6th Sunday after Epiphany
Mark 1:40-45
"Jesus Acted"
Our gospel lesson this morning shows us very clearly the compassion, the piety, and the love that Jesus had for people on this earth. Jesus was willing to walk with others as they suffered and also in some ways help those people who did suffer.
There is a story about Mrs. Booth, who along with her husband founded the Salvation Army, when she was a little girl running along the road with a hoop and a stick, she saw a prisoner dragging away by a policemen to jail. A mob was hooting and calling out names to the man, and his utter loneliness appealed at once to her heart; it seemed to her that he had not a friend in the world. So quickly, she sprang to his side and marched down the street with him determined that he should know that there was one person who felt for him whether he was innocent or guilty.
Jesus in the same kind of way, and even more so, walks with us in our guilt, in our brokenness, in our situations of life. We are not alone, but we have one who is willing to spring by our side, and be with us.
This point is illustrated very well for us this morning in our gospel lesson. A leper came to Jesus, and said "If you will, you can make me clean " Notice the exact words of this man, he comes to Jesus and says, "If you will" he was putting his whole life in the hands of Jesus. He was taking a risk and putting his whole life into the hands of this man.
Being a leper, this man was taking a chance that Jesus might walk away as the scribes and Pharisees did, or cast stones at him, or taunt him like many of the people were accustomed to doing, but he felt that Jesus was different, that this man might just be the one who could change his whole life.
So he approached Jesus, not demanding that Jesus do anything, but coming to him and letting Jesus’ will be done. He didn’t come to Jesus saying, you have to heal me, but he was willing to take a risk, saying If you will. In other words, he was saying to Jesus, I am putting my whole life into your hands, if you will you can cure me, and if you decide I shall remain this way, then so be it. Isn’t that an act of faith, a tremendous act of surrender, an attitude that tells us something about this man’s convictions, and this man’s belief in Jesus Christ.
Can you just imagine what must have been going on in that man’s mind. I think he might have had thought similar to these:
"There is Jesus, I have heard he has healed many people, I have heard he is a man of compassion and a man of power. I wonder if he car make me well?? No, I don’t wonder, I believe, I know deep within me that he can. I cannot go begging him to heal me, or demanding that he does, but I will go an ask that whatever he wills for my life, then so be it. I will approach Jesus and ask that his will be done in my life."
And we know the rest of the story, the text says that Jesus is moved with piety’ stretched out his hand and touched did him and said to him, " I will; be clean." And immediately the leprosy led him and he was made clean. Jesus didn’t forsake the man, he didn’t turn his back on him, he didn’t ignore him, he didn’t tell him he had to do something before he would act, Jesus was moved with petty and reached out to touch this man, and made him clean.
Jesus acted. Jesus acted because he knew how lonely, how miserable, how forsaken this man was. Jesus acted because no one else would. Jesus acted because the rest of society forsook this man, Jesus acted because this man’s own religion ignored him, because they couldn’t be bothered.
As we study this lesson, I think there are two points that come home to us. The first being the example of faith, trust and complete surrender of this leper.
I wonder how many of us could do what he did? I wonder how many of us can surrender our entire lives to him, letting his will he done in our lives.?? I wonder how many of us could say to Jesus, take my life and whatever you will for it, so be it?? That sounds very serious, very strange to us. But isn’t that what Christianity is all about? Surrendering ourselves to God, then letting his will of love be done in our lives.
Sometimes you and I don’t see God’s will so easily, nor do we understand his will for us, so then we I try to go it alone, depending on ourselves instead of him. But even though we cannot see at this present moment, nor see with hindsight God’s will, we must believe that he is not forsaking us to walk our pilgrimage alone, but he is with us, guiding us, helping us to carry our burdens and bringing into our lives his goodness and his love.
We must believe that. We must surrender to that. Sometimes it is not easy. Sometimes you and I want to rebel against God. Sometimes in all the upheaval, in all the heartache, in all the questions we have about life, we loose track of God. But we must believe he hasn’t loss track of us. God is there, and sometime in the future he will help us with his guiding hand.
I would like to tell you one just one story from my life where I saw the guiding hand of God not in the present moment, but many years down the road of life.
As most of you know I was a school teacher for three years before going into seminary. But what most of you don’t know is how I arrived at the decision to change my life’s vocation, because for the most part I really enjoyed teaching, and still do. Sometimes I feel I am still more of a teaching than a pastor.
But back to the subject. Wanda and I were teaching in her home town, and were becoming very active in the local church, I really enjoyed what I was doing in the church, and the teaching at school.
But then came January and I had a change of schedules at school, and I began to teach 7th grade health. Now this was the worse course taught in the middle school, the kids didn’t like, the teachers didn’t like teaching it. But I had to teach so I thought I would make the best of it.
But things didn’t go well, as a matter of fact they went awful. The kids who I had gotten along with very well the year before, figured it was my fault they had to take this course, so they took it out on me. We fought tooth and nail. During this time I got to thinking about my future, I had applied to go to summer school to start work on becoming a principal. But I also began to think about how much I enjoyed church work.
So during lent of that year, at the coffee hour, I approached my pastor and asked him if the church, in some kind of way, could use a full time teacher. Now I didn’t mean our church, but the national church. He didn’t hesitate, but immediately said, "Why don ’t you go to seminary and become a pastor." And I said, you have got to be kidding.
Well we spend many long hours Wanda and I talking, praying about this. Finally we reached a decision that we would give up our jobs, move to Dubuque for a year, and if I liked seminary we would stay. We moved in June after I was accepted, moved without either of us having a job, but Wanda found one and I found a part-time one using my teaching skills.
I enjoyed seminary and here I am. Now if it weren’t for those 7th graders and the awful health class, I might still be teaching. But God’s hand works in mysterious ways. He asks us to believe that he is working even when we cannot see him, even when things aren’t going well for us, God is still working and I believe, eventually, as we look back over our pilgrimage on this earth, we will see how he had definitely guided our lives.
The second lesson we can learn from this text is seen in Jesus’ hand reaching out to the leper and bringing a measure of peace and comfort into his life. Today, we as the church are Jesus’ hands in this world. We, who are little Christ’s, are the hand of compassion, the hand of piety; the hand of love in a world that is crying for someone to care. As we see people hurting, as we see people living with burdens, as we see people afflicted with disease, we are compelled as Jesus was to reach out a hand to try with all of our strength to bring some measure of peace and comfort into that person’s live.
In the movie "The Elephant Man" tells the heart-rending story about a human genetic accident of a man named Mr. John Merrick.. He was raised as a sideshow freak repulsive to look at and value to his owner only for the money earned from his display. John needed to be touched by someone, he longed for it.
John Merrick was befriended by a doctor who not only wanted to study his condition, but also believed that a sensitive spirit lived in his distorted flesh. He sought to assimilate Merrick into society, but most people were slow to accept this. There is a scene in the film in which Merrick is pursued by a group of taunters and cornered in a public restroom. As the crowd presses upon-him he cries out, " I and not an animal; I am a man! ! "
As Christians, as children of God, we have a duty, a responsibility, to respect the God given spirit in all of God’s ’s creature whether they be like us or different from us, by color of skin, or nationality, or some physical defect. Jesus was not turned back by the repulsiveness of the leper, and he doesn’t want us to turn our backs on those people who society says are different, are in the minority, or not like what we claim to be normal. Jesus wants us to minister to people regardless of who they are, or what they have. Jesus wants us to reach out to people with the same measure of compassion, with the same measure of concern as he reached out to the leper 2000 years ago.
We have seen today, the faith of a leper who was willing to surrender his life over to Jesus. We have seen Jesus response of love and compassion. We have learn that we are to be like the leper, to surrender our lives to Jesus.
And we learned we are to be like Jesus, we are to respond to the needs of others with the same measure of compassion and love as Jesus had.
Amen
