Reading… and Thinking

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

– Mark 1:40-45 (NIV)

A couple of sentences are all it takes to provide a moving portrait of our Lord.

The man who came to Jesus was physically repulsive. He was unclean under the law, but there was no sacrifice or cleansing ritual that could make him clean. He was so unclean that he had to be cast out, and could not even live with his family. He could take no part in any form of worship. Short of a spontaneous recovery (how likely?) he was doomed to perish as an outcast, one who made everyone shudder, turning away in disgust. The prevailing wisdom held that such an appalling fate must be the result of appalling sin.

So he was judged as being morally as well as physically unfit for human company.

But he came to Jesus, in faith that this man could make him clean–if the Lord was willing to. He made no demand, left it in the Master’s hands. And now, the portrait: Jesus reached out his hand, and touched him. He was willing, out of his great compassion. And the man was
healed!

It’s a powerful figure of ourselves, of course. Our abject need, and the mercy we receive when we come to Jesus.

But then Jesus did a strange thing. He asked the man not to talk about his healing. There were provisions under the law for cases of spontaneous healing. The man could be examined by the priest, shut up for a week, and examined again. If the disease were truly gone, the man could make an offering, and resume a normal life. Jesus told him to do this, and to NOT publicize the miraculous healing.

Why would Jesus make this request? The answer comes in the next sentence.

The healing caused a sensation. People came from everywhere, and Jesus could no longer even enter a town. He was pursued by huge crowds wherever he went.

But wasn’t this a good thing? Hadn’t he just said that he was sent to preach the gospel all over? Wasn’t this a great way for people all over to hear about him, and be convinced that he really was sent by God, really had a message of life?

All of those things were true, but Jesus did not intend to conduct a sensational ministry. This was a repeat of the temptation in the wilderness, to throw himself from a pinnacle of the temple as a public display of his power. What the healed man did made things harder on Jesus in two ways.

First, it put an extra physical burden on him–it became difficult for Jesus to even eat a meal or get a few hours of sleep at night. And second, it heightened the temptation–which he faced not just one time in the wilderness, but every day.

You can hardly blame the man, though, can you?  Could YOU have kept quiet?

Can you imagine the joy of this man? It seemed so right to give Jesus the credit. And here is a sober lesson for us. Just because something seems right to us, doesn’t mean we can toss away what the Lord has told us. As Jesus himself pointed out, “To obey is better than to offer sacrifice.”

It’s really an incredible arrogance on our part, to think that we know better than our Lord. Do we ever do that?  Oh, yes.  Whenever we rationalize not heeding the command to “give to anyone who begs from you”.  Whenever we justify holding a grudge instead of forgiving. Whenever we shy away from confronting wrong behavior. Whenever fitting in wins out over bearing testimony to Jesus.  Whenever we give free rein to our mouth in anger, or in gossip. On and on.

Without doubt the healed man had an outstanding rationalization for what he did. He “couldn’t help himself.”  But what it came down to was that he didn’t obey the Lord who had saved him. Really, a shameful way to respond to the great compassion that had been shown him.

It was natural for the man to speak up about his healing. Sometimes – a LOT of the time! – the Lord asks from us behavior that doesn’t come naturally.

Restraint, when we would charge in. Action, when we would hold back. We’ll never be true disciples of our Lord if we rely on our gut feeling to guide us. We need to listen, and do as he directs. He really does know better than we do. And believing this is the REAL way to respond to the compassion he’s shown us.