So to begin our summer series Gospel Encounters we turn to Mark 1:40-45. Follow along as I read it…
“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.”
Two powerful realities stand forth from this text, that if embraced and enjoyed, would truly transform our lives. What are these two realities? The Plight of the Leper and the Power of Christ.
The Plight of the Leper (v40)
In v40 we see who came to Christ, how they came to Christ, and why they came to Christ.[1]
First, see the who. Question: who came to Christ in v40? Answer: it was a leper. That word is a bit at a distance from most of us in the modern western world, so what is this disease? Leprosy, or the modern term Hansen’s disease, is a term that covers many skin diseases.[2] It’s a condition that attacks the skin of a person, but it’s more than that. The disease acts as anesthetic, bringing numbness to ones extremities, even to the eyes, ears, and nose. This numbness leads to many further injuries.[3] Grabbing something that’s too hot or washing in scalding water and you burn. Gripping a tool so tightly over and over that your hand turns in on itself becoming stumplike over time. Shaving with a blade too sharp and you cut yourself. Doctors in third world countries will often find that rats and other rodents sometimes chew on sleeping lepers all through the night because they can’t feel it. So because of this they will often prescribe getting a cat just to keep the rodents away. What ends up happening over time from this numbness and these injuries is that most lepers lose fingers, toes, they break bones easily, some have even scratched off their noses. And as you can imagine, from all this, lepers tend to look and smell alarming, like a walking corpse.[4]
And that’s just the physical consequences. The relational consequences are just as massive. Once the disease sets in and you begin experiencing these effects, it simply destroys all human interaction. In the first century both the leper and their leprosy were feared, dreaded even, and to keep it from spreading lepers were separated from the rest of society, and grouped together with others who had the disease. In OT law lepers weren’t allowed into the temple to worship, and if they ever got near anyone they had to cry out “Unclean!” It was often thought those with leprosy were under divine judgment, that for committing wicked sins God had judged them with a kind of living death.[5] By the time of Jesus the Jews had made even more regulations around lepers.[6] They made it illegal to greet a leper. If a leper entered a home, they would pronounce the home unclean. And on a windy day there were exact rules about how far a leper had to stay away from everyone else.
To put it simply, a leper was thought of as a most unholy creature, and were treated as if they were dead. It is with this knowledge in mind that makes this present moment so significant.[7]
Now see how the leper came to Jesus in v40. The words describing this in v40 are very telling. There we read the leper came to Jesus imploring and kneeling before Him. These two words display great courage and great faith in the leper. In order to come close to Jesus at all, he was breaking all kinds of cultural and religious boundaries, but he came anyway. And he came close enough to Jesus to kneel before Him and plead with Him. It would’ve been as uncomfortable and taboo to witness this occur in their day as it would be for us to see someone going to the bathroom in public today. It was unthinkable, shocking, offensive…but he came to Jesus anyway! How could he have done such a thing? Well the passages in Mark before this moment might have an answer for us. Earlier in chapter 1 we see Jesus casting out a demon from a man in the synagogue. And in v27-28 we read, “And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee.” Directly after this Jesus goes into Simon’s home where He heals his mother-in-law from a fever. Then that evening everyone in town began bringing the sick and oppressed to Jesus such that the whole city was at His door. And He healed many, and cast out many demons. When morning came Jesus left and went off by Himself. Simon tracked Him down eventually and said in v37, “Everyone is looking for you.” The next scene is when we see the leper coming to Jesus. Again I ask, how could the leper have done such a thing, coming so close to Jesus? The answer is clear. The leper heard all the buzz around town, and he became convinced that if Jesus had healed others, Jesus could heal him.
This of course leads us to the why. We’ve seen the who, and the how. Now see the why. And the why is simple. The leper comes to Jesus to be healed. The leper asks this question kneeling before Jesus, “If you will, you can make me clean.” There is no mistaking it. The leper did not say, if you can…but if you will. This leper knew Jesus could do it, he just wasn’t sure if Jesus would do it.[8] Healing isn’t something he can claim as his right. He knows he’s at the mercy of Jesus who owes him nothing at all.[9] Yet see his courage in his asking Jesus to do the impossible. To do what only God could do. Because he knows his desperate condition, that his life is over unless something miraculous occurs. So he comes to Jesus humbly begging for rescue. This is the plight of the leper.
The Power of Christ (v41-45)
Directly after we hear the pleading of the leper we read in v41 that Jesus was, “Moved with pity…” The heart of Christ is bright with color in this moment. The word here in Greek is the word splangchnizomai. This word carries with it the meaning of not only one being deeply moved, but being so moved within that its as if ones innards and guts even bowels are moved. It’s a deep feeling within that leads one to action in view here. How encouraging is it for us to see Jesus react like this when the leper makes his plea. Jesus doesn’t shirk him off, ignore him, or back away in fear or dread or repulsion of his condition. No. Despite all the cultural barriers being crossed, Jesus sees this man hears his request and His insides churn with compassion for this man.
I do think this is what’s in view. There is another option for this word. Other translations say ‘moved with anger’ or ‘feeling great indignation.’[10] And while at first that might seem to be a contradictory reading of this verse, there are times in the gospels when this same word is used to describe Jesus growing very angry. But the anger in view isn’t at the people around him, but at sin and its effects on the people around Him. One moment this happens is at the tomb of Lazarus when Jesus wept. That word wept is the Greek word for a deep seated anger. So something of the same really could be present here as Jesus sees this leprous man asking for healing. The heart of Christ is so great with mercy toward sinners that His anger at kindled when He sees sin’s ruinous wake.
What does Jesus do being so moved within? v41 continues on saying, “…he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” Jesus did the unthinkable here in touching this man.[11] This man likely hadn’t been touched in years. No handshake, no pat on the shoulder, no embrace, because it would’ve been dangerous for others to do this. It’s not surprising either that all these laws were put place for lepers to avoid this very thing, they must be so isolated from everyone else. Lev. 5:3 even says anyone who touches a leper will become unclean themselves. But Jesus isn’t like everyone else, is He? No. He reaches out His hand and touches this man. And it was dangerous to do so. But in this case it was dangerous for the leprosy not Jesus, because His purity is stronger and more powerful and more contagious than the leper’s disease. Touching the leper doesn’t make Jesus unclean, rather, it makes the leper clean.[12]
This is when we hear Jesus’ words, “I will; be clean.” J.C. Ryle comments on this moment saying, “That very instant the deadly plague departed from the poor sufferer, and he was healed. It is but a word, and a touch, and there stands before the Lord, not a leper, but a sound and healthy man.”[13] Whatever physical wounds this man had in that moment were made right. Scabs, wounds, bruises, missing fingers and toes, all of it instantly healed. This is an awesome moment. This is a kind of new creation, a resurrection from the dead of sorts, a moment like Genesis 1, but perhaps greater than Genesis 1 because in here sin and all of its physical ruin in this man’s life is done away with.
The touch of Jesus is so significant, from three points of view.[14] From the perspective of the leper we can only imagine what this meant to him. Not only to be touched for the first time in a long time, but to be healed by Christ would’ve begun a whole new life for him. It strengthened and deepened his convictions about who Jesus was and created in him an ocean of gratitude from that day forth. From the perspective of the crowd, it would’ve been another display of great power and more confirmation that the Messiah long anticipated had truly arrived. And from the perspective of Jesus and His relationship to the OT law, it indicated that something was happening in His ministry that transcended all the OT rituals and purity laws. I think this is an occasion where we see Jesus keeping the law of God and breaking all the rules of man. God had commanded love to neighbor, and Jesus truly loved this man profoundly in this healing. Yet Jesus did not hesitate to break all the religious rules man had made about lepers.
Something new was indeed occurring before their very eyes. We see more of this ‘newness’ in where this passage goes next in v43-44. There Jesus instructs the healed man to be silent, to tell nothing of this to anyone but instead to go at once and see the priests, in accord with Moses, and notice the reason “…for a proof to them.” Now, this might seem strange because why does Jesus seem to respect the OT laws now when He did not earlier in touching the leper? Well, I don’t think that is what’s occurring here. Rather I think this actually backs up what I said earlier about Jesus doing something new here. It all has to do with that last phrase and purpose of this man’s visit to the priests, “for a proof to them.’ So hear me out. The former leper is to go to the priests not so that they priests can declare him healed and clean. Jesus has already done that. Jesus sends the man to the priests so that he will be a proof to them that He is the Messiah, that these signs and wonders back that up, and that through Jesus God is truly doing a new work.[15] All of this was to be a proof to the priests that the great High Priest has now finally arrived!
But what does the healed man do? See it in v45, “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.” What a curious ending. Instead of obeying Jesus instruction to be silent and go to the priests, this man went out full of zeal to tell everyone about what Jesus did for him. Part of me wants to say, this isn’t really disobedience, he’s sharing about Christ, how could that be wrong? But I don’t think that’s how we should see it. I think rather, this man’s actions here are disobedient. That in his zeal he hurt the cause of Christ rather than helped it. Jesus didn’t want to storm in with Messianic claims or be crowned an earthly king or grow immensely popular. But because of this healed man Jesus: 1) could no longer openly enter any town, 2) had to stay in remote locations, 3) grew far more famous than He desired, and 4) had people constantly desiring to see Him. Now all these things are well and good, but it’s all about timing. Jesus would want to be very publicly known in His ministry, but not yet.
There’s a lesson for us in this. The cause of Christ in some circumstances is more advanced by quietness and patience than by a noisy zeal. Zeal without knowledge does more harm than good, and may hurt the very cause we desire to help.[16] Or perhaps I can just say, Christians today probably need the spur more than the bridle when it comes to sharing Christ with others. But let us be those who pursue both zeal and wisdom, zeal for going, and wisdom for going rightly.
Conclusion:
I said earlier that in this passage there were two powerful realities standing forth from this text, that if we embraced and enjoyed them, they would truly transform our lives. And we’ve seen them in part, the plight of the leper and the power of Christ. But as we end we can apply those two to us and call them: our plight in sin, and the power of Christ to us.
We’ve read through and understood the text yes, but Church the text is not finished until we see ourselves in it. So hear how this drives home to us…
What the leprosy was to the leper, sin is to us…and more.[17] Sin is the foul soul disease ingrained into our very nature, cleaving to our souls and our bodies, effecting every part of us. Like leprosy sin makes us disgusting and detestable, unfit for fellowship with God and men. Like leprosy sin is incurable from any earthly physician, it requires a divine touch. And worse than leprosy, it’s spread to all of us, all of us are brought forth into this world already having this infection.
Now, one of the tricky parts of sin is that we desire to deny that this is true of us.[18] We love to proclaim our own goodness, and suppress the truth about our real condition. That is true. But one of the trickier parts of sin is that we actually believe it, we agree with the diagnosis and affirm that we are sinners, but then we go too far believing we’re so bad that we’re beyond all help, that nothing can be done for us.
Where are you in this? Do you see the misery of the leper and think you’re above such a condition, or do you see yourself in the leper? I pray you see yourself rightly, not as too good as if you don’t need redemption, and as not too bad as if you’re beyond redemption. I want to say something I don’t think we say often enough right now[19]…happy are those who see themselves as fallen sinners! Blessed indeed are those who know their spiritual leprosy! Why? Because to know our disease is the first step towards the cure!
The cure of a divine touch. This is the power of Christ to us. Whatever you’ve done, wherever you’ve been, whatever troubles your heart in the present, whatever plagues you from your past…know this, love this…your sin might scare others, but it doesn’t scare Jesus.[20] What is right in Him outweighs what is wrong in us. There is more grace in Him than guilt in us. He is better at saving than we are at sinning. Praise God, it is in our very worst, in our deepest shame, where we find Jesus most willing and gracious to us. This is Jesus. He doesn’t recoil at sinners, He stretches out His hands toward sinners, and at His touch we are healed forever.
There’s an exchange in this to see. Yes at His touch we are cleansed and healed and get all the purity of Christ…but He gets all our sin. All our defilement. All our shame. That’s what He took to the cross, that’s what He died for. He had none of His own, it was all our sin weighing Him down…but this is also what He rose to defeat and conquer forever. So for those who have come to Christ, we not only no longer bear the penalty for our sin, we’re now freed from the power of sin, and on the final day we’ll be parted from the very presence of sin forever.
O that would you see and savor the Lord’s gracious touch forever!
[1] O’Donnell, Expository Reflections on the Gospel of Mark, 46.
[2] Lane, Mark – NICNT, 84-85.
[3] Hughes, Mark: Jesus, Servant and Savior – Preaching the Word Commentary, 54.
[4] O’Donnell, 47.
[5] Guelich, Mark – WBC, 73.
[6] Hughes, 55.
[7] Lane, 85.
[8] Hughes, 56.
[9] Ortlund & Allberry, You’re Not Crazy, 35.
[10] Lane, 86. And Guelich, 74.
[11] Ortlund & Allberry, 36-37.
[12] O’Donnell, 50.
[13] J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on Mark, 18.
[14] Lane, 86-87. I’ve added one to this list, Lane only offers two.
[15] Lane, 88.
[16] Ryle, 19.
[17] Ryle, 18.
[18] Hughes, 56.
[19] Ryle, 18-19.
[20] Ortlund & Allberry, 36-37.
