Why Was It Significant for Jesus to Heal a Leper?

The Holy for the Unholy

Please turn with me in your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark.  The Spirit of God stirred up this follower of Jesus, named Mark, to show us the greatness of Jesus Christ, and to give us evidence that he is, in fact, the Son of God. And we’ll continue to see a vivid demonstration of Jesus’s uniqueness as we hear how he interacts with a leper, here, in God’s Word this morning. I’ll be reading from Mark, Chapter 1, verses 40 through 45. Before I read this part of Scripture, though, let’s pray once again and ask for God to work through His word this morning. Let’s pray:

[Pray and Read Text]

Looking at a Leper

Sometimes I wonder what people looked like hundreds of years ago, before people had mirrors in their homes. I imagine that people were a lot less aware of how frizzy their hair was. They might have been less attentive to the tiny pieces of lettuce stuck between their teeth, too. But in any case, I think we take for granted how useful mirrors are, to show us the condition of our physical appearance.

But in this historical event that shows up in our text, Mark holds up a different kind of mirror for us – a spiritual mirror. And he helps us to better understand the spiritual condition of humanity – our moral dirtiness – our need for cleansing. And Jesus is held out to us as the only one who can set things right between us and God. I’m sure this isn’t a new idea to many of you. And yet it’s well worth our time to remember what Jesus has done for us, and to consider how his intervention should continue to affect our lives.

So if you’re taking notes, I’ll give you the five points that we’re going to be working through this morning. Five points. First, we’re going to consider the troubles of a defiled man. Second, we’ll look at the trust of a destitute man. Third, we’ll look at the touch of a holy man. Fourth, we’ll consider the testimony of a healed man. And then fifth and finally, we’ll look at the trading places of two men. (Repeat).

The Troubles of a Defiled Man (the Leper)

So first, let’s consider the troubles of a defiled man. At the beginning of our passage, we’re told that a leper came to Jesus. Now, the original Greek word that’s translated into English as leper, here – it’s a generic word that referred to a variety of skin diseases, not just Hansen’s disease, or what the medical community today calls leprosy. It could have included a variety of other serious skin disorders.

But in any case, being a leper – having some sort of skin disease like this – it was a terrible thing, for several reasons. For one thing, there was the potential for the disease to cause physical discomfort – possibly, even for the disease to be life-threatening. So of course, there were health concerns from this.

But in Jewish communities in those days – which is the context that we’re dealing with here – being a leper also meant that there were restrictions on where you could go, and who you could be around. And these are restrictions that God himself had put in place. Many centuries earlier, God generously rescued the Jewish people from their slavery in Egypt. And when he led them out, he defined for them what he wanted his relationship with them to look like. And he gave the Jews a number of different laws, including laws dealing with how to deal with cleanness and uncleanness.

Now certainly, many of these laws were hugely relevant and helpful for leading the Jews into good sanitation practices. But the main focus of these laws actually wasn’t on personal hygiene. The focus was on God’s holiness. And what I mean by that is that God wants people to understand, that he’s sacred. There’s an other-worldly specialness about God, that can’t be approached, unless people are clean.

And so by giving these laws, God wanted His people to have categories, to differentiate between things that are clean, consecrated, and unstained, and things that are unclean, defiled, and dirty. And specifically, if the priests inspected someone and found that they had a skin disease – that they were a leper – than that person was declared to be unclean. They were physically, and ceremonially defiled, and they were unable to be in God’s temple, or to even be in the community of God’s people. And so God, in his law, in places like Numbers 5, verses 2 and 3 – he explains that those who are unclean need to go outside of the camp – outside of town – for as long as their uncleanness lasts. It’s because there’s an urgent need for the Jews to be reminded that their God is a hallowed being. He is transcendent and sacred. He can’t be treated in a common way. Our God is holy. And no unclean thing can be in the presence of his glory.

And so you need to understand, this meant that the leper, here, was forced out to the edges of society. He couldn’t go to the temple, or gather in the synagogue for worship. And he couldn’t really be around people. He was essentially banished from the city limits. And even if he wanted to be around people, usually no one wanted to be around lepers. And that’s because if you got touched by an unclean leper, then it made you unclean. That’s how this uncleanness worked. It was contagious. And if it touched you, then you became dirty. It meant that you were now in need of purification. That’s what God said in his law, in the opening verses of Leviticus, Chapter 5.

So this leper was a man of many troubles. His physical health was in jeopardy. He was barred from drawing near to the temple of God. He was isolated from his friends and family. There was shame, there was loneliness. There was a constant awareness that he’s not clean. He’s not right. He’s defiled, and he can’t fix it.

The Trust of a Destitute Man (also the Leper)

But as we’re introduced to this leper, we not only get a sense of his many troubles. But we also see evidence that he has faith in Jesus. We see here the trust of a destitute man. This is my second main point.

Because, the first thing we see in verse 40, is of course that this leper came to him. He came to Jesus. I think many of us don’t realize that this is all that significant. You and I probably think, “Of course! If I had leprosy, I’d go to Jesus, too.”

But I’m sure you realize this – there are many people in the world who have chronic pain, depression, unhappy lives, and so on – there are many people like this, who don’t come to Jesus. It might be because they’re skeptical. It might be because they’re afraid that they’ll just end up being disappointed. Or if could be that many people don’t come to Jesus because they’re convinced that they have found some other solution to their problem. Instead of running to Jesus, they run to alcohol, or they run to a pill, or they run to personal morality, or they run to TV and entertainment, or they run to a therapist who will tell them that they are the hero of their own story. People run to all kinds of other things. But here, the leper comes to the person of Jesus. His suffering soul is right where it needs to be.

And notice what this leper’s posture toward Jesus was. Mark tells us that he came to Jesus, imploring him and kneeling. His attitude is one of absolute humility. The leper doesn’t come to make a deal with Jesus. He isn’t trying to convince Jesus that he’s a good person, who deserves to be healed. Instead, it’s clear that this leper understands he has nothing to bring. He has nothing that he can boast in. He has no bargaining power, no credentials, no cleanness of his own. All that he brings is his lowness, and his dirtiness.

And if you haven’t figured it out already, you need to understand why Mark is telling us this story. It’s because this leper is a picture of you and me. It’s a picture of what everyone is like, before Jesus gets involved. We’re unclean. We’re unable to draw near to God, to see his glory, and to enjoy his presence.

But in this case, our uncleanness doesn’t come from diseased skin. Instead, the source of defilement is our sin. The uncleanness is inside of us. We break God’s commands, not only in what we do and say outwardly, but even in what we think and feel and desire. We haven’t loved God the way we should. We haven’t loved our neighbors the way God says is right. We have violated the moral standards of heaven. And because of all this, we’re defiled. And no unclean thing can enter the holy presence of God.

And I want to press us, here – do you know something of what it means to be burdened by the dirtiness of sin? Have you experienced that before? Have you ever felt like this leper, who comes to Jesus, and throws himself down on his knees, and who begs with Jesus, please, can you take my dirtiness away? Because for sinners like you and me, there’s no other attitude toward Jesus that’s more appropriate than this one – this humble posture.

We don’t come to Jesus to make demands, or to make a deal with him. We come unclean and empty-handed. We come as beggars, trusting that only Jesus can make us well. That’s the right attitude here.

And the leper – he further shows the trust he has in Jesus by the profession he makes at the end of verse 40. He tells Jesus, “If you will, you can make me clean.” And essentially what the leper is saying is “Jesus, if you want me to be clean, you can do it.” So the leper’s making a clear declaration of faith. There’s no question in his mind that Jesus is able to take away his disease. He’s convinced of it. Jesus can make him clean.

There’s only one thing this leper is unsure of. Does Jesus want to? And it’s not surprising that the man would be unsure. Because for the past who-knows-how-long, this man has probably been in all kinds of places where people don’t want him around. From his experience, people don’t want to get close to him. They don’t want to get too involved with helping him. And so this man isn’t sure about Jesus. Will Jesus care? Will Jesus show me kindness? Or will he treat me like everybody else?

It’s possible that you’re here this morning, and you have this same uncertainty. You know that you’re dirty. You’re convinced that Jesus has the power to do anything – and that he can make you clean. But the thing you’re not sure about is does Jesus want to? If I come to Jesus, will he want me? Does he desire to help me?

We’ll look at this more in a minute, but I want to make sure you know, that everyone who comes to Jesus can know that the answer is yes. Jesus himself says in John 6:37, “…whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” If God has put in your heart to trust in Jesus, and to come to him for healing – you will not ever find an unwilling Jesus.

The Touch of a Holy Man (Jesus)

And we see this vividly reflected in our text. Mark tells us what Jesus’s response is to this defiled leper in verse 41. “Moved with pity, he (Jesus) stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will [I want to heal you, is what Jesus says]; be clean]. And this brings me to my third main point, concerning the touch of a holy man.

It’s a little hard to see in the English, but in this sentence, there are two main verbs – two main things that Jesus does. He touches, and then he speaks. And Mark describes Jesus’s touch for us in a couple different ways. First, we’re told that Jesus touches the leper compassionately. When our text says that Jesus was moved to pity­, it’s describing the manner in which he touched the leper. And so we see here that when Jesus decided to help this unclean man, Jesus wasn’t reluctant to do it. He wasn’t propelled into it by an emotionless sense of duty. But Jesus had a deep affection and compassion for this man. He cared for this man. He loved this man, in spite of his uncleanness. And so Jesus moves toward him compassionately.

But you’ll also see that Jesus touches this man intentionally. When Jesus is stretching out his hand to touch the man, this shows that it’s not accidental. Jesus is choosing to do this. It’s a premeditated decision.

But it isn’t so much the compassion or the intentionality of Jesus’s touch that’s surprising here. The surprising thing is Jesus’s touch itself. Because, remember, the Old Testament law warned against touching things that were unclean. By and large, if you touched something that diseased or defiled, it made you dirty. You became unclean.

So you’d expect that this great healer, Jesus. He could find some other way to heal the man. He could just wiggle his fingers and say, “Leprosy, be gone.” Or maybe he could have the man bathe seven times in the Jordan River. That’s how the great prophet Elisha helped a leprous man find healing back in 2 Kings, Chapter 5. But Jesus stretches out his hand to this defiled person, and he touches him.

And so of course, we would assume that Jesus has made some sort of terrible mistake. It would seem that Jesus has just defiled himself – that Jesus is now in a situation where he must distance himself from holy presence of God the Father because of his uncleanness. That’s what you might think.

But that’s not what happens at all. Touching the leper doesn’t defile Jesus. Instead, that touch makes the leper clean. Jesus speaks. And he says, “I will;” – I want you to be healed – “be clean.” And sure enough, the skin disease and its defilement, it’s gone. We’re told in verse 42 that immediately the leprosy left the man, and he was made clean. And the question that immediately comes is how can this be? Something like this has never happened before – everyone who has touched defiled things has been contaminated by them. So who is this man, Jesus, who’s able to touch unholy things, and make them holy?

Of course, Jesus is the Holy One of heaven – the Son of God, come down in human flesh. And he has come, not only to take away rashes and blisters and the uncleanness of our bad acne. Jesus has come to take away the defilement of our sin. And for this to happen, there’s one thing we need – there’s only one thing that can bring us into the presence of God as holy and acceptable – only one thing. And it’s Jesus. We need his holiness to touch us – to transform us. We need him to wash away our defilement, to make us clean, and to bring us to God.

And make sure you hear Jesus’s words here, when he says that he wills this. He wants to do this – and not just for the leper – but for every depraved, diseased soul who kneels before his holy presence. Jesus wants to make you well, and to make you clean.

The Testimony of a Healed Man

And this becomes the testimony of the leper. This brings me to my fourth main point – the testimony of a healed man. And there are actually three aspects of this man’s testimony that we need to give some attention to here.

First, there’s the personal experience of his testimony. This was a real man. And he really was touched by Jesus, and healed. Now, this man, he’s not here today. He can’t tell you directly about what Jesus did for him. But you can just imagine what this man would have to say.

He would say, “I was ugly to look at. I was defiled, inside and out. I was cut off from God’s presence, cut off from God’s people. I was constantly burdened with a sense of shame, dirtiness, loneliness, worthlessness. But then I met Jesus. And now everything is different. The burdens are gone. My relationships with people have been restored. I can now draw near to God with confidence. All because of Jesus. And Jesus will do this for you. Just run to him. Fall on your knees, like I did. Ask for his mercy, and he will freely give. This man was able to testify about the greatness of Jesus in his own day, and his story continues to speak today.

But you’ll see in our text, that this man’s story also gave proof of something – it was further proof of Jesus’s authority and greatness. So let’s also consider the proof of the leper’s testimony. In verses 43 and 44, Jesus sternly tells the man to not speak about this healing to people (and I’ll come back to explaining why soon). But instead, Jesus tells this man to go to the priests to offer the type of sacrifice Moses prescribed for his cleansing, as a proof to the priests. And this may seem rather confusing. It may not even be clear what Jesus is talking about.

So let me just explain, the first five books of the Old Testament, they were written by a significant prophet of God named Moses. Many of the Jews considered him to be the greatest of the prophets, particularly because God gave his law through Moses, which defined the relationship between God and the Jewish people. So the laws that we mentioned earlier, about cleanness and uncleanness, and leprosy. God gave those laws through Moses. And in Leviticus 14, Moses explains that when a leper no longer has their leprosy – when the skin disease goes away, they should offer a certain sacrifice. The sacrifice was a necessary part of finalizing and confirming the purification of the leper. So that’s the offering that Jesus is speaking about here.

But it’s important to note, that there was one thing that the law didn’t have instructions for. The law didn’t say how to make the skin disease go away. The law wasn’t able to heal. This doesn’t mean that the law was useless. It helped people to see their uncleanness. And the sacrifices and purification laws – these things pointed to the fact that God was making provisions for things to be set right. But the law itself wasn’t the provision that was needed. The law couldn’t heal. The law could never look upon a sinner, and declare that person as just and right with God. The law couldn’t make people clean.

But now Jesus is sending this leper to the priests as a healed man – as a clean man. And Jesus is essentially saying, I can do what the law can’t do. I can do what Moses wasn’t able to do. I can heal you. I can cleanse you, and make you holy in the eyes of God! And as the leper goes to the priests, he is proof to them, that Jesus is greater than the law, greater than Moses, greater than all our flimsy attempts at morality and good works.

But in addition to seeing the personal experience of the leper’s testimony, and the proof of his testimony, we should also consider the passion of this man’s testimony. You may remember, that in verse 44, Jesus sternly charged this man to tell no one about what had happened.

And this may seem like a strange command from Jesus. We would probably expect Jesus to want publicity. But see, Jesus doesn’t want to be announced and viewed just as a miracle worker. He doesn’t want people to flock to him out of a worldly lust for power. He doesn’t want people to have assumptions about Jesus, and expectations in mind that they want Jesus to meet. Instead, Jesus seems interested in making himself known to people on his own terms. And so he tells this former leper, to be silent. To tell no one.

But of course, we see here that the man doesn’t do what Jesus says. He goes against Jesus’s instructions, and he eagerly, passionately talks about Jesus. Verse 45 makes it pretty clear. He’s talking to everybody. Nothing holds him back. He speaks freely, because he’s so amazed and excited about what Jesus did for him.

And I think that for many of us, it’s easy for us to be quick to shake our finger at this fellow and say, “Shame on you. How could you ignore Jesus’s words like that? He told you to be quiet. Why won’t you listen?” But you see, we’re no better than he is.

Because Jesus has done a even greater work for his people – not just to take away some spots on our skin, but to take away the stains from our soul. We aren’t just given access, again, to an earthly temple. But Jesus has opened the way for sinners to be clean enough to enter the Holy presence of God in the heavenly places. For this man who was healed from leprosy, there was the possibility that he could become unclean again. But for those who have had their sins washed away by the blood of Jesus, we are made clean forever.

And Jesus’s command to his people is no longer be silent. But he tells us to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us from darkness into his marvelous light (cf. 1 Peter 2:9). And so if this leper was so thankful, so joyful, so passionate, that he was driven to talk about Jesus, even when Jesus said shush, how much more eager should we be to speak, now that Jesus urges us to shout, and to celebrate his salvation.

So ask yourself – who’s one person – you can certainly talk to more – but think, who’s one person who I can help introduce to Jesus. Who’s one person I can share my story with, of how Jesus cared for me, and healed me, and made me clean?

The Trading Places of Two Men

Now, we do need to acknowledge, though, that the leper went against what Jesus said. And that wasn’t okay. There were consequences to that decision. And this brings us to my fifth and final point – the trading places of two men.

You see, in verse 45, when the leper began to talk freely about his healing, and to spread the news – we’re told that “Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the desolate places.” It’s an interesting comment. Because just a short while ago, in our text, do you remember who it was, that was forced to stay outside of city limits? Do you remember who was banished to the desolate places? It wasn’t Jesus. It was this leper!

But now the tables have been turned. And the leper is able to go about freely, wherever he wants. But Jesus can’t now. He’s pushed out to the wilderness. And even though other gospel writers – Matthew and Luke – even though they also tell this account about Jesus healing the leper, they don’t mention this detail. This statement about Jesus being forced out into the desolate places, because of the leper’s disobedience – it’s a unique comment that we find, only here, in Mark.

And this likely is because there’s a specific point, here, that Mark wants to show us. He wants us to see something about the way Jesus makes us clean – the way that Jesus saves us from our sin. It’s by trading places with us. We’re the guilty ones, deserving of death, yet he’s the one who goes to the cross. We’re the selfish, rebellious fools who deserve God’s penalty, yet Jesus is the one who is stricken in our place. Jesus acts as our substitute – there’s a fancy phrase to describe this – penal substitutionary atonement. Jesus suffers in our place, so we can draw near to God. Jesus is forced out into the wilderness, so we can find welcome and rest.

And perhaps the most remarkable thing all this, is that Jesus gives himself for us willingly. As Jesus prepares to heal this unclean man, he doesn’t hem and haw about how much it’s going to cost him. Instead, he looks at the man, and he says, “I want to do this. I want you to be clean. I want to lay myself down for you.” Be clean.

So consider this. Jesus has laid down his life, in your place, because he cares for you. He wants to help you. He wants you to be clean. And when Jesus makes you clean, don’t despise that gift. But take advantage of the great opportunities you have to draw near to God, to pray with confidence and a clear conscience, to devour his word, to walk in faith and obedience. Lean into those things. Jesus has said “Be clean.” So as a church in Mt Pleasant, let’s all of us offer ourselves with thankful hearts to Jesus, and live as a people who are holy – who belong to God. Please pray with me: