Seeing the Gospel through Healing

Today, we come to the end of chapter 1 in the gospel of Mark. We will be in verses 40-45. We see in our passage another instance of Jesus healing someone. And with that, how miraculous it is. But most importantly today, I want us to see how this healing is a picture of the gospel.

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.

Pray

What is the greatest miracle that we can see preformed? We live in a time, and I would say that we live in a geological area, where lots of people want to focus on signs and wonders. I am not saying that they aren’t believers. But is the gospel not enough for us? We have the fullness of the word of God to point us to our need for a savior and to how wonderfully perfect Jesus is. Do miracles happen? Yes, we see people healed of horrible diseases. We see people on the brink of death get healthy again. I am not saying that miracles cannot and do not happen. I am saying that the focus that is put on signs and wonders has taken the focus off of the miracle of salvation.

When we look to scripture, we often times have pictures for us to see that are within the story. If you have been coming on Wednesday nights, you know that to be a fact with us going through the Old Testament. Today, we have the story of a man with leprosy being healed. As we look at this story and dive into it, I want us to see the gospel in the healing of this man.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to put myself into the story of the bible at times. Especially when I was young, I would imagine myself as the David of the bible. The reality is that we are not the characters of the bible. All of the people in the bible should not be pointing to us, but they should be pointing to Christ. With that being said, we do have something in common with the man dealing with leprosy. See, this man was unclean, he was unwanted. And in our sinful state, that is us as well. We are far from God and we, like the man with leprosy, need cleansing. We need healing.

Now before we really dive into our text, we need to really get a grasp of what leprosy is. In modern times, we often classify this as what is known as Hansen’s disease. But the term leprosy in scripture refers to several different skin diseases. We find in Leviticus 13 and 14 a detailed description of what is defined as leprosy, the laws concerning leprosy, the laws about cleansing leprosy, and also laws about cleansing a house after someone with leprosy had been there. The culture of the Jewish people took this very seriously. And over time, those who had leprosy were even more alienated in society. If a priest was to declare someone to have leprosy, they would be excluded from the community. And it would not be out of a fear of a spread of the disease, but out of a fear of religious impurity spreading because it was believed that it came from a sin that had been committed. Because of this, they would not be allowed to be near people. They could not come within 100 paces of someone. They were literally treated like a walking corpse. If they were to touch something, it would make whatever they touched “unclean”. So this was something that was very serious. I hope that gives us some of an understanding. If I were to go into great detail, it would take weeks of sermons to really go through all of the details of leprosy. So I wanted to give us enough to have a foundation of what we have going on.

Drawn into Jesus

Mark 1:40 ESV

40 And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.”

This man, this unclean man, came to Jesus. Now, we don’t know what town Jesus is in now, but we do know that word was traveling about Jesus. We should assume that people from all over had heard about him healing people, casting out demons, and most importantly, preaching. This man with leprosy was desperate. So desperate that he was willing to break laws to get to this man that he heard could heal people. He knew that he didn’t have other options. He was willing to risk it all.

So he comes up to Jesus, and he kneels in front of him. This is seemingly an act of worship almost. He knows that his only hope is in Jesus. He is the one who can heal, he is the one who can cleanse. So he goes, bows down to Jesus, and asks him to heal him. “If you will, you can make me clean.” He knew that it wasn’t a fact if Jesus could heal him, but would Jesus heal him. Because of his realization of hopelessness that is found in all other avenues, he knew that Jesus was his only hope. He was drawn into Jesus.

Now I am not trying to overcomplicate this. Yes, he willfully went to Jesus. But he went to Jesus because of who Jesus was and what Jesus offered. There was both God’s sovereignty at play, as well as free will on this mans part.

We too are drawn into Jesus. I have heard pastors tell people before, “just give Christianity a try”. This is not how this works. Yes, we go to Jesus. But this is because we are drawn into him. You cannot “give Christianity a try”. You either become a Christian, which is eternal, or you don’t. Christianity is not some shallow religion that you can just say that you are one and it makes you one. No, you surrender your whole self to Jesus. And you don’t take it back. This man was drawn into Jesus because of what he had heard about him. Did this man come to a saving faith? We can’t really say from what we know in scripture. What we do know, is that he was drawn into Jesus because Jesus provided him with something he thought he needed.

How are we drawn into Jesus today? Well, if you are someone who has been saved by Jesus, you are saved because of the preaching of God’s word. This is the only way people are saved. Romans 10:17 “17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” We don’t have Jesus standing in front of us anymore. But what we do have is his word. It is through his word that people are drawn into salvation. It is not because of emotions, it is not because of how you are raised, it is only through the word of God that we are drawn into Jesus and we are saved.

Brothers and sisters, remember back to your salvation. Maybe it was in a church service like what we are participating in right now, maybe it was a parent at home, maybe it was someone you worked with, maybe it was a stranger that was obedient to sharing the gospel with you. Whatever it is, if you are saved, it is because of the word of God coming alive in you and drawing you into Jesus. And just like we will see happen to this man with leprosy, you are healed by Jesus.

Healed By Jesus

Mark 1:41–42 ESV

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.

This man, who was written off by everyone else, came to Jesus begging to be healed. The ESV says that he was moved with pity. A more accurate translation, which many other bibles say is that he was moved with compassion. Jesus showed this man compassion. He shows us compassion in many ways. Ultimately, through the work that he did on the cross to save us.

He shows this man with leprosy compassion by healing him. This is first seen in Jesus touching the man. I don’t think that we can really wrap our minds around what it meant for Jesus to physically touch the man with leprosy. Anytime that he went anywhere, he would have to call out “unclean, unclean”. He had a certain distance that he had to stay away from people. Anything that he touched, would be declared unclean. But Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. But not only did Jesus touch him, he healed him. It says that immediately the leprosy left him and he was clean.

But understand that Jesus did not have to touch him. Jesus could have just told him to get up, you are healed. Or, he could have just healed him without even speaking. But that is not who Jesus is. Jesus is a personal savior. I think of the song, “he touched me”. That is what Jesus does, he comes and touches us. Now, naturally, he does not physically touch us today. But we are spiritually touched by the Holy Spirit. This man here, in the presence of the living God, begs him to be healed and is not only healed, but it touched him while he cleansed him.

Have you ever been around someone who had a skin type disease? Or maybe was dealing with a serious infection in their skin. I have seen things that did not look healthy on someone. But when I think about uncleanness spreading just by touch, I think of lice. Most of us here have had some type of encounter with lice. Growing up, my sisters and cousins and me all were at my grandmas all the time. Well, one of my older cousins went to school one day and came home with a present he shared with everyone, lice.

Lice is not leprosy and I don’t want you to think that I am putting the two in the category. But think about any type of sickness or disease that you can get from just being around someone. It was only 4 years ago that our entire world shut down for the fact that no one wanted to be around other people in fear of getting sick. But Jesus touched him. He made it personal. Because Jesus is a personal savior. And I don’t think anyone here has ever had leprosy, but we have all been sick. We were born with the incurable sickness that is sin. And the only one who can heal that is Jesus. So today, if you have been saved by grace through faith, it is only because of Jesus healing you by reaching out and touching you.

And when we are saved by Jesus, it is the same as this man with leprosy. Immediately. This is what happens in salvation. You are not slowly justified. Now, you are slowly sanctified (being made into the image of Jesus). But justification, salvation happens immediately. And this man experiences that with this disease. It leaves immediately. I do not have the experience of seeing someone healed immediately from something. But I can only imagine looking on as this mans skin is suddenly clear. No more spots, no more disease. This is what happens to us when we are saved by Jesus. It happens immediately. But not only are we healed by Jesus…

Declared Clean by Jesus

Mark 1:43–44 ESV

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.”

So Jesus tells him to leave. Now, we might find this out of character for Jesus. But we must look at this in context. He tells him to leave, don’t say anything to anyone, and to go to the priest so that the priest can reevaluate this man to be accepted back into society. We must understand that when we look at the Greek here, it does not paint Jesus as some mean man telling this man to get out. The words that are used in the greek portray this to be like a command from a superior officer. Because Jesus wanted him to do this thing that he tells him.

This man needed to go to the priest and be declared clean so that he could walk in his new life. This is us when we are healed by Jesus through salvation. We have had something in us that is much more deadly than leprosy. Yes, leprosy infects our skin. But sin infects our soul. We must be touched by Jesus, we must be healed by Jesus, and when Jesus heals us, he declares us to be clean, just like the priests would do for this man.

In a lot of ways, people often feel like spiritual lepers when thinking about their need for Jesus. They will say that they need to clean themselves us, that they are too bad to go to him, that they can’t be around others because of how they are. This is language of the leper. But that is not what happens when Jesus saves us. See, we don’t need to be inspected by the priest and declared clean by a third party. Because Jesus inspected us before he ever healed. Jesus touched us while we were infected. And Jesus took that on himself on the cross so that we never have to pay for it ourselves. Jesus is the one who declares us clean.

Now, there are ways for us to put it out there to the world that we are what Paul talks about when he says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” When Jesus touches us and heals us, we are changed. The things we once did, we stop doing. The things we used to say, we stopped saying. The things that we once loved, we begin to not love. We change, our thoughts, our actions, our words, our passions, they all begin to change. Now will you wake up the next day and never struggle with holding on to the old life? I doubt it. It may be weeks, months, years even of struggling with certain things. But that doesn’t mean that you are not saved by grace through faith. I don’t know about you, but when I sin, I hate it whereas before, I loved it. That is how you know you are a new creation in Christ.

We can also show the world that we have been declared clean by following through with baptism. But maybe you have come to faith, but have never made a public profession of faith through the act of believers baptism. Maybe you were baptized as a child with really good intentions from your church and your family. But that was before you came to faith. Baptism is how we declare to others that we have been saved by grace through faith. I want to challenge you that if you have not been baptized after you have came to faith, then let’s have a conversation.

Getting back to this man that has been healed from leprosy, Jesus wanted him to go to the priest. Jesus wanted the priest to see the healing miracle that this man had experience. But not only that, he didn’t want this man to go around telling everyone what Jesus has done. We see this over and over again throughout all 4 gospels. Don’t tell anyone, don’t tell anyone. Jesus wanted the priest to see the miracle so that they knew that Jesus had the power of God, but Jesus did not want to make a spectacle of the healing that had happened. Everything that we have seen so far in this passage is because of the power of Jesus. Jesus draws us in, Jesus heals us, Jesus declares us clean. But now, we see what this man does in reaction to Jesus healing him.

Sharing Jesus

Mark 1:45 ESV

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.

I love watching movies about soldiers and war. Now, in some of them, you will see scenes when someone gets captured. Being captured usually leads to some type of interrogation. The point of interrogation is to find out secrets. Soldiers are trained that, if captured, they are to only give them their name, rank, service number, and date of birth. Many soldiers have endured endless torture, to the point where many have died, to keep secrets from getting to the enemy. The power of secrets is great. Jesus wanted this man to not tell of what happened. He wanted this man to keep this secret. But he did the exact opposite. It says that he spread the news.

You may wonder why Jesus didn’t want this man to go around telling people what had happened. Jesus had a primary part of his ministry and then he had secondary parts of his ministry. The primary aspect of Jesus’ ministry was always the preaching of the word of God. Jesus said in the verses before our passage today that the reason that he came was to preach. He came to proclaim the word. This was primary. The secondary part of his ministry were what we would call the miracles. The healings and exorcisms that we see him preform.

Jesus knew that the people would always put an emphasis on the importance of the physical healing that they were seeking. If this sounds familiar, it is because it continues to happen today. This is why we have the word of faith movement and people like Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Bill Johnson, and Todd White who have great followings as they use charlatan techniques to convince people that they are healing. People are seeking this emphasis on physical healing. There are local churches here that have this emphasis. We have had churches come together to put on “healing services” here locally. And hundreds of people come in to experience this healing. I know one guy personally that would go to it year after year who had severe diabetes. And 3 days later, he would be admitted into the hospital because he refused to take his insulin because they had declared him clean. Jesus knew that the people around him would be seeking out the physical healing rather than the spiritual. This is why we have such an emphasis on the preaching of God’s word here. Because this is why Jesus came. To proclaim the words of God.

And because of this mans disobedience, Jesus was crowded around to the point where he could no longer be in the town but had to leave temporarily. But even then, people followed him. Why? Because they wanted to see this man that had healed people physically and they wanted to experience the same thing. Next week, we will see a group of friends rip the roof off of a house to drop in a friend to be healed by Jesus. And this is caused because of the disobedience of this man.

Now, we could make an argument that Jesus knew that this man would not be able to contain himself, and still decided to heal him. But I want us to shift from this mans disobedience. Because now, the miracles that Jesus preformed are no longer a secret. We live on the side of scripture where the ministry of Jesus is no secret to us. So we know what happened. For us, even though many professing Christians live this way, we are not commanded to stay silent. In fact, we have the opposite command.

Matthew 28:19–20 ESV

19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

This is our command now. Jesus has healed us, Jesus has touched us. We are now called to go and tell what he has done. And tell others how they can experience the same.

Conclusion

When we look in scripture and we have this beautiful picture of healing that Jesus preforms on this man with this horrible disease. I want to ask you a question? Have you experienced healing by Jesus?

Maybe the answer is yes. If you are someone who has been saved by Jesus, then yes, you have been healed by Jesus. I want to challenge you two things if you have been saved.

remember your healing

share it with others - through the sharing of the gospel

If you have not experienced healing by Jesus, you are a spiritual leper that needs to go to him for healing. Jesus tells us what we are to do to be healed by him spiritually. If you are feeling this pull on your heart to know Jesus as your savior, Jesus tells us that we need to repent and believe.

repent

believe

Believe that Jesus was God who came in the form of man to live a perfect life that we should have lived, died the death we deserved, and rose 3 days later. Believe that Jesus took your sin onto himself on the cross and puts his righteousness on you so that when God looks at you, he sees the sinless life of Jesus. If you have not repented of your sins and believed in Jesus, and you feel this draw on you to go to Jesus, then this is what you do. Turn to Jesus, turn away from your sins, and believe that he is your lord and savior. There is no magic prayer, you don’t have to make a dance down the aisle. Turn to Jesus and believe. And then you can be able to sing, “he touched me”. Just as this leper was able to.