Whoever Loves You the Most

Only a Parent

There are times when only the person who loves you the most will deal w/ you stuff.

It may be a spouse or a child. But usually, it’s a parent.

Sara wasn’t afraid to fly alone with our kids to visit her parents or go other places. Whether it was w/ 1, 2 or all 3; she’d pack up, load up, and go.

Check their bags, pack their back packs w/ snacks and games for the plane; take off and go.

The flights were hours long. The farthest we were ever away from Tucson was when we lived in N. Dak. From Minot, it was never a direct flight. There was always at least 1 stop to connect. Often times, NW Airlines thru Minneapolis. MN is the opposite direction from Tucson. So, the connecting flight was even longer.

One time Sara was walking thru and airport, she had one of our sons in a stroller and our oldest, Alyssa, on a leash. Parents got it. They understood.

But one time, one man, who obviously didn’t have kids, or travel w/ kids, didn’t get it.

He made some snide comment about having a child on a leash like a dog.

It’s not even worth the breath to reply. But, she knew she didn’t have to worry about losing Alyssa. She wasn’t wandering off in the crowd. Or, worse, no one was snatching her and taking her away.

You do what you have to do.

One time, flying from Minot to Tucson, w/ 2 of our 3. Our 3rd wasn’t born, yet. Alyssa was 2 or 3. Jason was maybe 1, still in diapers. On the long flight to Tucson. Everything went great in the connecting airport. But, then Sara noticed a bit of a foul smell coming from Jason.

He had one of those blowout messes in his diaper. A massive amount of nastiness. Not solid at all. Up the back, into his onesie. Down his legs, into his socks. Pretty much all over.

Jason was just smiling at the time. Must have felt good to get that out of his system.

On an airplane. Recirculating air. 3 seats in the row. Sara held Jason, Alyssa had her own seat. Then there was some stranger sitting in the row w/ them.

How many times have you been on a flight when someone accosts the flight attendant b/c they don’t want to sit in a row w/ a child. Whether it’s your child or not, it’s painful to watch and listen to. The parents are like, what are you going to do?

The guy in the row w/ Sara hadn’t complained about sitting there before the flight. Nor did he say anything during the flight. But as the smell began to waft over their neighbors, Sara knew that those closest would be deeply offended by what was overtaking them.

Sara is by herself. The flight attendants are busy. So the stranger was nice enough to keep an eye on Alyssa, 2 year old in the seat next to him, while Sara took Jason, smell and all, down the aisle to the lavatory in the back of the plane.

I am sure, most all of you, have been on airplanes before and most likely have used the lav on the plane. You know how tight it is in there for one person. There is no changing table.

Nor can you ask the pilot to please avoid the bumps in the air while addressing the child w/ the nasty diaper back in the lav.

So, bouncing around, w/ Jason on the toilet seat. It’s hard, cold, he’s squirming. She gets him cleaned up.

As prepared as Sara was, the one thing she hadn’t packed in their carry-ons was a change of clothes. So, Jason spent the rest of the flight just in his diaper.

But, then, what do you do w/ that nuclear disaster of a dirty diaper on an airplane?

In your house, that diaper never spends a minute in your diaper pail. It’s straight out to the trash bin, if not driving straight to the dump so it can’t offend you neighbors in hood.

And, what do you do w/ his clothes? They were just as nasty as the diaper. A flight attendant was nice enough to give her a bag for the clothes. She tied it as tightly as she could to everything inside.

She has to go back to her seat and the stranger in the row and all the ppl seated around her. She’s still hours out.

She did her best, did a good job, made Jason presentable so that when her mom met her at the gate, she could hand him off to her, and Sara could release the stress and she cried the whole way to the house.

Mom wasn’t offended. Was happy to help. Jason was happy. Smelled good, tho’ nearly naked. Thrilled to see Nani and excited to be in Tucson.

This was pre-9/11 when people could meet you at your gate.

There are times when only a parent can deal w/ their kids’ stuff. She couldn’t as the stranger in the row, “Would you mind taking Jason to the lav and changing him for me while I watch my daughter here?”

The flight attendants were busy. No asking them.

Only mom. She was the only one who would, who could deal w/ Jason’s stuff on that flight.

Only a parent, a mom or dad, b/c the stuff is so nasty, no one else is willing. No one else should have to.

Maybe many of us have worked in a church nursery, or baby sat, or taken care of infants at one time or another. Most of the time, it’s rocking, reading, feeding, and playing.

But, when it comes time to change them, it’s just not as easy as changing your own child. Just the way it is.

Only someone who loves you the most, will embrace you the way you are when you look and smell the worst.

That’ mom and dad.

And that’s Jesus. Before He cleans us up, we are nasty. We don’t see it. Don’t realize it. Except maybe in our most and deepest self-evaluative moments.

Jesus died for us, embraces us and saves us in our nastiness. Lifts us out of it and cleans us up to make us presentable for His Father.

This is what happened next, after Jesus demonstrated his authority and ability over nature by making the fish jump into the net. Then he demonstrated his authority and ability over the demonic by casting the demon out of the man in the syn. Then he demonstrated his authority and ability over disease by healing Peter’s mother in law.

Next in the progression, written about by 3 of the gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, and Luke; He did it for a leper.

I’ll talk about the significance of leprosy in a minute. But this was a step higher than a disease. When someone was miraculously cured of a disease, the bible says they were healed. But, when someone was cured from leprosy, the bible says they were cleansed.

More on that difference in a minute.

We are going to spend our time in the Mark passage.

The Tense Approach

Mark 1:40 NIV

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Leprosy was an ugly, horrendous, heinous, hopeless, and fatal disease. It was a certain death sentence in c.1. Treatable now, not then.

The trauma it caused effected its victims in all areas of their being.

Physically

It would start out as white spots on the skin on extremities. Those spots would grow and spread.

The body slowly, painfully dies. Those white spots are dead spots. Victims would slowly lose feeling in their fingers and toes. Those spots became open wounds. They would bang their hands and feet, not realizing they had opened the wounds even more b/c they couldn’t feel it.

The wounds would ooze nastiness. Eventually, fingers, toes, and even their nose would fall off.

They’d wrap everything and cover everything as best they could. But they couldn’t hide it all.

That’s just what’s happening on the outside.

Inside, the same thing is happening to their organs. Slowly, gradually, their organs diminished in their functions until they failed entirely. That included the brain.

It was a merciful moment when the brain finally failed to the point they were completely unaware of the awfulness that had happened to them.

Emotionally

They knew where this was headed. Think about what that does to your emotions.

They were isolated. Couldn’t stay in their home. Had to move to the leper colony outside their village.

We kind of get that coming out of a pandemic. We are beginning to realize the emotional harm done to our children, teenagers b/c they were isolated, masked and gloved for over a year.

For lepers, no social contact whatsoever. Except the other lepers in the colony. But they were all in a bad way unwilling or unable to help and serve anyone else.

When they left their home, everything was burned up. Kill the germs. Nothing was left. No trace.

Healthy ppl were scared to death and avoided them like the plague. See what I did there?

The law required, among other things, lepers who out walking around, to cry out, “unclean” repeatedly so ppl would know to avoid them.

6’ was the required distance for a leper to stay away from anyone else. Healthy ppl were allowed to carry 6’ poles and poke lepers away who weren’t paying attention and wandered too close.

“I wouldn’t touch that w/ a 6’ pole.”

Think about the pain that cause the leper who already had open wounds.

W/ open, oozing wounds, the smell that wafted away, in the wake of the leper who walked around town, was repulsive to every healthy person w/in a few feet.

You hated to look at them, hated to smell them, scared to death to touch them, certainly wouldn’t kiss them, and when you heard them coming, you ran away.

All 5 senses were offended by the leper and they were left completely isolated.

Mentally

Intelligent ppl, early in the disease, knew, understood what the next few years held for them. How do you process that.

No stimulation. Can’t hold a book. No convo.

Spiritually

They weren’t allowed in the synagogue, obviously. No priest would go to them.

We get the importance of regular interaction w/ God; worship, bible reading, singing, prayer; all in the presence of God.

Their spirit dried up.

Leprosy was seen as different than every other disease. As I said, lepers were considered unclean, not just sick.

They contracted it like every other illness, germs. Sin didn’t cause leprosy. But leprosy, in c.1, was seen as comparison to sin and its effects.

What ppl would see and smell as leprosy ravaged its victim’s body, that’s what God sees and smells on us as sinners.

We don’t see that. In fact, we may think we’re pretty okay. We’re pretty handsome. Not that bad. In fact, we may be offended by God, or by me, saying this.

Please understand how offensive you are to God before Jesus does anything about your fatal disease.

Sin is a death sentence. There is no cure, well except one thing. We are rotting and rotten to the core. No amount of denial, democratic vote, compartmentalization, living as if we aren’t; will change our reality.

The same way ppl see and smell lepers, God sees sinners.

Now, imagine how the crowd would have responded as this guy w/ leprosy ran, limped, waddled among them, right up to Jesus and fell at his feet.

There was no, “UNCLEAN”, called out. No 6’ distance. He came, germs, smells, oozing wounds and all.

The Luke wrote that his leprosy was advanced.

He boldly, confidently, approached Jesus in his horrendous and hopeless state. Marched right up and fell on his knees w/ his face to the ground.

The significance of his posture? It’s a posture of worship. W/ that, He communicated that He believed in the Person of Jesus.

Begs the question, what is our posture when we worship?

Maybe it would be appropriate to kneel at times.

When we sing, “We bow down.” Maybe we should bow.

Yes, he came boldly, but he also came humbly. Kneeling as he did is the posture of humility before your Savior.

If he didn’t believe in the Person of Jesus as his Savior, he would have walked up, stood up, and faced Jesus. That’s the culture. Then pled his case.

He risked everything, fell at Jesus’s feet, and begged him to cleanse him.

Only 3x in the OT was leprosy cured. Jesus, to this point, hadn’t done it at all. By begging, pleading, the leper also demonstrated faith in the Power of Jesus. He had no evidence other than what he had heard, maybe seen, Jesus do for others.

Faith in the Person and faith in the Power. He believed in the name of Jesus, all of Him.

He knew He could, He was capable. Was He willing.

Sometimes we pray, “If it’s your will.” as a cop out. Kind of a passive way in case Jesus doesn’t do what we ask.

That’s not what’s going on here.

Last week I talked about why Jesus didn’t heal everybody then, nor does he heal everybody now. That’s b/c he didn’t come to bring heaven to earth. He came to get us to heaven. And that’s where we will all be healed, once and forever.

Jesus sees the bigger picture. He has a bigger purpose than 1 person’s health and well being. The leper is acknowledging this.

If you are willing, means if it fits w/ the program and purpose where all the ppl in the universe are right now.

It’s not just specifically limited to his situation, other than his situ in the greater scheme of things.

Does this help you accomplish your purpose? Does this make you job, your life easier, bring you the most glory?

What he was saying was, he was okay w/ whatever Jesus did, even if he did nothing. The man knew he’d be healed soon enough. Once this disease, or something else, took him from this life to the next, he’d be freed from it.

But, maybe, it does fit w/ Jesus’s bigger picture. He wants us to ask. But he also wants us to be okay whatever he does b/c that will bring him the most glory, maybe not us.

So, how would Jesus respond? Would He recoil? Back-pedal? Call for a 6’ stick?

Here’s how He responded:

The Tender Touch

Mark 1:41–42 NIV

Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.

It says Jesus was indignant. That’s a tough word to translate into English. He was deeply moved. He felt something deep inside.

Literally, He was moved in His bowels.

Not like Jason was on the plane.

The bowels being the deepest part of his being.

He felt a deep compassion for the man who was suffering horribly.

And, He felt a deep anger for the effects, consequences of sin. Not the man’s sin. But the effect of us having to live in a fallen world where things like leprosy, cancer, HIV/AIDS, murder, and other horrible things occur.

Then, He touched him. How long had it been since he’d been touched by another? No human contact for years. He felt Jesus’s skin on his wounded and diseased skin.

This man had been pushed away by everyone. Maybe his parents, spouse, kids, friends, fellow Jews.

From our perspective, Jesus risked contracting the disease Himself. That’s what happens when healthy ppl come in contact w/ sick ppl.

When a surgeon washes up and gloves up in preparation for surgery, then shakes the hand of someone who hasn’t washed up, who effects whom?

The doc doesn’t make the other man clean.

The unclean man makes the doc unclean and He has to wash up again. The unwashed contaminates the washed.

Only God can touch someone who is unclean and make them clean. He is the only One who is not contaminated by the unwashed and transfer clean to the unclean.

While we were still rebellious sinners, Jesus died for us. Figuratively, we were shaking our fist at Him, insulting Him, while he was dying for us.

Jesus felt something for the man, then He touched the man, third, He cleansed and cured the man.

He didn’t cleanse the man before He touched Him. Relationally, what did that do for the man.

Spiritually, what does that do for us.

Nobody has to clean themselves up before boldly, if not humbly, approaching Jesus. Good thing, b/c none of us can wash up and be clean enough for Jesus.

He does that for us.

The cleansing was immediate and complete. No need for P.T. or any other kind of therapy. Imagine the reunion w/ his wife, if had a wife.

The Greek indicates the leprosy was completely removed, he never relapsed. No scars on his body from the wounds.

When Jesus saves us, the cleansing is immediate, complete, and eternal. We never again suffer the consequences of sin in our lives.

Except the harm we do when we do sin. We are still able to overcome its effects in our lives here and it will not keep us out of life in Heaven.

God used this man’s bad situ to glorify himself and do good thing for him. God uses bad situations in our life to glorify himself and do good for us.

That’s His M.O.

Jesus wasn’t done w/ the man. Before he left him, Jesus gave him a Terse warning.

The Terse Warning

Mark 1:43–45 NIV

Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “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.” 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.

Don’t tell anyone! The crowds were already beginning to swell to the point Jesus couldn’t teach everyone effectively or touch everyone relationally. It would only get worse.

Please, help me keep this on the Down Low.

Remember, Jesus’s purpose was to preach the Good News in towns and villages and establish relationships w/ the ppl who believed.

After this, he could no longer go into the towns and villages. B/C the guy disobeyed Jesus and blabbed all over.

Did Jesus not know he was going to do this? No. He knew. He knew he’s disobey him and He saved Him anyway.

Do you think anything you do surprised Jesus? Makes Him wish He hadn’t cleansed you? No. He knew a long time ago everything you’d do, both good and bad. He died for you, saved you, and cleaned you up anyway.

Jesus doesn’t demand perfection to do something extraordinary in your life.

Jesus told him to go show himself to the priest in Jerusalem.

The priest could do 2 things. Upon examination and seeing that the man no longer had leprosy he would allow him back into fellowship. He could go home to his family and friends. And, he could go to his synagogue and worship again.

Also, the priest should recognize something significant had happened. Something new, different, powerful, and godly was going on.

Remember, only 3x in the OT had leprosy been cured.

Then, w/ everything else happening, this time it was a Messianic sign. The priest could confirm that Jesus is who He claimed to be in the synagogue in Nazareth. He could authenticate that Jesus has the authority and ability to do what He says He can do.

He’s doing it. He will do it.

The leadership needs to know and get on board. It presented a dilemma for the leaders. Acknowledge Jesus is the Messiah and get on board and believe in Him. Or, deny it and expose their unbelief and lack of qualification to lead God’s ppl.

Which is our dilemma, too. Believe it and get on board. Or, deny it and get out of the way.

Has Jesus done enough, yet? Has He said enough? Have you seen enough ppl around you change enough for you to believe, too?

Whatever mess you’re in, you don’t have to clean up first to come to Jesus. He will embrace you, save you, fix you, then clean you up.

Only the person who love you the most will deal w/ your stuff the best.

Applications

Approach

Boldly, confidently, humbly approach Jesus in whatever mess you’re in, big or little.

Communicate your complete dependence on Him. The leper had no hope beyond Jesus. Neither do we. Communicate that however you can.

I defined prayer that way last week. It involved convo. But it’s more. It communicates complete dependence on God.

Tell Him what you want Him to do. Be okay w/ whatever He does. Eventually, it all gets cleaned up anyway.

There are no messes in Heaven. No messy lives. No messy divorces. No messy addictions, not even any messy bed-heads.

We don’t have to clean ourselves up first. Good thing. We can’t anyway.

Approach Jesus. He will feel for you, touch you, save you, fix you, and clean you to make you presentable to His father in heaven.

Tough times

See your difficult situations as opportunities for God to glorify himself.

Jesus’s finest hour was his toughest hour.

The church’s finest hours are society’s toughest. Whether it’s a power outage or the plague, when God’s ppl step up and let Him work thru us, it may cost us, but He makes Himself and his ppl look good when He does good things for us and thru us.

God has something good for you, for those around you, and good for himself in your tough times.

See them that way and they become more manageable.

Imperfections

Don’t hold yourself to a standard that God doesn’t. He doesn’t expect nor require perfection of you to do extraordinary things for you and thru you.

He provides tools that enable us to do better. And, He expects we work hard using the tool He provides. But He hasn’t DQ’d you, nor should you DQ yourself.

Think big. Expect big things from God for you and for the ppl around you.

Make big asks of God and see what He does.

Be sure to give him all the credit when he does it. But even that won’t DQ you from participating in His big things in the future.

Nobody likes changing someone else’s kids nasty diaper. Only a parent is as okay as they can be cleaning up stuff like that.

Only someone who loves you the most, will embrace you the way you are when you look and smell the worst.

That’ mom and dad.

And that’s Jesus. Before He cleans us up, we are nasty. We don’t see it. Don’t realize it. Except maybe in our most and deepest self-evaluative moments.

Jesus died for us, embraces us and saves us in our nastiness. Lifts us out of it and cleans us up to make us presentable for His Father.