HG044-45 Mark 1:35-45, Matthew 4:23-25 and 8:2-4, Luke 4:42-44 and 5:12-16

35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36 Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37 and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38 Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39 So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. 40 A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. 43 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: 44 “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

When we last looked in Mark Jesus had healed this man who was demon-possessed and the people were all out to see Him for it was a remarkable miracle demonstrating the power and authority that He had. It had been an incredibly long day, so much for resting on the Sabbath, for He had taught in the morning, healed the man and some others, healed Peter’s mother-in-law and then eaten. But the news of this miracle had spread far and wide and they started to bring to Him all their sick and demon-possessed and instead of turning them away He healed them all. He was at the beck and call of all. We have absolutely no idea how long all this took but the stream of people would have been long. It would have taken into late evening and maybe beyond. But very early the next morning Jesus had got up, no doubt to pray, and then about 6am He went out of the house to find a quiet, solitary place in the desert for the express purpose of praying.

Isaiah 50:4 NKJV

“The Lord God has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned.

He met with His Father morning by morning.

He plainly had not told anyone what He was doing or where He went. Why? Because He wanted to be left alone. I am sure you have all heard preachers say: “Look, Jesus prayed, how much more you and I.” and rightly so. Jesus thought it incredibly important to nearly go without a night’s sleep to commune with God. Now, of course, this was a fellowship meeting between His Father and Him no doubt with the Holy Spirit also present. Remember that Jesus has, is and will be with His Father and the Holy Spirit forever. An unbroken relationship and so it is understandable that He would continue in that vein. We are not told anything about that prayer time. We have few recorded prayers of Jesus, the largest of which is in John 17. But perhaps words were not necessary, it is was simply a time of being together. Whilst this is the first time that we are told that such a thing happened it was not isolated. Morning by morning, Isaiah says.

Now the time of Jesus was not like today. People moved around a great deal slower. People did not have clocks. Much depended upon where the sun was in the sky to get a general idea of the time. And then Jesus still went to find a quiet place. Today, the hustle and bustle of western life is very time oriented, with travelling from one place to another at brake-neck speed. If then, in Jesus time, quietness needed to be sought how much more today. I am blessed with living in a very quiet area - I can hear silence. We need to find quiet, undisturbed places to pray.

I was told the story once of a woman with two or three kids in a manic house whose only way to get silence was to lift her apron over her face which would signal to the kids to be quiet and it was then that she prayed. This could only have happened because this was her practice. She would not be able to pray for long, of course, but it was in the silence she communed with God.

If we want power in our Christian lives then it will not happen without prayer. And there are two other times we find that Jesus specifically seeks out a solitary place and it was always when there had been a large crowd.

Well, interruptions happen and here came to Jesus Peter along with others, and it also says in Luke that the crowds start to come: Everyone is looking for you. Now what preacher is going to turn down them? I cannot imagine doing so myself. What an opportunity! Revival has broken out! Or, at least, for appearances sake it seemed to be…not everything is as it seems.

You can have large churches which seem alive but have left the true gospel behind and you can have exceptionally small churches which are alive with God’s Spirit. Numbers do not tell the story about spirituality. Some of the largest churches in the states are heretical. Take, for instance, T.D.Jakes, seeing he has lit up twitter and Christian news sites this week. He has over 30,000 people attending his church. But he preaches a prosperity gospel so this week he said on Twitter to 2.7m people; “if you obey God you will never be broke”. He also does not believe in the divinity of Jesus from eternal past to eternal future. Large churches have large influence but unfortunately they are not always orthodox in their beliefs. The fame of one man has led many astray.

Jesus says, let’s move on from here. Jesus did not come to be famous and have recognition but to reach the people with the Gospel. He was minded to go where the people were. And this, He said, was the reason why He was there. On top of that Jesus knew how fickle and shallow the crowds were for they were only interested in the miracles rather that in the word of God - their motives was to see a miracle-working man than any deep change in their own hearts.

So, off they went to next places. He went on a circuit preaching in the synagogues in Galilee making the Word of God known to all who would hear. He went where the people were for they all went to a place of worship on Saturday.

There was one kind of people, though, who could not go to Synagogue even if they wanted to and that was the lepers. They were unclean. They had to declare themselves; “unclean, unclean” get out of my way! The reason they were not allowed was that they were contagious mainly to those who are in constant contact with them. It was a disease that spreads and cripples those who have it, making breathing difficult and affects the eyesight even unto blindness. The thing is that it takes 5 to 20 years for the symptoms to appear. Today, almost 600 people are diagnosed with it every day. And until the 1980’s, so relatively recently, it was an incurable disease and since 1995 the drugs required are free of charge, at least until 2020 when funding will run out without a new sponsor. Leprosy can be healed. But it is still a fearsome disease that will never be completely eradicated due to its incubation period.

It is here, then, that a man with leprosy approaches Jesus very tentatively. You can almost hear him in a quiet, muted voice with trepidation asking Jesus whether He might just be willing to heal him. He had absolute faith that Jesus could heal him. It was only a question of whether He would be willing to do so. The heart of Jesus went out to Him with such compassion. The man had been timid and withdrawn and fearful because all the time he had been rejected, avoided, ostracised, considered evil because he had the disease, no-one wanted him. I don’t know if he could have taken being rejected again. Especially from the one who was able to help his situation and radically transform it. Are you willing to heal me, even someone that everyone hates and not even be near? He had no recollection of what it was to shake hands, to hug, to feel the touch of others, to be intimate.

And Jesus reached out to Him and met him where he was to say that He was accepted by Him and was willing to meet him at the centre of his need. And in that moment his life profoundly changed. This is what it is like to meet Jesus. You can never be the same.

Everyone remembers when Princess Diana touched the man in hospital with AIDs because it was an act of compassion for someone else who was ostracised in society for the fear of a disease that could be passed on by simple touch. That changed our perspective. No longer did we think we could catch it by association. Who are those today that we should show tenderness and mercy to? Are there people today in our own neighbourhoods who are untouchable? What Diana did was something Jesus would have done.

By touching the man Jesus was not going to contract the disease however He did allow Himself to suffer for others. He suffered enormous pain. Before that He even condescended to become a human being with what all that entails including things we do not think about such as going to the loo. Jesus did these things because of His heart of compassion for people, for you and me. He was not content to leave us in the same state as he found us. In fact, we were all suffering with a greater disease, one of the heart and soul, a malady called sin. And it is here that Jesus touches us to heal us in our very desperate state and allowed Himself to be touched to the point of being crucified. He offers healing to all who would humbly come to Him.

Sometimes you do the right things but people just do not respond how they should. It was the same for this man. It is a sad story. He was healed, bodily. But spiritually he rejected Jesus’ words. He was healed but he will still die. We don’t know if He came to faith afterwards or not for we are not told. But what we are told is that he did not obey. He was supposed to offer the sacrifice in Leviticus 14, a chapter that seemed to have been written just for those few whom Jesus healed of leprosy. It would have meant his acceptance into the commonwealth of Israel and into the fellowship of the synagogue. But, it seems, he could not be bothered. Instead, against the words of Jesus, He went out and told everybody what had happened. Well, what is wrong with that! Surely if we had been healed of such an illness we would have been shouting it from the rooftops too! But what was required was obedience.

The words of Jesus and his disciples afterwards to all who would be Christians was to repent, believe and be baptised. To repent and believe people do. It is only this way we can be saved. But what of the words ‘be baptised’. Baptism cannot save you but it is proof that you repented and believed. It is proof that you are willing to have Jesus as Lord and Master of your life. The Christian life is a life of obedience and the first command once you are saved is to be baptised. There is no getting around it.

We might think that the man with leprosy was saved but we would have known for sure if he had done what Jesus said. But he didn’t and this leaves us asking whether he was saved at all. I think the same of baptism. If you are saved Jesus says be baptised. Can we be saved without baptism? Undoubtedly but where is the proof that we want to be the disciples of Jesus? Obedience is required. No sacrifice, no witnessing, no doing good is worth it unless we obey God.

Well Jesus doesn’t have to give us reasons for why we should do what He says and certainly did not have to to the man in today’s story but it complicated things for Jesus. Jesus could not walk in public places anymore. Fame had won the day and you can see why this made things incredibly hard. He went out to the desert at the beginning of today’s reading to pray and be alone. Now He was having to go out to the deserts for people to come to Him. He was no longer alone in a place where He wanted to meet with God. Our so-called good deeds, if they are not done in obedience, can become a hindrance to the Gospel.

The formerly leprous man was told to keep quiet and not tell anyone and instead did the opposite and told everyone. We, on the other hand are told to tell everyone the Gospel and we do the opposite and we don’t say anything. Who is worse? the leprous man or us? Both are disobedient.

We have a willing ear in Jesus who has compassion for us and is willing to help us in our troubles whatever they may be. What we must do in response is to obey. And instead of us being a barrier to the Gospel we become a bridge. And we must show the same compassion in serving as He did and show that God will receive all who will come to Him and receive instant acceptance and forgiveness for their sin as a result.

If you are not yet baptised as a believer then speak to me or one of the deacons and we will make preparations.

Let’s pray.

Blbiography

Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Elwell, W. A. (1995). Evangelical Commentary on the Bible (Vol. 3). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.