leprous you”.
By this I do not mean to discourage your witness to the healing forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Just the opposite! We are to bear witness to Him. But we are to do so with gentleness and respect. We are to do so in keeping with His words and will. We are to do so in view of the living hope He gives us dying sinners (I Peter 3:15, 16).
Second, what was involved with Jesus’ instructions, “go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”? In fact, it was a beautifully loaded act that took place in the presence of the priest. Two wild birds were presented. The neck of one was wrung and its blood was poured into an earthen pot filled with fresh water. The living bird and a hyssop brush were dipped into the bloody water. The bloody water was then sprinkled on the healed person seven times and he or she was formally declared clean. Next, the live bird that had been dipped in the bloody water was set free to return to its habitat in the open country. This symbolized the return of the healed person from the realm of the dead to the realm of the living. He was soon as free as a bird.
Fellow-redeemed, this man typifies the whole human race. All of us carry the leprosy of Adam’s sin. Unless we have kept the law of God perfectly and perpetually, God says we are guilty of the whole law. (James 2:10) If we are guilty of the whole law, then we are unclean. We have no hope to come into the presence of His holiness.
This is not a diagnosis that human speculation would ever devise. It points to ugliness and disfigurement within us that can’t be seen on the surface. It points to hearts that are infected with pride and pettiness and anger and lust and worry and fear and love of self that eats away at us and separates us from God. It is no mistake when scripture says that by nature we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2). Like the lepers were considered walking dead men, so we sinners are also dead to the true things of God in and of ourselves.
If the truth be known, like the leper, we are at the Jesus’ point. That is the point where everything is up to Him. Sometimes that gets through to us. Sometimes we might feel like lepers, on the outside looking in. Sometimes we might even prefer the isolation of a leper, alone in the dark, in our pride, in our loneliness, in our self-pity, in our despair. Sometimes we might feel shame that is deep and disfiguring, either from our own fault or the fault of others. The hurt of rape or physical abuse or verbal belittling can leave wounds that fester and grow deeper. Those wounds can infect our very heart. The true recognition of what we ourselves have done and left undone with our mind and our mouth and our means and our marvelous bodies can also help us see the disfiguring disease that clings to us.
Like the leper, we need to recognize that we are always at the Jesus’ point. We are always at the point where everything is up to Him. And what a beautiful joyful point to be at! His touching of the leper shows His taking the leprosy of our sin upon Himself! When we face the living God, the only question is whether He bothers about us? The gracious answer is “yes”. Jesus cares about you. Jesus cares like nobody else. The Lord of the law bothers about you who are cast down by the law. When you approach Him saying “If you will Lord, you can make me clean” He answers, “I will, be clean”. Moved with pity, He has stretched out His hand and touched you.
He still does this extraordinary cleansing in ordinary means, just like He did with Naaman. When the commander of the army of the king of Syria was told to go wash in the muddy Jordan seven times, he was angry. He wanted something flashy to be done. He wanted more impressive bodies of water to be used. He wanted some hand waving to be seen. He wanted a more striking and notable event to occur. He had a better plan for how his healing should take place.
But his servant came near and said to him, “My father it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Has Jesus actually said to you, “Wash and be clean”. It was His word by which you were baptized. It was His servants, not your own who brought you to those Holy waters, trusting in the Word of God. Has Jesus actually said to you “take and drink for the remission of sins.”? For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. It is a great word He has spoken to you, will you not do it? Just like with Naaman, He still uses the ordinary, water, bread and wine to do the extraordinary.
If you feel that you have a sin-caused wound that is too deep or shame that oozes too abundantly, that you are too leprous for Christ to touch and heal, your feelings are simply wrong. Behold Christ at work, both God and Man! He was made the leprosy of sin. (II Cor. 5:21) He joins us there in our uncleanness. Recall His own baptism in the Jordan River.
The prophet Isaiah said of the Messiah that He was “stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.” That Hebrew word for stricken is a frequent term in the Old Testament referring to the infection of skin diseases such as being stricken with leprosy. The suffering servant heals people from their uncleanness by being infected and afflicted for them. He was stricken even unto death (Is 53:8, 9).
Remember the cry of the leprous Christ in Gethsemane, “Father, If it be possible take this cup from me.” “Nevertheless, not my will but Thy will be done.” Dear Christians it can be no more certain. He who in our text stretched out his hand and touched the leper, had His own hands stretched out in leprous death on the cross. When He said to the Father, “If you will, you can take this cup from me”, the Father did not say “I will, be clean”. He said “I will not – be damned”. And He was damned in our leprous place! Now the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin (I John 1:7). Now the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin. The living Christ, risen from the grave brings that cleansing gift to you today.
Under the law, the leper wasn’t supposed to draw close to Jesus or anyone. Under the gospel, you are exhorted to draw close. “Come unto me all who are weary and heave laden and I will give you rest,” the Savior invites. Like the living bird washed in the blood of the slain bird, you are set free to return to your habitat. You have been freely returned to your dwelling place with God. That’s why Christ calls you His holy Bride and His very body. Because He is clean, you are clean.
If you are at the Jesus point, where you have no hope of working it out yourself, if you are sick to death of the sin that clings to you, take heart. The leper’s trust in Jesus was not misplaced. “If you will you can make me clean”. Neither is your trust in Him for healing misplaced. Jesus cares for you like nobody else. The one who runs the whole show says to you today, “I will, be clean.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
Rev. Dr. Kenneth Wieting
Text: Mark 1:40-45
To the Church of God at Luther Memorial Chapel and University Student Center, called as saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord, Jesus Christ, Dear Christians, cleansed by the blood of Christ;
A leper came to Him. He wasn’t supposed to. The Old Testament code of holiness prohibited such an act. Lepers were the preeminent class of the unclean. They were the lowliest of the low. The law made them outcasts, isolated and quarantined. If they journeyed, they were to stay at a far distance from any one else and cry out in a loud voice “unclean, unclean”. They were considered walking dead mean who were to warn others to keep their distance. Recall the king of Israel’s lament when he was asked to cure Naaman of his leprosy, “Am I God to kill and make alive…”
A leper came to Him. He wasn’t supposed to. Leprosy was a dread incurable and contagious disease. The outward infection that marred the skin usually went much deeper. Flesh was eaten away disfiguring face and limbs. Sometimes the rotting of the flesh left only stumps where hands and feet once were.
A leper came to Him. He wasn’t supposed to. Nobody was considered less worth caring about than a leper. Nobody was more feared and more excluded than one infected with this frightening disease. Perhaps he had heard from loved ones about the healing Jesus did at Capernaum. The details of his knowledge we are not told. But we are told, A Leper came to Him.
A leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” The Greek grammar indicates that the leper had no doubt that Jesus could heal him. The only question in his mind concerned the will of the one before whom he knelt. Would this healer of men bother with him? Would Jesus consider his isolated, hopeless lot with compassion? Did he, infected, disfigured, dirty, excluded, despised, matter to Jesus. He was at the Jesus’ point, the point where everything was up to Jesus. “If you will you can make me clean.”
The right action according to the law would have been for one approached by a leper to withdraw in horror. The safe action would have been to stand back. Modern day fears of a bird flu epidemic were far outweighed by ancient fears of a leprous outbreak. The prospect for contamination was real. The presence of medical help was rare. The requirements of the law were clear and caring. But Jesus is the Lord of the law.
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” Jesus is not subject to the law. He who made the law may set it aside. He does not abolish it, but He does fulfill it. He stretched out His hand and touched him. Behold Christ at work, both God and Man! He didn’t heal from a distance. Jesus reached out his hand to take hold of that rotting man. As He did so, he answered the man’s question with life-changing help. “If you will you can make me clean”. “I will; be clean.”
Beloved, this is the miracle! Jesus becomes unclean with the uncleanness of the leper. He touches the untouchable. He extends His hand to the outcast. He wills to help the helpless. Does Jesus care? Incredibly, He cares like no one else! The Lord of the law cares about someone cast out by the law. The Lord of all the world cares about someone so utterly rejected as a leper. Jesus sets aside the law that can identify the leper’s disease but cannot heal it. “If you will you can make me clean.” I will, be clean”. Without any fuss, without any show, the healing flowed from Jesus as if He couldn’t help it. “I will, be clean!”
And immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, and said to 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.” 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 desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.
First a word about Jesus’ command, “See that you say nothing to anyone.” This doesn’t seem to be very mission minded. With statements like this Jesus might get a negative review by modern day mission boards, even of our synod. The thought sometimes seems to be, “say something, even anything about Jesus to get results”. Don’t worry so much about doctrine – about Jesus words – just tell what you feel Jesus has done for you. Sometimes it seems as if the new gospel is “go tell”, whatever it is that you go and tell.
Some have therefore said that Jesus was using clever psychology, kind of like telling someone “it’s a secret”. The thought is that Jesus knew the man would then do just the opposite, which is what Jesus really wanted. But Jesus does not teach us how to manipulate one another. That skill we develop as infants. If screaming doesn’t work, maybe holding our breath will. No, Jesus was not playing mind games with the man he healed. In fact the healed leper’s blabber-mouthing of the miracle hindered Jesus. Jesus’ plan was to go to the towns preaching in the synagogues (1:38, 39). He was not superman Jesus or medical clinic Jesus. The message He preached in the synagogue was Jesus, friend and forgiver of sinners. But after the healed leper talked freely, Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places.” His stated plan was hindered by the disobedience of the healed leper.
When is it better for you not to tell about Jesus? When do you and I hinder Jesus by telling about Him? When we promote a jack-in-the-box Jesus! When we get carried away as a hot shot Christian with all the answers! When we misrepresent Jesus or get in His way! When we view others as a spiritual statistic - a notch in our evangelism belt! When we bubble so much that we unintentionally give the impression “why would my shiny Jesus bother with little old leprous you”.
By this I do not mean to discourage your witness to the healing forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Just the opposite! We are to bear witness to Him. But we are to do so with gentleness and respect. We are to do so in keeping with His words and will. We are to do so in view of the living hope He gives us dying sinners (I Peter 3:15, 16).
Second, what was involved with Jesus’ instructions, “go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”? In fact, it was a beautifully loaded act that took place in the presence of the priest. Two wild birds were presented. The neck of one was wrung and its blood was poured into an earthen pot filled with fresh water. The living bird and a hyssop brush were dipped into the bloody water. The bloody water was then sprinkled on the healed person seven times and he or she was formally declared clean. Next, the live bird that had been dipped in the bloody water was set free to return to its habitat in the open country. This symbolized the return of the healed person from the realm of the dead to the realm of the living. He was soon as free as a bird.
Fellow-redeemed, this man typifies the whole human race. All of us carry the leprosy of Adam’s sin. Unless we have kept the law of God perfectly and perpetually, God says we are guilty of the whole law. (James 2:10) If we are guilty of the whole law, then we are unclean. We have no hope to come into the presence of His holiness.
This is not a diagnosis that human speculation would ever devise. It points to ugliness and disfigurement within us that can’t be seen on the surface. It points to hearts that are infected with pride and pettiness and anger and lust and worry and fear and love of self that eats away at us and separates us from God. It is no mistake when scripture says that by nature we are dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2). Like the lepers were considered walking dead men, so we sinners are also dead to the true things of God in and of ourselves.
If the truth be known, like the leper, we are at the Jesus’ point. That is the point where everything is up to Him. Sometimes that gets through to us. Sometimes we might feel like lepers, on the outside looking in. Sometimes we might even prefer the isolation of a leper, alone in the dark, in our pride, in our loneliness, in our self-pity, in our despair. Sometimes we might feel shame that is deep and disfiguring, either from our own fault or the fault of others. The hurt of rape or physical abuse or verbal belittling can leave wounds that fester and grow deeper. Those wounds can infect our very heart. The true recognition of what we ourselves have done and left undone with our mind and our mouth and our means and our marvelous bodies can also help us see the disfiguring disease that clings to us.
Like the leper, we need to recognize that we are always at the Jesus’ point. We are always at the point where everything is up to Him. And what a beautiful joyful point to be at! His touching of the leper shows His taking the leprosy of our sin upon Himself! When we face the living God, the only question is whether He bothers about us? The gracious answer is “yes”. Jesus cares about you. Jesus cares like nobody else. The Lord of the law bothers about you who are cast down by the law. When you approach Him saying “If you will Lord, you can make me clean” He answers, “I will, be clean”. Moved with pity, He has stretched out His hand and touched you.
He still does this extraordinary cleansing in ordinary means, just like He did with Naaman. When the commander of the army of the king of Syria was told to go wash in the muddy Jordan seven times, he was angry. He wanted something flashy to be done. He wanted more impressive bodies of water to be used. He wanted some hand waving to be seen. He wanted a more striking and notable event to occur. He had a better plan for how his healing should take place.
But his servant came near and said to him, “My father it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you ‘Wash, and be clean’?” So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
Has Jesus actually said to you, “Wash and be clean”. It was His word by which you were baptized. It was His servants, not your own who brought you to those Holy waters, trusting in the Word of God. Has Jesus actually said to you “take and drink for the remission of sins.”? For where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation. It is a great word He has spoken to you, will you not do it? Just like with Naaman, He still uses the ordinary, water, bread and wine to do the extraordinary.
If you feel that you have a sin-caused wound that is too deep or shame that oozes too abundantly, that you are too leprous for Christ to touch and heal, your feelings are simply wrong. Behold Christ at work, both God and Man! He was made the leprosy of sin. (II Cor. 5:21) He joins us there in our uncleanness. Recall His own baptism in the Jordan River.
The prophet Isaiah said of the Messiah that He was “stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.” That Hebrew word for stricken is a frequent term in the Old Testament referring to the infection of skin diseases such as being stricken with leprosy. The suffering servant heals people from their uncleanness by being infected and afflicted for them. He was stricken even unto death (Is 53:8, 9).
Remember the cry of the leprous Christ in Gethsemane, “Father, If it be possible take this cup from me.” “Nevertheless, not my will but Thy will be done.” Dear Christians it can be no more certain. He who in our text stretched out his hand and touched the leper, had His own hands stretched out in leprous death on the cross. When He said to the Father, “If you will, you can take this cup from me”, the Father did not say “I will, be clean”. He said “I will not – be damned”. And He was damned in our leprous place! Now the blood of Jesus, His Son cleanses us from all sin (I John 1:7). Now the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin. The living Christ, risen from the grave brings that cleansing gift to you today.
Under the law, the leper wasn’t supposed to draw close to Jesus or anyone. Under the gospel, you are exhorted to draw close. “Come unto me all who are weary and heave laden and I will give you rest,” the Savior invites. Like the living bird washed in the blood of the slain bird, you are set free to return to your habitat. You have been freely returned to your dwelling place with God. That’s why Christ calls you His holy Bride and His very body. Because He is clean, you are clean.
If you are at the Jesus point, where you have no hope of working it out yourself, if you are sick to death of the sin that clings to you, take heart. The leper’s trust in Jesus was not misplaced. “If you will you can make me clean”. Neither is your trust in Him for healing misplaced. Jesus cares for you like nobody else. The one who runs the whole show says to you today, “I will, be clean.”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
posted by Luther Memorial Chapel at
2/13/2006
