Sermon archive

This blog contains sermons listed by date, Bible passage and title

Name:
Location: Hattiesburg, Mississippi, United States

Sunday, February 15, 2009

6th Sunday after Epiphany 2/15/09 Text: mark 1:40-45

6th Sunday after Epiphany
2/15/09
Text: Mark 1:40-45
Title: Blabbing Beggars.
Continuing on in our study of “When God speaks things happen”, we look at our Gospel reading for this morning. A leper comes to Jesus begging him and kneeling, a sign of respect. Legally, a leper could not even come near another person unless the other person had leprosy also. By the time Jesus walked the earth the Jewish law stated that the leper had to stay 300 feet away if upwind and 12 feet away downwind. Just his presence alone made Jesus and all near him unclean.
This beggar and that is what he is because his disease separated him from the community, forcing him to rely on handouts from family and friends. I think that is why our Gospel writer for this morning records for us this particular healing. Other diseases, while they might make a person really sick did not cause a person to be thrown out of the community. It was thought at the time that leprosy was contagious. Leprosy is a disease that kills the nerve endings. Thus what would happen is that a person would hurt themselves without knowing it. The part of the body would become infected and die thus leaving them horribly disfigured. Josephus the Jewish historian wrote that in the Jewish society Lepers were treated as if they were dead men. Imagine waking up one morning knowing that you were going to be thrown out of your family and community; banned to a life of exile until it cleared up and the High Priest declared you clean, that is, fit to reenter the community. How horrible that must have been. This man, this leper might be a husband and father, or an important person in the community. It did not make any difference. You were out of the circle, perhaps permanently, if you actually had Leprosy.
We too are beggars before God, separated from him because of the sickness of our sin. We are beggars before God, even as we look down on other beggars whether they are beggars asking for a handout, beggars living in a particular sin that we are not living in, or just beggars struggling with life.
We beggars should really be more empathetic with those we look down our noses at since we are all in the same boat. We all stand before God unworthy in ourselves to be touched by him. We too, in the leprosy of our sin are excluded from God’s presence. How can I be so sure of that you might ask? I can be sure of it because we all will die some day. Death is the ultimate confirmation of the disease of our sin, our leprosy, for sin even as we sit here today separates us from God.
On his own, this leper knows that he is powerless. But he senses something very different in the healing ministry of Jesus. He says to Jesus, "If you choose, you can make me clean." And moved with "pity," Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. The Greek word ESV translates as pity is compassion. Compassion is a much better word, for pity does not necessarily end in anything being done for someone. For we all know what it is like to have pity on someone. It is usually feeling sorry for them but no action. While compassion on the other hand will always end up in something being done. And Jesus filled with compassion says to the man, "I do choose. Be made clean!"
Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him compassionately, just as Jesus did in our baptism when we were made his own. He also does it every Sunday in the bread and wine of His Supper. For it is in His Supper Jesus chooses to touch us. In a simple but amazing way he extend his cleansing and compassionate touch to our hands when we hold the bread and wine, to our ears when we hear the words, “Take eat, the body of Christ” “Take drink the blood of Christ”, to our mouths when we take his body and blood into our mouths. Jesus touches us as we hold his body and blood in his Supper. That is why we sing the Nunc Dimittis, the words of Simeon spoke after he held the baby Jesus. We too can depart in peace, for what could be better? What could prepare us for death better than his Supper?
We, like the beggar, come to Jesus to be healed of our sin. He speaks, he touches, and we are healed. His gracious hands touch us his children, beggars riddled with the leprosy of sin. He cleanses us. We cannot choose to do it. A leper cannot change his spots. :>) For we cannot rid ourselves of sin. But Jesus can. And he does. His love is intentional and unconditional: "I do choose. Be made clean!" he says to us beggars.
It is not written in the service folder but I titled this sermon, “Blabbing Beggars” for even after Jesus sternly sends the cleansed man away, saying, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." the man goes blabbing to everyone that he meets. What a marvelous ending to the story.
A man expelled from his community because of something he could not help comes to Jesus with a simple faith. He knows that he cannot do anything or deserves anything. He just wants to be healed and restored back into the community. “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” He says to Jesus. Jesus replies with “I am willing. Be clean” and the man is clean. Jesus tells the man to go to the high priest to do what needs to be done, so that he who is now clean can be officially restored back into his community.
The man does as he is told, but then he goes blabbing to everyone the good news of his healing, even though Jesus told him not to. Here is a lesson for us today, beggars before God. The Gospel word cannot be contained. He is healed and not even the command of Jesus himself can stop him from telling the good news of his healing. He who was cast out of the community is now restored. The Gospel always trumps the Law, even when the Law is laid down by Jesus.
Our gratitude for gracious healing turns us from beggars into blabbers too; people who are tell this happy story everywhere. We tell it not because we have to, but because we cannot help but share the good news of our healing; our restoration back into full fellowship with God.
Why is that we don’t tell others the good news of our healing by Jesus? Could it be that we still think that we really are not beggars, that there is something in us that God gives us credit for; that we still in some way deserve God’s love and forgiveness? Or maybe we really don’t believe that God will do as he promised, that is, give us the words we need to witness of his love? Or maybe we think that Jesus’ no blabbing order is still applicable to us today. I don’t know what it is, for everyone has to look at their own relationship with God. All I know is that the "blabbing ban" has been lifted. It was lifted the day that Jesus rose from the dead and the angel said to startled women, "Go, tell" (Mark 16:7).
Martin Luther called it "confessing." This is where his trust in the Lord Jesus led him right up to his very last breath. According to an eye-witnesses, Martin Luther's final word in his death was "Yes!" after he was asked, "Reverend father, are you ready to die trusting in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the doctrine which you have taught in his name?" "Yes!" was his reply. Then he died.
Touched and healed by God, beggars still, we tell everyone the good news of our being touched and healed, restored into the community of God. We "blab" right up to the end, whether it is the end of our lives, or the day of Christ's return. We blab the Good News of Jesus forgiveness. Amen.