TITLE: “Cleansed by the Word and Touch of Jesus”

 

In the name of the Father and of the † Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.  Our text for this morning is from the Gospel lesson just read, with particular emphasis on the words, 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 was cured.

Leprosy is a disease that has little meaning for us today.  Also called Hansen’s disease, it is the least infectious of diseases, and takes anywhere from 2-10 years to show signs of the onset.  It’s a disease that likes the coolest places in the body, so it often affects the skin and surface nerves.  So it is a painfully visible disease.  Because it attacks the nerves, paralysis and a loss of sensation often result.  It is fairly common, then, for the person suffering from leprosy to ignore or not notice things such as burns, cuts and abrasions, stones in shoes, or a myriad of other problems that are common and easily solved if you know what you’re feeling.

Today is it fairly easy to cure if it is caught early enough.  The problem is that there is a deep shame that often goes along with this disease, because it is so visible and ugly.  People often will refuse to get treatment, or will ignore the symptoms, because of fear and shame.

In Jesus’ day, leprosy was considered to be one of the worst and nastiest judgments, because it made the person unclean according to Old Testament Law.  Many people believed that leprosy was the result of sin, and so the leper, as they were called, were not allowed to enter the Temple and make sacrifices.  They were pariahs in their community, shunned and spat upon by all.

Now perhaps we can’t understand and sympathize with the leper, because we’ve never seen it or experienced it, but we do understand shame.  Shame is the feeling that you are unclean, that there is something deeply wrong with you, and that at some basic level, it’s your fault.  Disease can do this to you.  You feel like there is something foreign that has entered your body, and that it somehow makes you unfit to be around other people.  To be sure, this is most obvious in vicious diseases like AIDS or cancer, but whenever you are sick, you just know that something is not right, that there is something within you that makes you a danger to yourself and to others.  And with it comes shame.  Whether it’s your fault or not, it is easy to feel that somehow if you had done something different, if you had been better at something or been more careful, that you wouldn’t have to suffer this uncleanness within your body.

But it isn’t just disease that can cause shame to well up within us.  Women who suffer from rape can feel this same sort of shame.  It’s not that they did anything wrong at all, but some unspeakable evil has been done to them.  And yet they are ashamed of who they are, and feel unclean to the core, like there is dirt on them that can never be washed away.  Even something like being laid off or being fired can cause us to feel unclean.  There is a guilt that goes along with being laid off.  It’s easy to say it was the company, or the economy, or whatever, but deep down inside, one feels like it was somehow your fault, and that if you had worked harder or better, maybe it wouldn’t have happened to you.

Yes, shame can affect any one of us.  In Jesus’ day, to be unclean meant you were the worst of the worst.  You were shunned by synagogue and family, and no one would touch you.  And it could come upon anyone.  Even back in the time of the kings, as we see with Naaman and Elisha in the Old Testament lesson.

But there is a shame that goes deeper than any disease, which inflicts all of us.  You may remember the first time that shame is mentioned in the Bible.  It was right after the Fall, after Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit.  They were ashamed, and so they hid from God.  Sin does that to you, doesn’t it?  Sometimes you can put on a mask and pretend nothing’s happening, but sometimes it’s just too much, isn’t it?  You are a sinner.  That’s the Law.   It may well not have been the leper’s fault that he was unclean, but it is your fault that you are unclean.  It is in your nature as a fallen human being.  And this uncleanness cuts to the core.  We can ignore it, make light of it, try to pretend it doesn’t exist or even make fun of it, but the shame and guilt of our fallen humanity will not go away.  No self-help group, positive thinking, or other modern gimmick will make you clean.  Nothing can make you clean but the word and touch of Jesus.

So the leper goes to Jesus and begged him on his knees, If you are willing, you can make me clean.  Notice some of these important words.  First of all, the leper begged.  Martin Luther’s last words before his death were “We are all beggars, it is true.”  (Wir sind alle bettler.  Hoc est verum.)  Before God you have nothing to offer, nothing to give to make you clean or perfect.  Some of want to believe that they can contribute to their salvation, but it is not true.  You are a beggar.  And beggars have nothing to give, nothing they can do but receive what is given to them.  True, this leper came to Jesus.  But he came to Jesus because he had heard Jesus words, and believed.  Notice what he says, he says if you are willing.  He did not say, “If you are able,” as if he was questioning whether Jesus could do it.  No.  He believed Jesus could do it, because the beggar believed Jesus was the Son of God who came into the world.  So he left it in Jesus’ hands.  If you are willing.  Or, if you prefer, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  This man’s cry of faith is the cry of the repentant sinner before God.

And what did Jesus say to this man’s cry of faith?  He was filled with compassion.  In Epiphany we learn about who Jesus is, about what kind of a God came down to earth in the womb of the Virgin Mary.  And here we get a window into the mind of God.  Filled with compassion.  Did sweeter words ever fall on the sinner’s ears?  This sin-sick man, this leper, rejected by friends and enemies alike, this man had God’s compassion.  And what did Jesus say?  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 is not simply talking to a leper 2000 years ago. He is speaking to you.  Like Naaman, you have been washed in waters that make you clean.  The waters of holy baptism have washed away all the dirt and grime and gunk of your life, so that you are clean and holy before God.  Jesus said to the leper, and he says to you, Be clean!  In holy baptism Satan was driven out of you, so that now God reigns in your heart.  To be sure, Satan works hard to get you to believe that he still owns you, but he doesn’t.  You are God’s.  God has made you clean, he has made you holy and he has made you whole with the blood of His Son.

And He continues to cleanse you and refresh you with His holy supper.  When Jesus touched the leper, Jesus cleanness spilled over into the unclean soul and body of that poor man.  Jesus’ cleanness was greater than that man’s uncleanness.  And when you receive Jesus’ very body and blood in your mouth at the Lord’s Supper, Jesus makes you clean once again.  He reconnects you to your baptism, and ties you into His holiness, His mercy and compassion, which have no end.  The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.

So don’t be afraid!  Don’t run the race of your life like there is no tomorrow.  You may feel unclean, you may feel unloved or unknown by God, but Jesus has come!  He comes to give you Himself.  He comes to make you clean.  He comes to heal your body and soul.  This is the Son of God, and when He says something, it is so.  And he has said to you, Be clean!  And He gives you Himself, to make you clean.  Believe it, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

 

 

Rev. Todd A. Peperkorn

Messiah Lutheran Church

Kenosha, Wisconsin

Epiphany 6B (Feb. 13, 2000)

Mark 1: 40-45

 

 

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Last Revised: February 17, 2000