Learning from a leper, getting it almost right

Have you ever come across one of those people where their enthusiasm isn’t as helpful as they think it is?

They run ahead and you have to haul them back because they are getting ahead of the rest of the team.

Their keeness to spread the message or start the activity, instead of helping, actually creates real problems with other people as they develop expectations that you may not want to fulfill.

You come across this problem from time to time in churches with people who want to start something and you are then having to play catch up to prevent a disaster.

Their enthusiasm is commendable and you don’t want to discourage it, but directing it in a more helpful direction is challenging.

Children are often a bit like this, they get excited and want to rush in but you just need them to slow down a bit so that everything is in place.

Jesus dealt with this sort of situation on a number of occassions.

Some of his disciples were inclined to open their mouth before putting their brain into gear.

And in the account of the healing of a leper in Mark 1:40-45 we find that Jesus specifically told the man to keep quiet.

But in his enthusiasm and excitment the man went and told everyone.

You would think that telling people about Jesus is something that is always encouraged.

But in this case Jesus had good reason to tell the man to keep quiet.

The crowds were becoming a problem and it was becoming difficult for Jesus to even enter a town.

Mark 1:45 tells us this as does the first few words of chapter 2.

Disobeying a command of Jesus, no matter how well intentioned, can only lead to hindering his work.

For the man who was healed from leprosy it was the most natural thing in the world to go out and tell everyone what had happened.

After all being miraculously healed by Jesus was a life changing event.

Due to his illness this man was an outcast.

The Mosaic law and the general attitude of the day required exclusion.

In those times the disease was incurable and contageous.

No one wanted to run the risk of being infected with a disease that would not only kill them it would render them socially dead whilst they waited to die.

It was a horendous situation to be in.

So being told to keep quiet by Jesus was something that this man found to difficult to follow and he spread the word far and wide.

Jesus wanted the man to keep quiet because the crowds were becoming unmanagable.

The sheer numbers were detracting from his ministry’s primary goal at this time of preaching the Gospel.

Jesus had compassion on the sick but he wasn’t interested in becoming a side show - he wanted real disciples

Alan Cole in the Tyndale Commentary makes the valuable point that Jesus never desired people to be drawn to follow him simply in hopes of material benefits.

Jesus didn’t want to build his ministry on people’s wrong motives as this would lead to them falling away as soon as persecution and difficulties came along.

Cole goes on to say that, “This is one of the paradoxes of the ministry of Jesus. He sees the hungry crowd, has pity on them and feeds them; and yet he rebukes crowds who come to him solely for feeding (John 6:26)......... He has compassion on the sick, and does not turn them away when they come for healing; but he makes no attempt to seek out the sick to heal them. Rather, he withdraws himself when the crowds seeking healing become too great, for this makes his teaching ministry, which is alone able to interpret his healing ministry, impossible (38). His primary purpose was ‘preaching the gospel of God’ (14).

This is the key to understanding Jesus’ reason for telling this man to keep quiet, but instead to go and follow the proceedure proscribed in the Mosaic law to prove that he was healed.

The law had a process to follow and there were very good reasons have these rules in place.

While what we know as leprosy was in those days incurable, today it is easily treated.

But there were other skin conditions which a person could recover from.

And you didn’t want those diseases to become an epidemic so people were isolated until they could prove they were clean.

So Jesus, in wanting to protect his ability to preach and therefore make real disciples tells the man to follow the recognised proceedure.

Jesus was happy to heal the man who had approached him in desperate need.

But he didn’t want this healing, whilst being an incredible testimony to his claims to be the messiah, to detract from his teaching ministry which set out his claims to be the source of eternal healing.

Jesus also had a point to prove to the religious authorities and the desperate request of this leper provided the opportunity

Sometimes you just have to stand up and call people out on their attitudes regardless of their importance in your society.

Within this account there are two blatant actions by Jesus which are literally a challenge to the religious leaders.

He is calling out their enslavement to rules rather than faith and he is calling out their refusal to acknowledge him as the Messiah.

In Mark 1:41 we read that “Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!””

Moved with comapssion Jesus “touched the untouchable and cured the incurable” (Bible Knowledge Commentary)

The touch and the words be clean brought about the cure.

It was instantaneous and visable to all who were there.

Jesus was clearly saying that he wasn’t bound by rabbinic regulations.

He refused to be enslaved to rules.

But Jesus then went further.

In telling the man to go and show himself to the priests and then to offer the required sacrifices Jesus was setting up another challenge to the authority of the religious leaders.

Presumably any priest could perform the examination.

But the sacrifices could only be carried out in the temple in Jerusalem.

The Priests could not deny that the man was cured, that was obvious.

And because they knew that Leprosy could not be cured in that time there was no other conclusion that could be reached.

In accordance with Jewish teaching of the time the healing of leprosy and the raising of the dea were a sign of the Messiah.

If they, the priests, declare the man clean but then denied the one who cleaned him, their unbeleif would be incriminating evidence against them (Bible Knowledge Commentary)

Jesus is proving his point by using their own rules against them.

It is a master play at calling out the establishment for their attitudes against him.

Jesus’ struggle wasn’t with the common people.

They needed to be taught to look beyond the miracles and desire for political freedom but this was achievable by withdrawing until the fevor settled and people would come to listen to Jesus’ teaching.

We see this in Mark 2:2 where Jesus is again able to preach, even if the situation is packed.

Jesus’ struggle wasn’t even with the Roman empire.

He made no claim against Ceasar, in fact he declared that people should render to God what was God’s and to Ceasar what was Ceasar’s.

He made no claim that threatened Rome.

And ultimately the Romans only acted under pressure from the Jewish authorities.

Jesus’ struggle was in fact primarily with the religious people and especially the establishment.

And here is the point for us.

If we are disobedient to the commands of God, even with the best of motives we hinder his work.

If we see his presence in our lives as a way to benefit ourselves, then we deny his Lordship and embrace a prosperity theology at the expense of true discipleship.

If we become enslaved to rules instead of embracing relationship we make a god in our own image instead of embracing Jesus the Messiah, the Sovereign Lord.