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ISSN 2195-3171

6. Sunday after the Epiphany, 02/12/2012

Sermon on Mark 1:40-45, by Richard O. Johnson

And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, "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. -English Standard Version

Angola, Brazil, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, Nepal, Tanzania-nine nations on three continents where, according to the World Health Organization, leprosy remains a serious public health concern. In 2011 there were a quarter of a million new cases diagnosed-most of them in those nine nations. Few of us here today have ever met or even seen a person with this terrible disease; it is nearly non-existent in the developed world, in part because, with modern medical science, it is quite curable; in spite of that, it continues to cripple and maim people in many corners of the earth. And even today, the biggest issue with leprosy is the stigma attached to it. This is not restricted to Biblical times, nor to the ancient holy lands of Judaism and Christianity. In nearly all of these nations where leprosy is alive and well, the disease is regarded with superstition and fear. It is seen as the curse of God. People who have it are shunned, hidden away, kept out of society, isolated by fear and prejudice.

Unclean! Unclean!

I suppose most of us who enjoy movies have certain scenes that are etched in our memory, that we replay often in our minds. For me, it is that terrifying episode in the classic Ben-Hur. I suppose I was in junior high when I first saw it-saw the frightening images of the lepers who were forced to live apart from society, in caves in a steep ravine. Their family members would lower food to them in baskets. If, for some reason, the lepers were compelled to leave their place of confinement, they were required to call out "Unclean! Unclean!" if any healthy people approached them. People who saw them coming would throw stones to keep them at a distance. They were completely isolated.

And of course this is one powerful reason why leprosy in the Christian interpretation came to be seen as a metaphor for sin. The leper is us, you and I, disfigured and devastated by sin. We are created in the image of God, but sin scars us and defaces that image. It cuts us off from God, but perhaps even more it isolates us from one another. Luther often defined sin as the human being "turned in upon himself." Sin is, at its root, putting my needs, my desires, my wants, my concerns before everything else. And when that happens, I can no longer relate to other people in a healthy way.

"If you will . . ."

With that in mind, let's look more closely at the story as Mark tells it. It seems to me there are three things that bear attention here. The first is what the leper says: "If you will, you can make me clean." Now on the surface, that may seem an odd thing for him to say. It carries, in English, a little bit of a whining tone-sort of like, "If you really wanted to help me, you could."

But that's not it. Luther says, in a sermon on this story, that the leper's approach to Jesus is exactly that of the Christian. It is the embodiment of "thy will be done." It is a recognition that however much we may be convinced that we need this or that, however much we may desire a particular thing, the faithful approach to God is always one which says, with Jesus in Gethsemane, "nevertheless, not my will but your will be done." It is an acceptance of God's will as best for us, even if we cannot understand it.

And that is what makes this leper such an astonishing example of faith. He is in the worst possible condition. He has no one to turn to but Christ. And yet in his turning, he does not demand or cajole. He does not bargain. He does not offer a list of reasons why he deserves to be healed. He simply acknowledges his need-and then leaves it to Jesus. He turns himself over to the grace of God. "If it is your will, Lord," he says. It is, you see, in the humility of his approach that God's will is truly being done in him. "Faith," Luther says, "prays in a way that submits all to the gracious will of God."

Moved with pity

Now the next thing to notice is Jesus' reaction. He is "moved with pity." The Greek word there is very strong-it suggests a love and mercy that comes from the very depth of Jesus' heart. And that love, of course, is just how God always responds to us. God's always desires what is best for us.

The problem, of course, is that we don't always see it that way. Sometimes, let's be honest, we think that God has really messed things up. Sometimes we can't fathom why God allows this to happen, or that not to happen. Of course we experience a similar thing as parents, but from the other direction. Our children cannot understand why we won't let them do this, or won't allow them to have that. I don't suppose there is anyone here who has raised children who has never said, "I know you can't understand this now, but you'll have to trust me that I know what is best for you." Unfortunately, human beings, even parents, in fact don't always know what is best, though we do the best we can. But God does know what is best for us, and his actions toward us always arise out of that deep love, that amazing love, that unfathomable love, that he has for us.

He stretched out his hand and touched him

Then notice one thing more. "Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him." This may just be the most remarkable sentence in the entire New Testament. Lepers were unclean. Anyone who touched a leper not only put his own health at great risk, at least in the view of the time, but he defiled himself. Under Jewish law, touching a leper made you unclean. It meant that you, too, were cut off from God, cut off from other people. For Jesus to violate the Jewish law by touching this man was an astonishing thing!

So why did he do it? There is no doubt he could have simply spoken a word and healed the man in that way. There are plenty of examples of his doing that; we heard one just a couple of weeks ago, when he ordered an unclean spirit to come out of a man. Touching the leper could only get him in trouble; why do that, at this early point in his ministry?

The answer, of course, is very simple. As Frederick Dale Bruner has put it, "The gospel is in that grasp." Here is a man who, since he contracted this disease, has not been touched by another human being. Here is a man whose isolation is complete and terrifying, a man who has been cut off from God and from all other human beings. In some respects, we might say that the touch of Jesus is more important to him even than his healing.

The gospel is in that grasp

"The gospel is in that grasp." Jesus, by touching him, says to him, "You are no longer alone! You are no longer shunned, cut off. I am not afraid of you or your disease. I love you, just as you are." "The gospel is in that grasp."

How we human beings need that kind of touch! My congregation has been a regular participant in a "floating homeless shelter" in our community. On Wednesday nights, we provide housing and food to homeless people who are brought to our church from a central check-in facility. I know from conversations with some of my pastoral colleagues that not every congregation in town has been so open-hearted. But as wonderful as it is to provide food and shelter each Wednesday night, my observation has been that what is even more important is that there are people from the congregation who come and sit with our guests, eat with them, talk with them, treat them like human beings, like honored and respected friends. It is that kind of interaction that ministers not just to the body, but to the heart and soul. "The gospel is in that grasp."

And it is just that way with us, just that way as Jesus reaches out and grasps us with the gospel, the good news of God's mercy and love for us. We human beings are a miserable lot. We try to put on a good front, we try to hide the scars and the sores that the leprosy of our sin inflicts upon us. But we know that we are-well, as the old language of the prayer of confession used to put it, we are sinful and unclean.

But with the leper in our gospel lesson, we come to Jesus just as we are, as miserable and alone and isolated as we are. He reaches out and touches us. "The gospel is in that grasp," you see. "Of course I want to heal you," he says. "Of course! This is my body, given for you! This is my blood, shed for you. I forgive you. I love you. Let me hold you." "The gospel is in that grasp." And immediately-immediately-we are made clean.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen