Sermon from Sunday
Feb. 12, 2012…. Mark 1:4-45
How did you make out last week with connecting people with care needs with people who needed callings?
What did you discover?
My prayer is that you continue to look for ways to connect people who need a calling with those who are in need of care.
Prayer
We are finally finishing the 1st chapter of Mark today. Did you know more than half of the chapter is been devoted to Jesus healing people. From the demon possessed man to Peter’s mother-in-law, to countless others, and now a man with leprosy. Ironically, it’s not over… Jesus healing people… even though has said in Vs 38, “That he must go to other towns to tell (Preach) the good news.” And, if you look ahead in your bibles, you will see that chapter 2 and 3 begin with stories of… you guessed it… healing. The healing aspect of Jesus’ ministry is far from over.
So… as we finish the 1st chapter of Mark, our story today and the first chapter of Mark can be summed up with “4 Words”.
I’m going to read the story again, you can follow along, and I would like to invite you to jot down 4 words that come to mind that describe Jesus. There is not a right/wrong exercise, but a way to help summarize our last story in this chapter to better understand what Jesus is really up to.
READ STORY>>>> A man with leprosy came to Jesus and knelt down. He begged, "You have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to." Jesus felt sorry for the man. So he put his hand on him and said, "I want to! Now you are well." At once the man's leprosy disappeared, and he was well. After Jesus strictly warned the man, he sent him on his way. He said, "Don't tell anyone about this. Just go and show the priest that you are well. Then take a gift to the temple as Moses commanded, and everyone will know that you have been healed."
I’d be interested in hearing some of your words…
I’ve come up with four words I believe describes Jesus and have the capacity to even transform our lives today….
They are…
#1. “Compassion”
Mark doesn’t often relate Jesus’ emotional state, be he does in this story. We often fail to understand the mood and tone of Jesus’ words because of the language difference between the English and Greek. But when the leper approaches Jesus, Jesus is immediately moved to compassion. The Contemporary English Version (CEV) translation that I have says, “Jesus felt sorry for him” New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) states, “Moved with pity”. If you notice… Jesus is not saying what you might expect from an observant Jew. The Jew might say, “What are you doing? Don’t touch me.” Or “Get away from me, I can’t touch you.” Or perhaps something we might say,, “Get up from the ground you idiot, your embarrassing me.” Jews wouldn’t touch or better yet not even be around someone like this leper… it was just not appropriate to do. But Jesus doesn’t do this….NO!!! Jesus places no judgment here…. Rather He has compassion for the man. One could understand how the man might feel some judgment even from God… many of us may see God as judgmental. However, this is not what’s happening here. I believe what we’re seeing here is a God who sent Jesus into the world to demonstrate that He… God is really not a judgmental God, but a compassionate God, and this leper is now experiencing this.
#2. “Touch”
There’s and intimacy taking place here that we often take for granted. Just as in last week’s story of Peter’s mother-in-law as well as with the leper today, Jesus touches the person in need. Jesus takes hold of Peter’s mother-in-law’s hand… and Jesus put his hand on the leper. There’s an intimate experience taking place and one that forces us to pause…. Touch becomes a conduit to care for take place.
Ask the elderly, or those with illness. Ask the home-bound person, or those who are isolated just how rarely they experience human touch, and when they do, the joy and healing they experience. I often hold the hand when I pray with a person that is home-bound or hospitalized. Human touch is one of the few gestures that demonstrate love, care, and healing. Of course, there is inappropriate touch that is harmful and wrong and we need to make sure we don’t cross those lines of life-killing. However, there is appropriate touch that is life-giving and brings hope and healing. Of course, Jesus could have spoken healing as he did with others and he could have raised his hands and commanded healing which he did with some. But, in our story today Jesus touches this man and something spectacular happens. The leper is full of joy and commences sharing this life-giving event.
#3. “Willing”
Jesus was a willing participant in responding to this man’s plea. A leper was a low value person in Jesus’ day. He was a person on the margins, and often forced to live off the little generosity of those with means. Having leprosy in Jesus’ day meant a person was disregarded by society. Shunned… and while this leper was a diseased person, leprosy wasn’t always and illness, but could have been and human malady, and while leprosy is all but vanished in our country we still have our lepers. Remember about 20 or so years ago, we shunned people with Aids… we still do to some extent.
What about physically challenged people.
What about abnormal disabilities or physical disfigurements…
What is our usual response when they are struggling? Often, we will just stare at them and do nothing.
But Jesus doesn’t… Jesus takes the risk and is willing to touch the untouchable and healing happens. Jesus just demonstrates God’s love, grace, and mercy and eagerly blesses the man.
#4. “Love and Loneliness”
Yes I know… this is two words, but it’s the words that came to me while I was reflecting on the story. While Jesus’ love and acts of mercy are given freely, they do come at a cost. Jesus heals and restores this man to his community, however, Jesus can no longer travel freely. It will be a lonely road for Jesus from now on.
Jesus tells the man to not say anything and commands the man to only go to the priests to show he is whole, but that’s not good enough. The healed man just starts shouting it out… Jesus has healed me… Jesus healed me and shares it with everyone who will listen to him. When you look closely at the Greek words, Jesus is not happy about this. The intensity of the words used here are emphatic and that of anger. Our English translations temper this in part because English speakers don’t want to see an angry Jesus.
But think about it… Love costs us something doesn’t? In Jesus’ case, he’s becoming all too popular and people are now coming from all over wanting Jesus to help them. He can no longer be alone. For us, when we love someone we must give up something… right… loving our spouse, our kids, parents… Love Costs something… it’s no longer just about us. We have to lose something so that we can love the other. Love costs something.
There you have it… These are my “4 Words”… maybe 5 words that describes Jesus for me… maybe you have some different words… no matter the words, I hope you these words have help transform your life with Jesus.
I’d like to close with this story…
Barbara was 31 and a mother of three children. And she was staring at possible thyroid cancer.
As she awaited the results of the tests, she revisited what she knew of her faith and found that she had more than a "little faith" in God. Dale Matthews tells the story: "Given her intimate familiarity with the Gospels, it is not surprising that Barbara found a metaphor for her personal healing in a Bible passage. One Sunday, as she was praying in church, the gospel story of the woman with a hemorrhage kept coming into her mind .... "[The woman] wanted to be healed but she didn't want to bother Jesus, so she approached him in a crowd and touched his robe," Barbara explained. "Of course, Jesus knew what happened and praised the woman for her faith. I wanted to be like that woman."
"As Barbara prepared to go up to the altar for Communion, she suddenly thought, "I could be like her.' An Episcopalian, Barbara viewed the priest who was presiding at the Holy Eucharist as a "stand-in' for Jesus during the service. She decided she would touch the priest's robe when he gave her the Communion wafer.
"I touched his robe, and he couldn't have known that I did, though he did know about my cancer," she remembered. "He did something in that moment that I had never seen him do before: He put down the paten with the Communion wafers and came over to me; laying both hands on my head, he prayed for my healing."
"After receiving the Communion wine, Barbara stood up at the altar. "I was so overwhelmed with God's love that I knew I was healed," she said. "My healing wasn't physical at that point, but my heart was healed. I wasn't anxious or afraid or doubtful or sad at all. I had complete trust in God and his love, something he knew I needed far more than any other kind of healing at that moment."
"A few weeks after her healing at the altar rail, Barbara's surgery revealed that the lump [on her neck] was indeed thyroid cancer. She went through treatments then, and six months later for a recurrence. Somehow the medical treatments, too, seemed to be directly from God: "I felt that God had simply completed a healing he had started at the altar at church."
"Today, Barbara is healthy and leads a full and prayerful life. Her youngest child is in college; the God-given sense of assurance she received in 1979 as the mother of three young children has been borne out in her life."
As she awaited the results of the tests, she revisited what she knew of her faith and found that she had more than a "little faith" in God. Dale Matthews tells the story: "Given her intimate familiarity with the Gospels, it is not surprising that Barbara found a metaphor for her personal healing in a Bible passage. One Sunday, as she was praying in church, the gospel story of the woman with a hemorrhage kept coming into her mind .... "[The woman] wanted to be healed but she didn't want to bother Jesus, so she approached him in a crowd and touched his robe," Barbara explained. "Of course, Jesus knew what happened and praised the woman for her faith. I wanted to be like that woman."
"As Barbara prepared to go up to the altar for Communion, she suddenly thought, "I could be like her.' An Episcopalian, Barbara viewed the priest who was presiding at the Holy Eucharist as a "stand-in' for Jesus during the service. She decided she would touch the priest's robe when he gave her the Communion wafer.
"I touched his robe, and he couldn't have known that I did, though he did know about my cancer," she remembered. "He did something in that moment that I had never seen him do before: He put down the paten with the Communion wafers and came over to me; laying both hands on my head, he prayed for my healing."
"After receiving the Communion wine, Barbara stood up at the altar. "I was so overwhelmed with God's love that I knew I was healed," she said. "My healing wasn't physical at that point, but my heart was healed. I wasn't anxious or afraid or doubtful or sad at all. I had complete trust in God and his love, something he knew I needed far more than any other kind of healing at that moment."
"A few weeks after her healing at the altar rail, Barbara's surgery revealed that the lump [on her neck] was indeed thyroid cancer. She went through treatments then, and six months later for a recurrence. Somehow the medical treatments, too, seemed to be directly from God: "I felt that God had simply completed a healing he had started at the altar at church."
"Today, Barbara is healthy and leads a full and prayerful life. Her youngest child is in college; the God-given sense of assurance she received in 1979 as the mother of three young children has been borne out in her life."
--Dale A. Matthews, The Faith Factor (New York: Viking, 1998), 62-63.
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