Scripture reading: 2 Kings 5:1-14.

Sermon text: Mark 1:40-45.

How do you face the worst news of your life?

In the Scripture reading today, the greatest general in Syria heard the worst news imaginable at the height of his career. We don’t know when the man in the sermon text heard the words, “You have leprosy.” Regardless of when he heard it, his life changed; he lost everything.

From Naaman to our unknown leper, people throughout the centuries heard those words and experienced the heartbreak that accompanied them. In first-century Judea, lepers constituted the outcasts of the outcasts of society. Lepers could not enter the towns and villages; they could not live with their families; and, if they saw anyone coming near them, they had to shout, “Unclean!” to warn the person away.

It seems every society has a definition of “unclean.” Every society has someone considered an outcast.

If we learn anything at all from today’s sermon text, we learn this: Jesus doesn’t know the word “outcast.” If Our Lord refuses to use the term, so should we.

The Gospel of St. Mark tells us that Jesus quickly gained popularity in Galilee. Jesus’ teachings in the synagogues inspired the people as they heard Him “teach with authority.”  Jesus also cast out demons and healed the sick. As you can imagine, these actions led to a huge following among the Jews of Galilee.

Still, Jesus had to deal with the social system of His day. Jews in Galilee had no intention of catching leprosy; they didn’t know that Hansen’s Disease, the current term for leprosy, ranks extremely low in any contagious scale. Everyone had seen the horrible results of leprosy as the nerve damage progressed and victims lost body parts due to the decreased nerve responses. No one in Galilee wanted to hear the dreaded words, “You have leprosy.”

Jesus met many lepers as He traveled through Galilee. Most of these lepers probably lacked both the motivation and the faith to ask Jesus for healing, but we know that Jesus never turned away anyone who asked Him for healing. When this man asked for healing — probably as much out of desperation as anything else — Jesus responded.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus was “moved with pity.” I believe we so often hear people focus on the judgment of Christ that we’re tempted to forget His compassion. In His ministry, and in His sacrifice for humanity, Jesus compassionately went beyond our expectations to achieve His goal: Salvation for all who believed.

Jews of Jesus’ day knew the rules about leprosy, and they knew one rule in particular: Don’t touch the leper. Who could say when even a casual touch would pass the disease to a new victim? Better to avoid any possible contamination than to risk transmission of the disease.

Jesus broke the rule. “Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, ‘I will; be clean.’” we don’t know where Jesus touched the man, whether He touched an open sore or elsewhere. It doesn’t matter. It matters greatly that Jesus knew the social rules and He intentionally broke them to heal the leper.

With what result? “And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.” This man asked for healing; in compassion and mercy, Jesus healed him. In an instant, the results of his leprosy evaporated. The man would show himself to the village priest, receive a declaration of healing, and then begin his life anew with family and friends. This would rank as the greatest day of his life!

Would it really work this way? Not if he obeyed Jesus, who “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.’”

This commandment has puzzled believers, theologians, and scholars since St. Mark first wrote St. Peter’s recollections of the events in this book. How did Jesus think this man could stay quiet about his healing? How did Jesus think this man’s family and friends would react? I believe the Scripture says it best: “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.” We’ll never know how Jesus thought this man would keep such wonderful news to himself.

We can see several profound lessons in Jesus’ healing of the leper in this passage, lessons that continue to speak to us today.

First, I see an incredible description of Jesus’ grace. Jesus never refused to heal a leper, especially in this passage. I believe this applies to our salvation as well. I know one of the more popular theologies in Baptist circles today tries to explain God’s sovereignty by loudly shouting that God accepts only those He has chosen with no opportunity for anyone to cry to Jesus for compassion. I’ve noticed those people adhering to this theology tend to tap dance around verses such as Jesus’ call in John 3: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). I believe this passage reminds us that Jesus will never turn anyone away who calls on Him for salvation.

I also see that Jesus refused to follow accepted social practices regarding outcasts. As I said previously, Jesus doesn’t know the word “outcast,” and neither should we. Anyone who comes to the Church for salvation, for fellowship, and for worship will find acceptance, grace, and love. We must accept everyone who comes wishing to submit to Jesus’ lordship in his life. This will sometimes require patience as new believers come into the fold; they’ll not know everything about salvation and the lifestyle it requires. Then again, neither did we, and neither do we. St. Peter said in Acts, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (2:21). We must accept everyone who calls on the name of Our Lord.

Lastly, I see this man doing what should come naturally to us. This man had good news, and he shared it. We, too, have good news; after all, the word “gospel” means “good news.” The world needs to hear the good news, the gospel:

1. “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me” (1 Corinthians 15:8).
   

This is the gospel, pure and simple: Jesus died for our sins, He rose again, and He appeared to witnesses who verified His resurrection. This good news transformed the Greco-Roman world, and it still has the power to transform our world today, one soul at a time.

As the gospel transformed civilization, it cleansed people of sin, resulting in godly lifestyles. Anyone who laments the chosen lifestyles we see today should spend his time telling the gospel with his life and his words rather than condemning those in lifestyles contrary to God’s commands.

Jesus cleansed the leper; He can cleanse anyone today who calls on His name. “I will; be clean.” Those words cleansed a leper, and they still cleanse souls today.