"If You Will"

Do you remember when Chuck Norris jokes were all the rage?

Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.

When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he actually doesn’t push his body up, he pushed the earth down.

Chuck Norris disproves the theory of evolution and natural selection. If it really were survival of the fitest, He’d be the only one left.

When Chuck Norris goes swiming, he doesn’t get wet. The water gets Chuck Norrised.

I do not often begin sermons with jokes, in fact normally I’m suspicious of the practice. But today there is a point: We rightly recognize that these are, of course, silly. Chuck Norris was once a legendary figure, but we aren’t far away from Chuck Norris completely disappearing from the public consciousness. Most of today’s children will grow up and never hear the name Chuck Norris a single time.

It’s hard to believe, but Chuck Norris is currently 82 years old, and there will be a day when he dies. And despite what our jokes say about him, when he dies, he will stay dead.

The truth is that as incredible as Chuck Norris was, or at least made out to be by TV, he doesn’t hold a candle to the wonders of Jesus Christ.

We’ve been moving through Mark chapter one and gazing upon the wonder of Christ’s early ministry. He burst onto the scene in an incredible way, and have been demonstrating that he is one with authority.

He calls his disciples and they follow him

His teaching is clearly teaching with authority.

He commands the demons and they must obey.

He heals illness and disease.

He sets his own agenda and is laser focused on his mission: to proclaim the message of repentance and faith.

But as we move along he is not just a figure who commands authority and demands servitude. He cares for people. He proclaims a message to show how one can enter into the Kingdom of God. He calls disciples so that he might train them to reach others. As he heals he demonstrates his power and authority, but he also does so out of love and compassion for people.

As we come into this final section of chapter one, we see one more area over which Jesus has authority: Jesus has the authority to make someone clean, and we see the compassion of Christ expressed yet again.

Let’s read our text.

Mark 1:40–45 ESV

40 And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 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.” 45 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.

There are few things that we need to understand that will aid our study of this text.

First it says the man was a leper. He has leprosy. Today we are aware of a disease called leprosy or Hansen’s disease that is a flesh eating disease. This bacteria would deaden your nerves and would eventually lose your limbs and eyesight and eventually your life. In those days there was no cure for this disease.

According to the accounts of leprosy we have in Scripture, it does not seem as though Hansen’s disease was the disease in every text. It seems that a variety of skin diseases were lumped together under the label of leprosy.

But all the skin diseases were considered to be contagious and defiling. The OT law had specific instructions for the people on how to handle cases of leprosy so as to protect the rest of the community.

After giving lengthy instructions about what the preist is to look for in a case of suspected leprosy, the color of the rash, the color of the hair, etc., Leviticus gives these instructions:

Leviticus 13:44–46 ESV

44 he is a leprous man, he is unclean. The priest must pronounce him unclean; his disease is on his head. 45 “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’ 46 He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.

As a side note, sometimes we look at the OT law and scratch our heads. Why is all this in there? What is the use of this?

There are principles in this text that are helpful for us. God’s law is good and wise. Though we are not bound to the law as Israel was, there are applicable principles and wisdom to be gleaned from these passages that are helpful today. Paul himself says in 1 Tim 1:8 “8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,”

We can learn great things from the Law, even though we are not under the law of Moses, but the Law of Christ.

End Side note.

As we read the Levitical text, we see that Leprosy was a serious thing. If the leprosy would end up healing, Lev 14 gives instructions about how the individual is to move through ritual cleansing and how he is to show himself to the priest who will examine and then help him walk through the purification process.

But the only cases in all the Scripture where we find records of Leprosy being healed, the only cases are through miraculous healing. There are no accounts of any leprosy clearing up on it own. Indeed, the ancient world considered leprosy to be incurable; once you had it, you were doomed to live out your live as an outcast, and anytime you were around others you can to continually remind yourselves and other that you were unclean.

I don’t know how many of you have seen the 1960 film Swiss Family Robinson with John Mills and Dorthy McGuire. There is a seen when they are trying to salvage what they can from the shipwreck, but a pirate ship approaches threatening to board and loot the vessel. Suddenly the ship turns away and sails off and it is revealed that the father had raised the flag that signals to other vessels that the ship was infected with the black death. The pirates want no part of that.

That is the effect that walking around and continually shouting out “unclean, unclean” would have on the people. They create a wide berth around you, unwilling to approach or interact, lest they catch the disease as well.

So you can imagine what it must have been like for this individual to come before Jesus. ‘

This man would have first of all been breaking the required protocol. He certainly acknowledged his condition because in his plea, he says “you can make me clean” thereby recognizing his impurity.

But he would have been taking upon himself a significant risk and causing a risk to others in the process. But look at what drove him to his savior.

First, he is a desperate man. Look at how the text describes him.

A leper came, imploring, kneeling, and said. In the Greek those are all present active participles. Imploring, kneeling, saying. I’m not trying to get to grammatically technical today, but in a section where many of the verbs are in the indicative mood and/or aorist tense, these present participles stand out. This has the effect of demonstrating the desperation in this man. He come and begs Jesus for his life.

He is a desperate man.

Second, look at the content of what he says:

“If you will, you can make me clean.”

If you will.

See the faith of this man.

He doesn’t say “If you can” He has faith that Jesus can. you can do this, I know you can. It’s not a matter of ability, but of willingness. If you will. If you so desire. If it would please my Lord, you can make me clean.

This is a man who is also self-aware. He has an accurate understanding of his condition. He does say “you can make me well” as if he just needs physical healing. He does need physical healing. The issue is a skin disease. In all the other accounts of Jesus interacting with those who needed healing, the texts speaks of just that: healing.

When Peter’s mother-in-law had a fever, Jesus raised her up and the text says the fever left her. When the crowds would come gathering, the text says he healed many who were sick with various diseases.

But when this man comes to Jesus, he knows that his condition is not merely one of physical illness, but also resulted in ritual uncleaness, and that seems to be his primary concern.

He is cut off from his people. He has lost access to the temple and sacrifices. And he desperately wants to be restored.

I can’t help but think about how so often we come to Jesus and we think that we have something to offer him. The Gospel bids us come as you are to receive grace and forgiveness, and so we do so, but often forgetting that “as we are” means dead in our trespasses and sins, with nothing but filthy rags and excrement to our names.

Even after we come to faith in Christ and receive his salvation, when we come to church or even just simply come to our Lord in prayer in our private times, we often come without realizing how desperate we really are, and how needed we really are. We often come without an accurate picture of our condition.

When we come to our God in prayer, do we make our requests in faith? Do we trust that God is able to meet the needs of the moment? Do we trust that our God wants what is best for us, knows what is best for us, and is able to bring it about?

This man comes in great faith and begs Jesus for his life.

See the response of our Lord:

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean”

Depending on your translation, the text will say “moved with pity, moved with compassion, or if you happen to read the NIV, NET or LEB, you might be surprised to see “Moved with indignation” or “becoming angry”, or you might have a note that says that as well.

Here is a place with a textual variant, and there are many who believe that the text originally said that Christ was indignant or angry.

Last week in our Sunday School class as we are working through a series on apologetics, we discussed the issue of the existence of various bible manuscripts with variant readings. There are places where when you compare two copies of the book of mark, they don’t agree in every place, and here is an example of that. Skeptics might look at this and identify this as a ready why we shouldn’t trust the Bible.

How can we respond?

In truth, this is an excellent example of why we can have such high confidence in the preservation of the Word. On the face, it does indeed appear to be a significant change. Often when there are textual variants, the two Greek words look similar to each other and so it is clearly an honest mistake that accounts for the change. We can’t say that here. These are two different Greek words.

But let us consider how we would understand this text in either scenario:

If the original word is pity or compassion, we see the heart of Christ. We see that he cares for humanity and our suffering. We see that when one comes in faith to him, that he acts in accordance with his promises.

If the original word is indignation, we must ask, who or what is he indignant with. It does not appear to be the man himself, but rather his condition. It seems that he is indignant at the consequences of sin in the world. That it bothers him that there such suffering. If that is the case, we see the heart of Christ. We see that he cares for humanity and our suffering. we see that when comes in faith to him, that he acts in accordance with his promises.

In either case, the understanding of this is text is nearly identical. Even if we can’t have 100% confidence regarding what the original reading was here, we can have 100% confidence that the original meaning is retained. Most variants are much more simple to understand and account for than this one. So when someone says “there are so many variant we can never know the original” it simply isn’t true. Most are easier than this, and even with this one, the meaning isn’t greatly impacted. So be encouraged about the reliability of the Scriptures.

Returning to the text at hand. There are a few more details that are important to catch.

Jesus responds with compassion. He cares for this man. He sees his plight and is moved. Even if the right understanding is indignation at the man’s plight, we can be encouraged that our Lord cares. He is grieved when we experience the consequences of living in a sin-cursed world.

And in this text, Jesus reaches out and touches the man. That might seem like a throw-away detail that is necessary to the story, but it is a huge detail. The man is unclean. The man has leprosy. the man has a contagious disease.

You all remember at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, how the whole world shut down. no public gatherings, stay six feet apart, no shaking hands, wear your face mask. We might scoff at those things now, but early on we didn’t know what we were facing and so many people lived in fear that just being within arms length of someone could kill them.

There was a similar stigma about touching a man with leprosy, and to do so would not only risk the contagion, it would rend you unclean and in need of purification as well.

But Jesus touches him. He touches him and says “I will; be clean” and immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.

It is this verse that made me think of those silly Chuck Norris jokes that I opened the sermon with. When he goes swimming he doesn’t get wet the water get Churck Norrised.

When Jesus touches a leper, he doesn’t become unclean. He makes the leper clean. He doesn’t become corrupted, but rather purifies the corruption from this man.

It’s a powerful moment. Jesus sees the plight of the man and does what is requested of him.

Take a look what Jesus does next. He sternly charged him and sent him way. Say nothing to anyone. Show yourself to the priest, offer your sacrifice.

Another surprising turn of events. This word for sternly charge is a strong one. It speaks of a prohibition. Jesus is forbidding him from something.

We have seen Jesus silencing the demons in previous weeks, but here he silences a man who is cured.

It is best to understand Jesus’ motives as consistent in both cases. Jesus wants to reveal himself according to his own timeline. The sternness of the warning likely has to do with Jesus being aware of how the man would respond, and indeed, we are going to see that the man was disobedient to Christ’s command.

He tells him to show himself to the priest and offer the appropriate sacrifice, but look at the last phrase of verse 44.

“as a proof to them” this could be rendered as a testimony or a witness to them.

What is Jesus doing here? Jesus wanted this man to go before the priest and show himself. This was in fulfillment of the Levitcal laws about how a man could be declared clean and re-enter society again. It may simply be about just that. The priest needed the necessary proof that he was well and could approach the temple once more.

It seems to me that there is more going on here, however. Jesus wants the priests to know that this man didn’t just heal on his own. He was made clean.

I was reading one commentator this week put it this way:

The priests could only ever declare someone to be clean. Jesus actually made the man clean.

Jesus was demonstrating his authority to cleanse people of their impurities and make them clean, and this was a testimony to the priests that it was so.

Sadly, the man doesn’t do what he is instructed to do. Perhaps he eventually went to the priest, but he certainly didn’t obey Jesus’ command to remain silent about the matter, in fact he goes out and tells everyone!

And the text doesn’t really view him negatively for that, but rather simply reports that this is what happened. And in many ways, can you really blame the guy? If you were miraculously cleansed from a disease that had made you an outcast, wouldn’t you want others to know as well? Nevertheless, Jesus had his reasons for commanding silence, and the result of him spreading the news may reveal Jesus’ motives:

Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places and people were coming to him from every quarter.

As we come to the end of chapter one, there are three things I want us to consider from this text by way of application, some of which I have already said.

One: Consider how the man came to Christ. In faith, rightly understanding his condition.

Do you believe that Jesus has the answers to the things you are facing? This man wasn’t just looking for physically healing, but to be clean.

The whole concept of clean and unclean from the levitical law was a grace to the people to protect them from disease and such, but it also served to make them aware of not just physical impurity but spiritual as well.

We need to be made spiritually clean. We need Christ to cleanse us from our sin.

Our hearts are black with sin, and only Christ has the power to cleanse that away, to take out the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh to wash away our filthy rages and rubbish.

Only Jesus can teach us how to live lives that are pleasing to him, how to break free from the issues that we face in this life. Do you believe that Jesus can do that?

There is an entire multi-billion dollar industry that exists right now that deals with mental health, but all the reports show that it isn’t making people any better. Our society is more depressed, more anxious, and more trouble than its ever been, despite there being more therapy, and more emphasis on mental health that there has ever been.

I’m not trying to issue wholesale condemnation of those who genuinely desire to help people with what is often called mental health. I’m not saying that there is no value in counseling. I do believe that there can be common grace can be seen in many places. But if our counseling is devoid of Christ and His word, there is a limit to the help that can be had.

I was talking with Jim this week about some of these concepts and I have his permission to share this today. Many of you know that he is mental health psychologist for the KY state women’s prison. By his testimony, the only inmates who experienced any lasting change in their lives are the ones who have found Christ.

My challenge is this: Do you believe that Jesus can make you clean? Do you believe that God’s Word has the solutions to the problems that you face? Do you believe that if you put into practice what this book says that it will produce change in your life. I have seen first hand, both in my own life and in the lives of others the sanctifying effect of the Word. I have seen victory over anxiety an depression. I have seen hot-tempered people learn patience. I have seen people break from addiction to pornography and substance abuse.

And each one of them have come to Christ with open hands, imploring, kneeling, and saying in faith, if you will, you can make me clean.

In this text Jesus worked an instantaneous miracle. He doesn’t always do that. More often he leads us through a process. I’m not here to say that it’s easy and that you can just snap your fingers and its done.

What I am challenging us with is this: Do you trust the Word of the Lord? Do you trust Him enough to come to him? Do you trust him enough to obey him?

Because here is the good news: Jesus is moved to compassion by our plight. He cares. He loves. And if we would but come to him we would see his transformative power on display.

If you have never come to Jesus for salvation, Jesus wants more than physical or mental healing, he wants to save your soul. This story from this book is moving toward the cross where Jesus is going to die for the sins of the world. His message remains consistent. Repent and believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Believe that he paid the price for you, trust in his perfect work for your salvation.

If you have trusted Christ for you salvation, are you trusting him for your sanctification as well? Are you coming to Jesus as seeking him and his ways so that you might live as he designed? Come to Jesus. He is willing. He will make you clean.