“I Am Willing; Be Cleansed”

Mark 01:40-45

Epiphany 6B

February 12, 2006

Mark 01:40-45

[Mk 1:40] And a leper *came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, If You are willing, You can make me clean. [41] Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and *said to him, I am willing; be cleansed. [42] Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. [43] And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, [44] and He *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, as a testimony to them. [45] But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.

Mark 01:40-42

I am willing...

There is nothing inactive about the Jesus of Mark's Gospel. He shows us a “Messiah on the Move” whose mission is articulated from the first chapter on:

Mark 1:38-39

[Mk 1:38] He *said to them, Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came for. [39] And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out the demons.

How long has it been since my Jesus was “On The Move?”

In fact, the Jesus that Mark shows us is determined to find the lost and is willing to heal the least wanted—for that was the status of lepers. Indeed, this whole conversation would have begun from a distance for if the leper approached Jesus the leper could have been stoned to death. No matter who initiated the conversation, we see four things occur:

1. Jesus put himself in a position where the most excluded members of his community have direct access to him;

2. Jesus crosses the barrier of ritual and repulsion to embrace this most rejected man;

3. Jesus not only crosses the barrier of ritual; but this leper broke the law by approaching Jesus. Jesus rises over the law to offer compassion and over judgment to offer love. Jesus loves this sinner even while he is in the act of sinning!

4. Finally, Jesus is willing to cleanse him.

The term willing [NT2309 thelo] is used for delight. It is God's delight to seek us when we are lost and cleanse us. The term for “God is willing” is also the term for “God’s will.” Furthermore, “God's will” and “God's delight” are interchangeable concepts. If we want to be in God's will then we will seek to delight him. If we want to delight him we must be willing to cleanse others.

It is God's delight to show us his will:

Psalm 37:4-6

[Ps 37:4] Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.

[5] Commit your way to the LORD, trust also in Him, and He will do it.

[6] He will bring forth your righteousness as the light and your judgment as the noonday.

Through Jesus we see the will of God in action: Determined and willing to cleanse the least included. Does that describe us? Does that look like our church? Is that how the “least included” would describe our mission?

“Be cleansed.”

What does the leper ask when he says, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” He was probably asking for physical healing. But because leprosy was such a contagious disease, healing would also allow him to return to his family, his community, his synagogue, and his life of work. Being cleansed would restore his total dignity!

He lived in a culture that blamed mishaps and physical ailments on the victim. If you were a leper, it was plainly assumed that you had wronged God. By cleansing him Jesus would also be restoring him to God!

The term “to cleanse [2511 katharizo],” means both to clean and to make innocent. The healing of Jesus gives us both qualities! The healing of Jesus gives total restoration to the outcast; it restores dignity and relationship and destroys the sins of the past. When we heal in Christ's name we restore dignity and relationship to those who are the most ostracized, the most labeled, and the most rejected in our neighborhood and in our world. Jesus turns our lives from quiet desperation to excited expectation with one sentence: “I am willing; be cleansed.”

“Immediately the leprosy left him...”

In Mark we see not only the immediacy of Jesus to respond to the needs around him; but we also see an amazing immediacy of the world to respond to him!

The horrific disease of leprosy does not linger with the leper. The disease doesn't gradually dry up and go away. The disease immediately leaves his ravaged body. Just as (in Mark 1:25-26) the demon is immediately cast from the synagogue and (in Mark 1:30) Jesus goes to immediately heal Peter's mother-in-law. There is no lingering in Jesus' compassion and no dallying in the world's response.

Is it any wonder that the Apostle's response to the work of Jesus while on the sea of Galilee is, “They became very much afraid and said to one another, 'Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him [Mk 4:41]?’”

It is as though the world is nothing more than an unbridled beast seeking the touch of the Master's hand. Look closely at Mark 1:12-13: Immediately the Spirit *impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. [13] And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.

Isn’t this the world prophesied by Hosea and Isaiah?

Hosea 2:18

[Ho 2:18] In that day I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land, and will make them lie down in safety.

Isaiah 11:6-9

[Isa 11:6] And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them.

[7] Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

[8] The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.

[9] They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

For now, man is at the whim of the world’s unleashed fury, Satan manipulates it to his ends, but Jesus is the master of all forces and the beast melts to his commanding touch.

Do we still stand in awe of the Master's touch like the disciples on the Sea of Galilee or has his awesome power become invisible to us? Do we think Jesus is less present today than he was two thousand years ago? If so, it is because we are fishing in all the wrong spots. The apostles saw the demon succumb because they were with the man who could recognize demons in the flesh; Satan could not pull the wool over Christ's eyes like he had done to the religious leaders of his time. The apostles saw Jesus heal the sick because they brought the sick to Jesus in blind expectation and absolute faith. The apostles saw the leper healed because they were willing to follow Jesus to a place frequented by lepers. And the apostles saw the seas obey the Savior because they followed him out onto stormy waters.

If I would go where Jesus would go I would see what his apostles had seen. Miracles occur daily at the fringes of our society, in the stormy, tumultuous, places where people are still labeled for their diseases or blamed for their “victimhood.” Will I let my Savior lead me there today?

Mark 1:43-45

[43] And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, [44] and He *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, as a testimony to them. [45] But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.

See that you say nothing to anyone...

Why would Jesus make such an impossible demand on anyone? How could this leper possibly keep quiet regarding his miraculous healing?

First, we must notice that Jesus did not rescind his healing just because the man became a blabbermouth. Yet, all too often we also blab about Jesus without letting the “facts just speak for themselves.”

Jesus didn't want swarms to overrun him for surface healing as if he was some tent healer come to town to walk off with a few grand in greenbacks. Faith healers and false messiahs had preyed upon Israel's hopes in Christ’s day just as they do today among the needy and the despondent. Jesus wanted time for a deeper revolution to take root in Israel: A revolution of the heart and not just on face value. Yet, it as though justice and compassion had a life of its own in Jesus; he could not allow demonic deception or physical degeneration wherever he saw it.

From our point of view, we must be wary of the Jesus we present as well. We must be wary that our words do not out speak the Savior's depth in our lives. How deep does our healing go?

Are we seeking a Jesus who will just heal us on a surface level but go no deeper? “Jesus heal my debts.” “Jesus change others and not me.” “Jesus help my life be comfortable and my home team win.”

How often do I run around and preach about a Jesus I have not followed to the possessed, the lepers, or the stormy seas?

Before I preach about what Jesus has done in my little life do I even grasp what his intent is for the whole of history? Do I get the whole aspect of communal salvation or am I still caught up with my own personal, “It's all about me,” thing?

Francis of Assisi said it so wonderfully; “Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary use words.”

Let us wait and serve longer in our silence with Jesus until the full gospel is preached within us. Not the “gospel about me” (in which Jesus is but a supporting character), but instead, the gospel of Jesus Christ which eventually sends me out among the possessed, labeled, and out into the stormy seas of our world. Let us move beyond the “loud-mouthed leper” who misses the communal point of the gospel and runs through life telling everyone; “Look what Jesus did for me.” Instead, he could be seeking others of his own kind saying; “My Lord can restore you too!” Let's hold our tongues and deepen our actions until we know the communal story of salvation and not just my personal viewpoint.

Copyright Notice

“Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1988. Used by permission.”

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