The Compassion of the King

Mark 1:40-45

If you brought your bibles turn with me over to the Gospel of Mark chapter one. The Gospel of Mark chapter one and in a moment we are going to read verses 40-45 of the gospel of Mark chapter one.

Covid 19 taught us some difficult lessons, lessons we will never forget, because it hit us like a ton of bricks.

For example, it taught us how important human contact is to our lives.

I have several friends who had elderly parents at the time, living in nursing homes and they said, their parents really began to take a turn for the worse when they don’t get to see them, or spend any time with them. Their parents began to feel hopeless.

We learned from Covid how harmful it is to be isolated from the people we love. It can be deadly and leave us feeling lonely, depressed, and with no hope.

     The good news is Jesus has the power to restore hope to our lives. He has the power to fill our lives with meaning and purpose. No matter what circumstances we face; the loss of a loved one, divorce, betrayal, sickness, and disease.

Whatever it is, Jesus has the power to restore us, allow us to start over, and begin again.

That is what we are going to see in our passage this morning, as Jesus cleanses a man with leprosy.

He takes a man who was unclean, unwanted, unloved, isolated from the world around him, living with no hope. And He restores him.

And He can do the same thing in your life and mine, and in the life of our family and friends. Jesus makes all things new.

That is what we are going to talk about this morning, as we get to see first hand, “The Compassion of the King!”

Mark 1:40–45 KJV 1900

And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

Mark 1:40–45 KJV 1900

And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away; And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Mark 1:40–45 KJV 1900

But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.

(Pray)

Father, I thank you for your Word! I pray that as your Word goes out you would give us ears to hear, eyes to see, and heart willing to respond.

Grant us the privilege of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of your Word and give me the ability to speak it clearly, in Jesus name, Amen!

  In our passage this morning we see one of the most powerful miracles Jesus performed. In fact, this is one of only two times in the gospels that records for us, the healing of a leper.

The other time is in Luke 17:12-19. Here, in Mark Jesus heals one leper, and in Luke He heals 10. That is important because the healing of Lepers was one of the signs Jesus mentioned that proved He was the Messiah.

Matthew 11:5 “the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

Now, in this wonderful story of the healing of the leper, we are given a glimpse into the heart of the Savior. We are allowed to see the compassion of Christ on full display.

What we learn from this passage is; Jesus has the power to restore us from a life of no hope.

The first thing I want you to see is I. The Condition of the Leper. He was hopeless. He was desperate, and he comes to Christ and falls before Him.

Mark 1:40 “And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.””

This is a man who’s entire life has come to be known and identified by his disease. He cannot escape it. He can’t forget about it. It is all he can think about.

He is no longer a man or a person he is a leper. It is as if Mark were describing an animal.

 Leprosy is what we know today as Hanson’s disease, It is a debilitating disease that rots away a person’s flesh.

While it is not very common in our society today, It still exists in the world. There are leper colonies in Asia and Thailand, and missionaries go there and live among the leper’s, sharing the gospel and compassion of Christ with them.

 In the first century Middle East, though, Leprosy was a common disease. In fact, anyone with psoriasis or eczema would be considered a leper.

However, that is not the case with the man, because Luke tells us in his version of the story, Luke 5:12, this man was full of leprosy.

In other words, he was covered in it from head to toe. So, most scholars believe that this man had what we know as Hanson’s disease. It was a hopeless situation.

I want to paint a picture for you. One day this man woke up and He knew something was wrong...very wrong. But he hoped that if he waited long enough, it would just go away. But it didn’t.

In fact, it only got worse. Soon, others started to notice that he looked pale and sickly; and he realized that he would have to take a journey to a far-away city to figure out what exactly was going on.

After several days, he reached the city and made his way to a room where he had never been before in order to speak to someone he had not met before.

After what seemed like several hours, the door opened and a man wearing a uniform entered. The man examined the stranger, “It’s here,” as he rolled up his sleeve and revealed an open, runny sore. Again, he said, “It’s here,” as he slipped his collar to the side, exposing another oozing sore. “It’s here too,” as he removed his sandal, where there was yet another puss-filled nodule on the top of his foot.

And with that, the priest jumped back with a wild look in his eyes and said to the man, “I declare unto you that you are unclean. Now hear the words of the law: ‘A Leper must wear torn clothes, and his hair must be unkempt, and everywhere he goes, he must cover his mouth with his hand and shout out, ‘unclean, unclean.’ He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.’ May God have mercy on your soul!” And at once, the door slammed shut and the priest was gone.

The man’s worse nightmare had just come true. As he slowly picked himself up, he stood there in that dark room for several minutes in a state of shock. Then, with determination, he started ripping his favorite robe that his wife had made for him. Then he bent down and gathered some dust and rubbed it all over his face and hair until he looked like nothing more than a wild-man. When he stepped outside and squinted at the brightness of the light, he slowly covered his mouth with his hand and choked out the dreaded words, “UNCLEAN! I’M UNCLEAN!!!”

And for the first time in his life, people wretched and recoiled when they saw him. A mother quickly grabbed her children and yelled, “Don’t touch that man! Stay away from him!” A vendor of vegetables on the street corner threw something at him and shouted, “GET OUT OF HERE!”

Quickly the leper made his way outside the city into the open countryside and headed for home. But the worst was yet to come, because he knew he could no longer have contact with his wife or children! When his wife saw him coming from a distance, she and their children ran to their father with joy and excitement, only to hear him growl at them and say, “KEEP AWAY FROM ME! I AM NO LONGER YOUR FATHER! I AM A LEPER!”

A funeral service was held for him in his village by the local Rabbi because he was considered dead the moment he was diagnosed. The man’s health went downhill quickly. He was covered from head to toe with a sickly stench that took one’s breath away. His body started decomposing and the odor of death poured out of every pore.

     The word “leprosy” is from the word “lepros”, meaning scaly. In the Old Testament “leprosy” means “to rot” and that’s exactly what was happening. His skin was like a pool of slime.

That is how Luke describes this man in Luke 5:12 he says, he was  “full of leprosy” or “covered” with it. It’s like someone having full-blown AIDS or terminal cancer. He was a dead man walking.

But then something happened that changed everything. He heard about Jesus. He heard about people being healed and demons being cast out and he knew this was his one chance. His only hope.

In desperation he makes his way toward the city and toward the crowd. When the crowd saw him, they began to disperse and almost run from away clearing the way to Jesus. He could have been stoned to death, but he didn’t care, he had nothing to lose. He was desperate.

 Verse 40 tells us that begging Jesus he fell on his knees before Him and said “I know that you can, but will you make me clean.”  

I want you to know something; this leper came to a place in life we all need to come to, he came to a place of total dependence on God.

 We are the leper in this story. Living in sin, living without hope, living without God, condemned to die, destine for hell.

The Bible tells us that, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that the wages of sin are death.”

No one is exempt and if we do not become like this leper, in full desperation, in total dependence on God, running and falling at the feet of Jesus, we will die in our sin.

Notice the leper was not only desperate but he was full of faith. Look at what he says in Vs 40, “I know you can, but will you make me clean.”

There was no doubt in his mind that Jesus had the power to deliver him the question was, would He? And Why would He?

That is the same question that is in the back of the mind of every sinner walking this earth. We believe that Jesus can heal us. We believe that He can save us.

But, why would He do that. I don’t deserve that. He doesn’t know who I am. He doesn’t know what I have done.

That is the point. He knows exactly who you are and what you have done. There is nothing hidden from God, and He wants what is best for your life.

Jeremiah 29:11 “‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

     Jesus has the power to restore us from a life of no hope, even when we are in the condition of the leper. But, He also has the power to restore us because of;

II. The Compassion of Christ.

Notice Vs. 41 says, Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.

 I want you to notice here, that when everyone else was repulsed by the leper, when everyone else recoiled in fear and rejected the man, Jesus was moved with compassion.

That means that the condition of the leper had an impact on the Savior. And the same thing is true in your life.

Jesus felt this man’s pain. He felt his suffering. He felt his isolation, and it broke His heart.

That is why Peter tells us, 1 Peter 5:7 says, “cast all your cares on Him because He cares for you.”

(Pastor Logan’s rejection of the man with aids)

Notice, Jesus did more than have compassion on the leper. He acted. He reached out. He touched him. That would have been shocking to the people who were there that day.

Because Jesus was breaking the ceremonial law. He was touching the leper. This was strictly forbidden, because you were making yourself unclean. You could become infected yourself.

Jesus didn’t care about that. He couldn’t become infected anyway. He was the perfect Lamb of God.  He cared more about the man, than what anyone else thought about Him.

   And that is who we need to become as the church; Christians who have compassion for the lost, caring for the rejected, embracing the untouchable, and restoring those with no hope to a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

 Notice verse 41, Jesus touches the leper and says, “I will, be thou cleansed,”

He is teaching us an important lesson her; it is the will of God that we be made new. That we become whole and be saved.

The Bible says, “It is not His will that any should perish but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth.” God wants to see all of us restored.

But we know not all will be restored. We know not all will come to the knowledge of the truth. We know many will perish in their sin.

 For example, there were many lepers in that day. In fact, there were entire leper colonies that were perishing. But it was only this leper who was restored.

Why? Because he was the one who was willing to come to Jesus. He was the one who was willing to fall at His feet and ask for mercy and Jesus was willing to restore him.

In verse 42 we see the power of Christ and the grace of God as Mark says “immediately.” That is a word that we see over and over again in the gospel of Mark.

Ten times in the first chapter alone. He says, “immediately, the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.”

The lesson in this for us is, Our cleansing and deliverance is immediate with Jesus. That is why the grace of God is such a difficult concept for people to grasp.

Because we never think we have done enough to deserve it. And the truth is we haven’t and we never can.

But, praise God one came to do enough for us. And because of what Jesus has done we don’t have to live with the guilt and the shame of the mistakes we have made in life. We can be set free!

 When Christ restores you, the leprosy is completely gone, we are forgiven, and our sin is cast as far as the east is from the west. We get to start over and begin again.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “ If any man is in Christ he is a new creature. The old is gone and the new has come.”

Living for Christ means; letting go of the past but claiming your future, right now, today.

 This passage teaches us, Jesus has the power to restore us from a life of no hope, and He does that by His compassion, by His will, and by His grace. But it also teaches us;

III. The Importance of Obeying His Command. Vs. 43-45,

    “ And he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away; And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man: but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places: and they came to him from every quarter.”

 How ironic is it that Jesus ends up trading places with the leper?

What I mean is, the leper wasn’t allowed to go into the city but had to stay out where it was unpopulated until he was restored.

Now, Jesus who restored him, couldn’t go into the city anymore but had to stay out in the unpopulated areas. 

 This is a picture of salvation because it is a picture of substitution, and what Jesus has done for us.

Jesus came from eternity in heaven, to bare our sin and die on a cross, so that we might be declared sinless and live for eternity in heaven.

How ironic is it? He trades places with us just like He traded places with the leper. He died the death that we deserve for the sin in our life that we might live in freedom.

What I want you to see in this passage is; how the leper completely disregarded the command of God. Notice the phrase in vs. 43 “straightly charged him,”

That means that Jesus barked that order at him. He was serious about what He said to the man and clear about what He wanted him to do

 He said, “tell no one,” Why? Because He knew the consequences. He knew it would make His job more difficult.

The lesson for us is; When we disregard the command of God in our lives then the plan of God becomes more difficult.

God had a plan and we see that back in verse 38. Remember what Jesus said to them, “Let us go somewhere else to the towns nearby, so that I may preach there also; for that is what I came to do.”

And now, He couldn’t do that anymore. At least not in this city. The leper’s disobedience to the Word hindered the plan of God.

   I wonder how many times when we ignore the Word of God and it has an affect on the God’s plan for our life.

Maybe God wants to use us to make a difference in someone’s life. Maybe, He wants to save someone through us, but He can’t, because we have ignored the Word of God for so long and become a poor witness to the world.

That’s how important it is that we live and apply God’s Word to our life. Because when we identify with Christ, everything we do and say represents Him.

And because Christ has restored us and given us hope in a world without hope, we want to represent Him well.

2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God was making His appeal through us.”

Are you an ambassador for Christ? Do you represent Him well, and can He make His appeal through you?

 I’ll give you an example, the United States has Ambassadors in foreign lands all over the world. And they have the power and authority to speak and negotiate for America, because they are there representing us.

The same thing is true in the life of a Christian. You are a stranger in a foreign land representing the interests of God in heaven. You are an ambassador, and when we disregard the commands of Christ, we are not representing Him well.

Conclusion

     What we learn from this passage is, Jesus has the power to restore us from a life of no hope. We are the leper in this story.

We are living with a disease called sin. And our only hope is to fall at the feet of Jesus and beg for His mercy.

The good news is Jesus wants to restore us. He is willing to restore us. He has compassion on us and wants to make us new.

Just like the condition of this leper had an impact on the Savior, the sin in our lives breaks the heart of Jesus.

 The good news of God’s grace is more powerful than anything in the world. And God provided His grace through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Just like Jesus traded places with the leper in this story, He has taken our place on the cross and He restores our relationship with God. He restores us to a life of hope and to a future eternity.

  But, I could never summarize this passage completely, if I didn’t remind you that He also calls us to obey His commands. He calls us to represent Him well in the world, and to honor Him with our lives.

(Pray)

Father, I thank you for your Word. I pray that your Word would penetrate the hearts of your people. I pray we would recognize the hopelessness of living in this world without you.

I pray your Word would captivate our hearts and transform our minds. That we, like this leper in the story, would fall at your feet in total dependence on You.

Lord, grant us the privilege of faith. In Jesus name I pray, Amen