Looking For Jesus

“Looking for Jesus” - Mark 1:35-45

Cross Church / 3-10-24

Intro: We came to gather as a church today, and I’d like for you to ask this question of yourself: Did you come looking for Jesus today? And if so, what were looking for in regards to Him? I want that question to linger and to drive the text this morning, because I believe that this is the theme of this narrative here, and not only here, but throughout the gospel of Mark. There are so many things that people expect or want Jesus to be or to do. And yet the Bible absolutely shows us something quite different. Some want signs to prove his divinity. Some want Jesus to entertain them. Some want Jesus to fulfill their wants and dreams. Some want Jesus to side with them in their quest for relevancy or power. The spirit of our politics today, and in this election year, we may want to ask ourselves if we try to shoehorn Jesus into our arguments for which party deserves power, rather than asking if our views align with Jesus’s.

CTS: Look for the true Jesus who came to preach salvation and cleanse that which destroys.

I. Jesus Depends on Solitude and Prayer (35-36)

The first verses reveal that after Jesus’s ministry in Capernaum that Jesus gets up early in the morning, before everyone else, to go into solitude. Remember, he has cast ou a demon and has healed Simon Peter’s mother, to the point that now the whole city was coming to Jesus, bringing him sick and demon-possessed so that he could drive them away. Jesus’s name and reputation was growing. Yet Jesus found in necessary to get away after much ministry and service to others. One commentator says this:

“Jesus cannot extend himself outward in compassion without first attending to the source of his mission and purpose with the Father; and, conversely, his oneness with the Father compels him outward in mission.” (James Edwards, PNTC)

Where he went is called a desolate place. This is the same word used earlier for wilderness, where John was baptizing and where Jesus was when he went into the wilderness to be tempted and do battle with Satan. Jesus goes to this place to pray, and three times in Mark he prays either after serving others (feeding of the 5,000) or in preparation for what’s to come (Garden of Gethsamene). Its a stark image, and one that we should pay attention to. Jesus, fully God, is also fully man, in need of relationship with His Father in prayer in order to carry out his mission. He needed to spend time of rest and renewal with the Father to fuel His ministry.

Application: This goes against much of what we do as human beings, and further, even in ministry contexts. The operating word of our world today, ministry or not, is to do. Do, do, do, go, go, go. If you’re not doing something, you’re not living up to your potential or won’t get work done. Particularly for the church, we must be careful that we do not forget the means by which ministry is truly done. It’s done in the power of God, through the Spirit. And this is cultivated not by staying busy, but by being disciples of Jesus. This means we follow as He did, and we rely on prayer and solitude. We stop doing and start depending on God. There is this balance. We don’t sit back in our seats and do nothing, expecting God to do all the work. That would go against His commands to serve, love, and proclaim faithfully. But we also know that we are called to abide in Him, as Jesus taught His disciples. (John 15:4-5)

John 15:4–5 ESV

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

God’s people are to be a people of prayer and reliance upon God.

This goes against every fiber of our being in a culture of busyness and work. Where society demands that truly good people work 60 hours a week, and that the church must do more in order to reach more, rather than asking God what He wants us to do, to do it well by surrendering it to Him in prayer, faithfully obeying His command, and leaving the results up to the Lord. So, sometimes, we just need to stop, stop talking and doing, and go to the Lord. He’ll reveal the way.

II. Jesus Rejects Man’s Expectations (37-39)

And that way becomes clear in the rest of this paragraph. As Jesus is away, praying in solitude, essentially doing battle in prayer (the temptation would be not go to the Father and rely upon His relationship). And here enters Simon and the rest of those that were with him (other disciples). We don’t get the details of how they got there. I can imagine in my mind’s eye that Peter woke up, along with the disciples, and Jesus wasn’t there. There was already a crowd at the door that morning, asking for Jesus. They were bringing more people to be healed and for the demon’s to be cast out. Jesus is nowhere to be found, so Peter starts looking.

It says they searched for him. At other places in the gospels, the verb in the Greek for search can have a connotation of hunting. Though unbeknownst to Peter and the disciples, they were hunting Jesus down to get him to cater to the crowd. Peter as the primary antagonist to Jesus’s purpose won’t be the first time he will do this. Peter doesn’t understand what Jesus is here for and believes that He needs to get back to the crowds. Verse 37 Peter says to him “Everyone is looking for you.” Ten times this verb is used in Mark, and each time, the context is negative.

“Seeking” connotes an attempt to determine and control rather than to submit and follow. In this respect, seeking for Jesus is not a virtue in the Gospel of Mark. Nor are clamoring crowds a sign of success or aid to ministry. Here, as elsewhere in Mark, enthusiasm is not to be confused with faith; indeed, it can oppose faith.” (James Edwards)

Evidently Peter and the disciples are misunderstanding Jesus. Why would he be out in solitude when there is a huge crowd to be ministered to? Doesn’t he know that he is only hurting his opportunity to become more popular, to do more signs of healing and casting out of demons. That’s what they want Jesus to do, yet Jesus reveals that He is here to do something else.

Verse 38, Jesus softly rebukes Peter and the disciples, informing them of his next steps. He is going to the next towns to preach there also. That’s why he came. He goes into all the region of Galilee, in the synagogues, and continues to preach with authority. And this is the kicker for the crowd and for us. Jesus does cater to our whims and to our expectations. We think Jesus needs to do this, and instead he says, no, I’ve come to do this. And that this is to proclaim the kingdom of God, the gospel of God. That is what was most important. More than any healing and physical sign, they needed the gospel. They needed their sins forgiven, death reversed, and given eternal life. This doesn’t negate Jesus’ compassion for those in need of healing and casting out of demons, but rather, it makes it clear that those things were in support of his main mission. The signs of Jesus were never the point. The signs of Jesus pointed to the truth of faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, in whom repentance and faith are necessary for the salvation of our souls.

Application: So the application is this: We don’t seek to make Jesus more popular or demand him to do things that we expect of him. We don’t get to say to Jesus and dictate to him what we believe He should do. And even in the church, we don’t get to say to Jesus that he must do this, or that we are trying to make his message easier to swallow by making him what He doesn’t reveal Himself to be. We are beholden to his message, and the proclamation of His gospel. We don’t need Jesus to be more popular, or even His church to be more popular.

“Jesus’ reticence about having followers on any grounds other than personal faith provides a stern test of our evangelism and witness. Our concern to impress or get results too often takes priority over a determination to help people to true faith in God through Jesus which will stand the test of daily life. The ‘numbers game’ is a distinct snare for the Christian church leader.” (Donald English)

That doesn’t mean we have license to be jerks or to not serve and love in the world we live in. Quite the opposite. We show compassion as Jesus did. We look to help others. But ultimately, our goal is that those that are lost will come to love God as we are commanded to. This is only possible by the gospel, enabling lost sinners to repent of their sin, trust in Jesus for their salvation, and are then able to love God as they were created to.

III. Jesus Cleanses the Uncleansable (40-42)

And that gospel is seen in an incredible scene that upends the expectations of those around them. For your reading plan this week, I wanted you to read in Leviticus the laws concerning leprosy. The term leprosy was a term that encompassed all skin diseases of that day. And as you read those texts in Leviticus, the person who has leprosy does not have it great. In these days, people often attributed leprosy to sin, that it was God’s judgment on someone for their sin. So, with that, alongside the law that was very particular that a person with leprosy was essentially to stay away from everyone, dress unkempt, and yell “leprosy!” wherever they went.

Leviticus 13:45–46 ESV

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.

It was painful. It was lonely. It was the life of an outcast. And the law made it clear that the priest could not heal the person. Only God could heal the person (which it turn was forgiving of their sin, which will come up later and sets up the next text), and the priest was the one who could declare someone clean.

With this background in mind, we see this man with leprosy in verse 40 breaking all of the law, coming to Jesus boldly. He is now in a place, and everyone in there is in danger of receiving this leprosy. And yet he comes because he knows Jesus can do something about this. He kneels before Jesus, and states that if he is willing, Jesus can make him clean. Now remember, only God can heal leprosy. And here, he believes Jesus to be able to do what no man can. He trusts Jesus. Now he only asks if He is willing.

Moved with compassion, Jesus stretches out his hand and touches him. A big no no for anyone, let alone a teacher in the synagogue. Not even the priest could touch him. And he does so, declaring he will cleanse him. And he does. Immediately (again, Mark loves this word) the leprosy leavens him. He is clean! Jesus is not contaminated by the leper’s disease, rather, the leper is cleansed by the contagious holiness of Jesus. Jesus reverses the curse. Jesus heals. Jesus takes the which is unhealable in us and removes it, cleanses us, and restores us. This is the gospel in a nutshell!

Application: Though we may not have physical leprosy, we have spiritual leprosy. An unhealable disease called sin that we cannot heal on our own, and no man can heal as well. We are lost in this sin, with no hope, outcast the kingdom of God. Yet Jesus, the God-man, with his holiness, is able to cleanse us from our sin Himself. He as the completely righteous man takes sin upon himself, dies on the cross to pay the debt himself, rises with victory over it and its consequences, death, and makes us clean. Jesus our Savior cleanses us from the disease of sin, and gives us life! This is the point of the gospel and why Jesus was adamant about preaching it!

IV. Jesus Takes Our Place in Desolation (43-45)

Jesus then sternly commands the cleansed man to do two things. First, don’t say anything to anyone. Don’t proclaim this. Go to the priest, and have him declare you clean. Jesus here is still obedient to the Law. Contrary to popular opinion by others and even today, Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. But what is crucial here is a theme that we will find throughout the rest of Mark until the proper time of Jesus’ passion, that there is this messianic secret theme. Jesus tells the demons, this man, and others to not let everyone know. Why? Because he didn’t want to hinder the mission he had, which was not to be put on a political throne as Messiah to save Israel from pagan rule and to initiate an earthly kingdom of Israel, but rather, he came to bring glory and a spiritual kingdom of the heart, which would be fulfilled in full by his own suffering, death, and resurrection. IT would be all to easy for the crowds to try to force Jesus into a wrong view of the Messiah, and that is not what he came to do. His witness and intention of ministry was far greater, the salvation of souls, the fulfillment of crushing Satan and the curse of sin.

Yet the man, with whatever good intentions, disobeys. This is something we need to reckon with as believers. Its easy for us to think we know what’s best for Jesus, and yet go against His wishes and desires. And this is not to say that when we mess up like this, we are lost and unsaved. I don’t think that’s the point. The point is, sometimes we think we’re on Jesus’s side, and instead, our actions only hinder the ministry of Jesus. And when that comes, we need to honest with ourselves and repent. And submit ourselves to His Word.

Conclusion: But even further, that as this man let’s the news fly around, spreading the news, that Jesus can’t openly go into a town without being pestered and pushed upon by the crowds. Rather, they had to come to him out in desolate places. Notice that. Where we began this morning is where we end. And its in this desolate place that Jesus does his greatest ministry and work. You see, this man was exiled, an outcast. He for years could not go anywhere, be with anyone, and suffered great pain. Yet Jesus took the plight of this man, and in essence, took his place. This man is now restored, around people, no more pain and suffering. He is restored to his people, his family, his friends. Jesus on the other has to go out to a desolate place, continuing his battle against the Enemy, ministering and breaking the curse. He has become the scapegoat, the one leprous who was put out of the camp on our behalf, to destroy sin and death. But he will come back into the fold with his people whom he’s redeemed welcoming him as he rules and reigns forever as King. Jesus did this for you, took your place in death, to give you eternal life. Have you trusted in Him? Have you sought this Jesus, and not a Jesus of your own making? He didn’t come to make your life easier. He lovingly came to save your life from death so that you would love God and obey Him forever!