Download IF YOU ARE WILLING, YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN

“IF YOU ARE WILLING, YOU CAN MAKE ME CLEAN”
Mark 1:40-45
Two of the lessons for today mention the skin disease of leprosy. Naaman of Aram was
afflicted with leprosy as well as the leper in the Gospel lesson. While today leprosy is very rare,
in biblical times it was much more common. This uncommon bacterial disease which is now
called Hansen’s Disease, begins with whitish spots. If left untreated, these spots can spread
over the body, attack one member of the body after another until finally the very bones are
consumed. The sores affect the nerves, leading to paralysis and eventually death. Leprosy often
included severe itching, a burning fever and sleeplessness. It was contagious, hideous, painful
and nearly always incurable. In ancient days when a person contracted leprosy, it was a death
sentence with little hope of recovery.
Leviticus 13 spelled out the procedures and regulations for those afflicted with skin diseases.
There Moses explains that leprosy was a disease dreaded not just for its physical implications
but for its spiritual implications. Leprosy was an object lesson of how sin corrupts God’s people.
Leprosy was considered God’s curse on the sinner. Mark does not tell us how the leper came in
contact with Jesus. He simply says that a man with leprosy came to him and declared, “If you
are willing, you can make me clean.” In order to be cleansed of our spiritual disease, we can
also say, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
The leprous man understood the seriousness of his disease. The Greek word translated as
“leprosy” covers a whole host of skin diseases -- from psoriasis to a deadly disease which
disfigures arms, legs and face. Because of the infectious nature of leprosy, O.T. commands
required how a leper must dress, how he must act and where he must live. “The person with
such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the
lower part of his face and cry out, “Unclean, unclean!’ As long as he has the infection he
remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp” (Lev 13:45f). Leprosy
made a person ceremonially unclean as well as physically contagious. Because of this, those
with leprosy had to live apart from God’s people. Therefore they became social outcasts. Lepers
were excluded from interacting with family and with fellowmen and could only associate with
other lepers. So they were often banished to deserts or area called “leper colonies.” Often
food was left at certain places for them to pick up, they went bareheaded, they wrapped
themselves in cloth up to their chin, were forced to remain at a distance and if someone
approached them, they were supposed to shout, “Unclean, unclean!”
While the leper did not shout, “Unclean, unclean”, we can understand why. In his great
distress he did not want anyone to try to stop him from coming to the one who could heal him.
He came to Jesus, kept begging him to help and fell on his knees in worship. Then the leprous
man asked Jesus to cleanse him. By falling to his knees and confessing with his lips the leper
testified that Jesus is the almighty Son of God. While he didn’t question whether Jesus was able
to cleanse him, he didn’t know if Jesus was willing to heal him.
The deplorable condition of the leper moved Jesus. Compassioned moved Jesus not to
withhold his blessing. He ignored the fact that the man had violated Levitical law by not crying
out “Unclean!“ In doing so Jesus showed when it comes to the conditions of the ceremonial law,
love and compassion take precedence over ritual and regulation. “Jesus reached out his
hand and touched the man.” In Jewish society leprosy was one of the highest forms of
uncleanness. Touching a leper stood second in defilement only to touching a dead body.
Edersheim writes: “No less a distance than four cubits (six feet) must be kept from a leper;
or if the wind came from that direction a hundred were scarcely sufficient“ (p. 495). Elisha
didn’t even approach Naaman to direct him on what to do to be cured of his leprosy, he sent a
messenger. Holy purity isn’t supposed to enter into close contact with the unclean. Christ the
founder of the N. T. church makes the impure pure through his touch. The Almighty did not
retreat from touching the unclean in order to cleanse him and bring him back to God’s people.
The touch was combined with Christ’s powerful word, “I am willing; be clean!”
Jesus was willing to make the leper clean. It was never a question if Jesus was able but if he
had the willingness to heal him. The leper acknowledged Christ’s power to heal but didn’t
demand a miracle from him. Instead, he threw himself completely on Christ’s mercy. This is how
we are to approach our Lord with our earthly troubles. We can ask and pray for his help or to
grant a request but we are to leave the decision up to him. Jesus demonstrated this in the
Garden of Gethsemane when he asked that the cup of suffering be taken from him. “Abba,
Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but
what you will” (Mk 14:36). We may want to be relieved of frequent backaches, arthritis or a
heart condition. Like the leper, we plead, beg and pray earnestly for God to take it away. Yet,
we submit to the Lord’s will as he directs us, “Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven”
(Mt 6:10). In spiritual matters Jesus is often very willing.
When the leper approached Jesus he displayed his faith in Jesus’ divine power and authority
to heal him, but confidently declared, “You can make me clean.” With one word in Greek
Jesus cured the leper. “And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed”, says
one translation (NASB). The cleansing process was not gradual, the disease vanished as soon
as the words left Jesus’ lips. Because leprosy was so closely associated with sin, if a leper was
miraculously cured of his disease, God’s Word called the person cleansed. This idea
emphasizes that Jesus had taken a man who was unclean and excluded from the church and
restored him to God’s flock.
Jesus has cleansed you. In biblical times people looked at leprosy as divine punishment and
it carried the stigma of moral uncleanness. I am not sure that any disease or affliction today
compares to the shunning and dreaded physical disfigurement of leprosy. Some forms of cancer
are incurable, but to compare with the unsightly appearance, one would have to have a severe
case of measles, boils or festering sores. Thankfully, leprosy and other hideous diseases are
very rare in our world, especially our country.
Yet we have inherited a spiritual condition from Adam and Eve. At birth we are afflicted with
moral uncleanness. We were helpless to avoid the sin which separated us from God and those
he has saved. Daily we disobey our Lord’s commands. Our sins are as real as the shiny white
spots on the leper’s skin. Just like the lepers of old, we must cry out to God and the world and
confess that we are unclean. But Jesus cleansed you. Jesus lived on this earth to endure all
affliction and pain of disease and sin. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of
sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces” (Is 53:3).
He was crucified for our trespasses, nailed to the cross for our sins, pierced for our
transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. Jesus buried our sins in the grave and rose to life
to remove the sting of death. In baptism he cleansed you by washing with water through the
word. In holy communion he offers you his very body and blood to assure you that your sins
have been atoned for, that you are cleansed.
A recent song by Michael W. Smith describes us. The lyrics to “Never Been Unloved”
include: “I have been unfaithful, I have been unworthy, I have been unrighteous, I have
been unmerciful…but because of you and all that you went through I know I have never
been unloved.” We confess that we have been unreachable, unteachable, unwilling and
undesirable at times but because of Jesus’ love we have never been unloved. We have been
cleansed in the waters of baptism and forgiven in his Supper to know without any doubt that
God loves us.
At once Jesus sent the cleansed man away with some surprising instructions. He warns the
man not to tell anyone about this miracle. That seems like an odd command. Jesus may have
told him this for several reasons. First, Jesus didn’t want to start a popular movement, to be
considered just a miracle worker. Second, he didn’t want his teaching ministry hindered by
people begging him with medical requests and not focusing on him as their Savior from sin.
Third, he didn’t want his death to come prematurely. He wanted people to see God at work in
his deeds, to repent of their sins and to believe his teachings.
Then Jesus urged the man to go, show himself to the priest and offer sacrifices as Moses
had commanded when someone had been cleansed of leprosy. By this command Jesus urged
the man to keep the law, to provide further proof of the actual healing and to certify that the man
was cleansed so he could be reinstated into church and society. Jesus had come to fulfill the
law and it was God’s will that his people be clean. Jesus said that this should be done as a
testimony to the priests. Then the priests, who were among Christ’s fiercest opponents, would
be unable to deny his divine power and that one greater than Moses was among them. The
sacrifice would be evidence to the priests and the people that the cure was real, that Jesus
respected the law and that he had divine power. For the Jews believed that only God could cure
leprosy, as Naaman’s cure shows.
Instead of listening to Christ’s command, the man went out and began to proclaim the
miracle openly. He was so overjoyed that he just had to spread the good news. We can hardly
criticize the man for what he did, we too could not have kept this marvelous miracle to
ourselves. But the result was that Jesus could no longer enter a town openly and publicly.
Because of Christ’s growing popularity with the people and the increasing opposition of the
Jewish leaders, it made it necessary for Jesus to withdraw from Galilee to the lesser populated
areas. For people were not hearing his words but simply seeking cures to their afflictions. Even
so people still came to him from everywhere.
Jesus knew if he healed this leper there would be a risk. He knew this man might not be able
to keep silent. He knew his ministry might be affected and yet Jesus miraculously healed him.
His compassion for the man moved him to set aside his personal risk and the social stigma to
stretch out his hand and touch the untouchable.
Since Jesus has made me clean, like the former leper we should testify to this miracle. Just
as the cleansed leper gave a testimony to the priests by offering a sacrifice, so we should bring
sacrifices of time, talents and treasures to our Lord. Just as the cleansed leper proclaimed the
good news of his miracle, we should tell our family and friends, our neighbors, our community
and the world about out new life in Christ. Holy living is the joyful response to the soul who has
been converted. We are to testify to our faith in Jesus Christ through Christian living and
witnessing. Our text reminds us that there is a right and a wrong time to speak about the good
news of Jesus. The gospel is a precious pearl of great price and needs to be mounted in the
right setting. When we use it will depend on the attitude of the listener and the situation before
us.
Leprosy was a fatal condition in the Old Testament. The leper in the gospel turned to Jesus
Christ to be cleansed and when Jesus healed him, he could not contain his joy. May we also
realize that we need to confess our spiritual deadly condition to Jesus. For his death and
resurrection have cleansed us of our sins and this great news will make us want to spread the
gospel of Jesus Christ freely and openly. Amen.