Made Clean ~ Mark 1:40-45 ~ Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Today we hear the second of a total of ten healing stories in the Gospel of Mark.

With every healing story we are challenged to listen very closely to the text—because Jesus’ was doing far more than just healing a mortal body…

God didn’t send Jesus to earth to be a healer; God sent Jesus to be our Savior.

So when the sick and the demon-possessed came to Jesus, his healings served the purpose of revealing God’s compassion and the mercy of God toward those who sin and those who suffer.  It was Jesus’ compassionate acts for people brought them to faith—and it was by faith that they received God’s gift of salvation.

So when you hear a healing story, don’t hear it as a story of what can happen in your life if you have enough faith—because that’s not their point.  It is so very easy to hear these healing stories think to yourself, “if I had the faith of this person, I wouldn’t be sick; I wouldn’t be in need; I wouldn’t have this depression; ...  I would be cured.”   When we suffer, it is very hard to have faith; it is very hard to put your trust in God.  If we hear the healing stories in this way, we’re going to feel guilty for not having enough faith.

When you hear a healing story, hear it as a story of Jesus’ love and Jesus’ compassion for you in your time of need.  And remember that it is Jesus’ work in our lives that gives us the faith to believe and trust in him.

 

In today’s healing story, there is a man with leprosy who comes to Jesus, falls on his knees, and cries out “if you are willing, you can me clean.”

Now in biblical times, leprosy was just about the worst thing that could happen to a person.

It was excruciatingly painful.  You would be covered with painful sores on your skin—and the disease would even afflict your bones, your muscles, and your joints.

And leprosy was highly contagious.  You could contract leprosy even by touching the clothing of a leprous person—or going their house.

Since leprosy was so dreaded by society, lepers were expelled from their homes and families.  You were driven out of town and forced to live in total isolation.

You were unclean, as the laws of Leviticus chapters 13 and 14 stipulate.  You were absolutely forbidden to participate in the religious life of your community.  You were, in essence, cut off from God. 

It was even believed that people with leprosy were cursed by God. 

With leprosy, you were no longer a person.  You were your disease; you were a scourge to be discarded from society like trash in a landfill…

So a person having leprosy certainly had no business pushing his way through a crowd to get to Jesus.  And he had no reason to expect Jesus to do anything else but run away from him as his legs could carry him.  Jesus was unholy; the leper was unclean...  But Jesus doesn’t run away from the leper…

And the leper does not asked to be well...  He doesn’t ask Jesus to cure him...  He doesn’t really ask for anything; he simply declares to Jesus his faith: “if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

And Jesus, full of compassion, stretches out his hand, touching the leper, and says “I am willing.  Be made clean.” 

In that moment, the leper is made clean.  He is no longer cut off from human contact; he is no longer a disease; he is no longer cut off from God…  Jesus makes him a whole person with a place in the family of God.

But at the same time, Jesus becomes unclean when he touches the leper.  Jesus willingly becomes unclean so that the leper can be restored to God.  That is what a savior does. 

Our savior is willing to reach out his compassionate hand to you in your uncleanness.  After all, Jesus is not the Savior of those who are clean; Jesus is the Savior of those who are unclean.  The holy Son of God us amid the wreckage of our sin; the holy Son of God meets us in the misery of our suffering—even in those times when we feel as though there’s no God to even believe in. 

By Jesus’ own healing touch, our gravest sins and our illnesses and our weaknesses no longer rule over our lives.  We become whole persons; beloved children of God; forgiven unconditionally; bound for eternal life in the presence of Christ.

And while we will never understand God’s ways as to why we suffer and why sometimes our prayers for (physical) healing get answered and others do not, there is one prayer we can pray with utmost, absolute confidence… 

We can approach Jesus Christ (just like the leper did) and be made clean.  We don’t have to achieve a certain level of holiness to come to Christ—we can come to him just as we are right now.  He is willing to make you clean; he is willing to extend his compassionate healing hand to you.  Jesus is working to deliver you through your present trials so to bring you, at the last, to your eternal salvation.  Jesus is working in your life so that you can have faith and believe in these promises.

The healing we need most of all is the healing that is given—the healing of knowing that our sins are unconditionally forgiven; the healing of knowing that there is life after death. 

Today, Christ announces to you: “child of God, you are made clean.  Go now, and live in the everlasting love of your God.”