sermon 7 27 2025
Notes
Transcript
The Sin Problem
The Sin Problem
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
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.
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.
—> Leprosy —> some kind of disease/condition that has caused this man to be cast out of society
—> came to him —> approached him in a way and at a distance that would have been outside of social norms
—> if you are willing —> not a question of Jesus’ power to do it, but a question of Jesus’ desire to do it.
The Gospel according to Saint Mark 7 Jesus Makes a Leper Clean (1:40–5)
In touching this man, Jesus did not simply run the risk of catching the leprosy, but also made himself unclean according to the regulations of the Mosaic Law. Yet the outcome of the story is not that Jesus is made unclean, but that the leper is made clean! Jesus’ power to cleanse is thus demonstrably greater than the power of the leprosy to contaminate.
The Gospel according to Saint Mark 7 Jesus Makes a Leper Clean (1:40–5)
It seems best to conclude that Mark does not intend us to understand Jesus’ anger as directed against the leper at all, but against the evil forces which have claimed the man as their victim. The responsibility of Satan for illness is referred to in
A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
—> Do we have confidence in the power of Christ, even if we don’t know His exact will/plan?
Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
—> Are we angry at sin?
—> Angry enough to do something?
—> Angry enough to do something that may be uncomfortable to us to make a difference in someone else’s life?
(To use the word pity/compassion instead of anger shifts the focus from Jesus caring about the larger problem of evil into Jesus simply caring about the person.)
—> We can justify a lot if we stop looking at the big picture and start looking at individuals. Our individual happiness does not supercede the will of God.
—> Jesus is so angered by the sin/evil present in the world that he responds with compassion for the individual.
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.”
—> Jesus restores not only the relationship between the leper and God but also with the leper and society.
