I am willing sermon

Intro

I remember a few years ago I was in Arizona shortly I had gotten my degree and I went to a NF concert in downtown Phx. with my roommate Graedy. We had an incredible time, he did a phenomenal job. We both enjoyed and Downtown Phx, you have to know, is a lot like Atlanta. It’s hot. It’s dense and crowded. There is never enough parking. You can’t sneeze and not have to say sorry to unhoused person laying beside you, and the traffic is so bad you are more likely to have an aneurysm than make it home on any given day.

And… it is also not a place you want to drive, let alone walk, around at night. In fact, Phx is basically just as violent as Atlanta is. So, me, being a wise and mature adult who was taught by my parents to avoid rough parts of town, lock your doors at the wrong neighborhoods, and judge someone as safe or not safe easily. So I knew when we left the venue we needed to get to our car a couple blocks down in a parking deck as quick as possible.

In order to get to our car we actually had to pass probably about 20 people who had up and decided to sleep on the street that night. One older man, at least he looked a lot older, who happen to have scuffed up clothes and a small busted up suitcase he had to drag because the wheels had fallen off, and a smell, a smell that could… well.. you get the picture.

This man came to us and immediately asked us something so off the wall, so far out the in the reaches outside of the nearest nebula that I could not begin to understand it or remember it. But i do remember talk about aliens and abductions and other things.

I don’t understand, my roommate my friend Graedy is a great Christian. He aas one of the best hearts of anyone I’ve ever met. But he wasn’t raised to pay attention to unsafe situations in the same way that I was. He had a special heart for people like this unhoused man. And so he starts chatting to this man trying to begin to comprehend a single syllable of what he is telling us at 10:30 at night in downtown Phoenix.

After a minute, I look at Graedy and give him the stare. You know the one, the one that goes we got to get up out of here or neither of us will make it to marriage. I then whisper to him, look, man I will come with you and we can get this man some food during the day. I will come out and feed the unhoused with you, But it has to be during the day. After thinking about it with a paint expression on his face, he eventually Relents And begins to start to walk away. And of course, the man attempts to follow us and so we quickly pick up speed and head straight to our car.

I love Graedy to death, he was one of my groomsmen in my wedding. But sometimes he just doesn’t get it.

Sometimes I can’t quite understand what is going on in his head. And that’s kind of how I sit with this story that we just read as well. There are so many things that just don’t seem to make sense. It stuck out to me when I began reading this text.

The first thing is, you have to understand a little bit of what leprosy was and how it was treated in the times of Jesus in Israel. I say in Israel because in most other countries, if you were a leper, you were likely just killed on the spot. But the Old Testament actually spent quite a bit of time discussing diseases of the skin.

The OT takes leprosy incredibly serious. It devotes two whole chapters to diagnosing leprosy and what to do if someone has it in Leviticus. book of numbers tells us anyone found with leprosy was to be exiled from camp. Psalm 88 the saddest chapter in the Bible describes someone likely having dealt with being outcast because of it.

In fact, let me read to you from Psalm 88 for a moment.

English Standard Version Psalm 88

For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. 4  I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength, 5  like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.

A few verses later he writes,

English Standard Version Psalm 88

You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;

Any ends the psalm by saying my friends and family have abandoned me, the only thing I have left is darkness. The book of psalms is full of limits full of sad songs about suffering. But there is no psalm, More sad more destitute than this one.

Now, why does the writer say these things about being alone being cast out from society and having no friends and family?

Because To become a leper usually meant you were now alone, without friends, without family, and now a beggar in need. You had no way to work. You had no way to go home and sleep in your own bed.

One Rabbi law said that leper’s must stay 6 feet away from all people and Have to announce they are unclean anytime someone comes near them. No rabbi in history was ever willing to touch a leper, even if it meant potentially healing them.

some might call this segregation. Some might call this terrible. But without modern medicine, can you really blame them? Is it not wise to isolate extremely contagious people? If AIDS was really spread just through a handshake, a fist bump, or a light hug, would we not isolate all of those people from society?

We may consider it crazy now, but when you were talking about a disease that literally makes your flesh fall off and plus constantly dripping out of boils all over your body, what other choice do you have?

Death in much of the Bible is represented in terms of leprosy. To have leprosy is to be considered a sinner. And at no point anywhere in the Bible is leprosy considered a good thing or even an OK thing. In fact, it is a divine punishment for some people as we see with Miriam and King Uzziah. The separation of a leaper from society is taking so seriously that King’s Uzziah literally lost his place as King and had to go stand outside of the gates instead of in his own throne room as his son took the reins as king.

No one in the ancient world associates with lepers. Except for apparently Jesus.

Looking back at the text, it tells us that Jesus is in the city when this leaper approaches him. So not only does this man not stay outside of the city, not only does this man not announce that he is unclean, but he actively approaches a rabbi. He has given himself a death sentence. He has broken every rule, every law of being a leper.

He has put the entire city at risk.

Show this man enter the city. And the text tells us that he begs Jesus. But this is really the second thing that doesn’t make a lot of sense. Because it says he bags, in fact, a large percentage of the time that this word is translated in the New Testament. It’s translated as praying. But what does the man say exactly. It’s not a question. It’s not even a demand. It seems to be a statement of fact

If you want to, you are capable of healing me. Of course for us, we read this texting and of course Jesus is capable. We might be surprised that he’s willing, but he’s capable. If Jesus wants to fill every seat in this church Until the heat death of the universe, he can. If Jesus wants to burn this place before we have our next service, he can.

But we know, we proclaim, that Jesus is God. But there’s not a person on the Planet, not Mary, not the disciples, not even John the Baptist, that are certain that Jesus is the Messiah let alone the son of God For sure at this moment.

so put yourself in the shoes of this man. This is very early on in Jesus’s ministry. He has not done a lot of healing and we can assume that this is probably the first leaper he has healed. To heal a person with a lump on his arm, or to heal a man who’s leg doesn’t work well is very different from healing this man.

So I think that this statement of Fact is actually a statement of faith. It is not come asking and demanding that Jesus do something because who can demand that the king of the world do something for someone of such low stature. But he does tell Jesus, I know you’re capable. Based on the reaction after he’s healed, most people did not think he was capable. Most people did not have this level of faith.

But this leaper did.

But now we get to the third thing that doesn’t quite make sense. Jesus doesn’t shoo him away. He heals him. But the healing is not as unexpected as how he chooses to do it. I went back and I looked at several of Jesus’s healing throughout the Bible. And in very few of them, does he touch the person. In the book of Matthew, right after this, there’s a centurion who comes to Jesus and says hey my servant is dying. Can you please make him better. And Jesus actually saves him from miles away.

Jesus also heals a Roman officials son from far away. The text right after this were a paralytic man is dropped through the roof of a home that Jesus is teaching him, he heals without touching him. Soon after this, Jesus will heal a man whose hand has withered away in the temple on the Sabbath without touching him.

If we wanna look at another scenario where leprosy in particular was healed, we can just look at Elisha and Namman. Namman was told to go and wash in the river seven times. But Elijah did not come out and even touch him. He did not even come and talk to him, He said a servant to go and give Instructions to Namman.

So why does the scripture tell us that Jesus touches him. If a priest or Levi or anyone for that matter, was to touch a leprous man, he was considered unclean. They had to wash all of their clothes bathe, and then they were unclean until the evening of that day. So that means, The high priest of all of Israel, the day he was supposed to deliver the most important sermon for the entire year on the day of atonement before all the people of God, if he had touched a leperous man right before this, he would have to go find someone else to deliver the sermon.

It was that serious. And yet Jesus chooses to touch his man. Knowing he would be ritually unclean. Knowing how incredibly contagious the diseases. Knowing how this would look to everyone around him. Knowing that he would be breaking the Old Testament law. Jesus says to the man, I am willing… And that could’ve been that. he could have healed them right then and there.

but Jesus goes out of his way to touch the man. The unclean has been made clean. The sick has been made well. The dirty has been washed. But Was it really worth the risk? Sure, let’s assume for the moment, the Jesus is not capable of getting sick

Jesus being the son of God, he Is capable of healing others and so he can just simply heal himself right? What’s assume, theologically, that Jesus is not like a sanitized surface. A surface can be made clean, but it can just as easily be made and unclean right after it was cleaned. I can spray all of these door knobs with bleach and wash them incredibly well, but as soon as one of you go and open the door, the door will once again be unclean.

So let’s assume, the Jesus is more like the sun. The sun when surrounded by darkness does not become dark. The dark actually becomes light. God does not become unholy simply because he exists among unholy things. Instead, he makes unholy things holy so that he can dwell among them.

See Jesus seems to be in the business of making Unclean things clean. When Jesus visits the house of Matthew for the first time he tells the people around them does a doctor come for the healthy? Of course, not, it’s not the Healthy who need a doctor. It’s the sick. I did not come to save those who think They are righteous, but no that they are sinners. Jesus tells us himself that he is constantly venturing out into the darkness to find the lost coin, to find the lost son, define the lost sheep. But that’s Jesus.

What about us?

Is there not supposed to be some message, some instruction, something to model in this text for us, here, today, right now? Are we to take what Jesus does here and do the same? There are still people with contagious, skin diseases all around the world, am I meant to go live among them and treat them?

They’re a great mini crack home in downtown Atlanta. I bet that you could find some here in Stockbridge alone. Are you meant to go venture into those homes, stepping on broken needles, full of God knows what, To reach them?

Do we have the same immunity? If I go spend the night at a local drugged in helping bandage up the wounded, is God gonna protect me from contracting aids, or syphilis, Or some other vile, disgusting disease?

Luke is a doctor, and he tells us that this man is full of leprosy. This man is at the end of leprosy. This isn’t just a couple of boils a couple of itchy spots on his skin. He has skin falling off like a dog shedding its hair. The man is leaking pus Like a Twinkie that’s been Run over by a Steamroller. The man is extremely contagious. And so are we to model Jesus? Are we to put our lives on the line for the gospel. Are we to put our lives? Our families lives on the line for one person?

Or is there something else that Jesus is trying to get to. Is there something else in this story that Jesus is trying to teach us.

You’re right in the middle of that section of narrated in Matthew 9 where Jesus is at Matthews house talking about why doctors come, he tells his self righteous, law, abiding, ritually clean onlookers, Go and find out what this means. I desire, mercy, not sacrifice.

You know, if you look in your Bible, it will have a little note next to that saying telling you that this is a hyperlink in the Bible. Meaning Jesus is citing, he is alluding, to something else.

He is quoting directly from Micah 6. Let me read it to you

English Standard Version Chapter 6

With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7  Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8  He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

what is good? what is required. To do justice. To love kindness. Do walk humbly with God.

You were thinking about cleanness and purity and holiness. There is one story, one illustration that we cannot leave out. And that is the story of Peter and his Vision of the large sheet of food found in the book of Acts chapter 10.

Peter And the other Christians have not yet Brought the gospel to the Gentiles. And as he staying at this man’s house, the scriptures tell us he falls into a trance.

“He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. 12 It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles and birds. 13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”

14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”

15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

Do not call anything impure, that God has made clean. The statement really bags the question then, what has God made? And I don’t know how to answer that question, but to say everything… God has made everything. So that has to mean if we take this passage at its word, that all things are clean. There is no holy or secular. There is no sanctified or unsanctified.

Immediately after this dream, this vision ends, a gentile, a Roman Military leader shows up at the door looking for Peter. He wants to bring him to his home and have dinner with him.

And now once again, we get to see the contrast of Jesus’s kingdom with the contrast of the religious laws and regulations. The law says do not eat with the gentile. The loss says do not step into the home with a gentile. But Jesus says, do not call impure what I have made clean…

if You haven’t done it recently, I encourage you to go read the Old Testament prophets time and time again God condemns the nation of Israel because they did not take care of the least of these. Because they did not take care of those who could not take care of themselves. Because they came with fasting, and with rituals, and with the singing of loud harps and instruments, and many sacrafices, but they did not take care of the poor. They did not take care of the widows in the orphans of the world. They did not feed the hungry. They did not bandage the sick and the hurting.

I desire, mercy, not sacrifice. Jesus does not seem to be deterred or concerned about this man’s uncleanness. This man’s contagion. Regardless, if this man has cancer, which is not contagious, leprosy, which is contagious, or something somehow in between, Jesus, says the will of God must be done.

The Pastor Mark Moore once said “Jesus claimed cleanness was more contagious than uncleanness.”

The sun does not get shut out by the darkness, the darkness gets shut out by the light

The church has been so worried, So concerned, With not getting corrupted by the world. By staying safe, by staying holy, by being set apart.

We have been so afraid of being corrupted by the world That we have ceased to exist in the world. Ceased to have an impact in the world. Like turtles when faced with an enemy, we have shelled up inside of our churches hoping that we don’t get hurt and lose a member to the sin and depravity of the world.

We have been so afraid of the contagiousness of the world that we have willingly evicted ourselves from being in the world. Like two magnets of opposite poles being thrown together we have forcefully repelled ourselves out of the world based on the off chance of being infected by it.

Martin Luther King reminded us of the differences of this world and the kingdom of God. The world is full of darkness… But only the light can push out the darkness. The world is full of hate, but it is only light that can push out the heat.

So if you want to be a world changer, if you want to heal the brokenness in the world… then you must be in it.

Joseph Damien of Molokai knew this.

Though Joseph came to be known As Joseph of Molokai, He was not born there. Joseph was actually from Denmark and Molokai was a small island apart of Hawaii. So how did he become known as Joseph of Molokai?

You see, Every Hawaiian who got leprosy was outcast to Molokai. Cast out from the rest of civilization, segregated out to be with all of the infected. But Joseph, Went to go and love them And he brought them the gospel. He in fact, Spent many years there. He slept with them, he ate with them, he did life with them.

Then one day he was boiling water and it splashed out on his foot. He then noticed he did not feel it. There was no pain. Terrified he took some hot water and poured it on the other foot. Still. he did not feel it. He knew what happened. 

So during his next sermon, he changed how he began his sermon. He had always perviously began with hello my fellow believers, now he started with, hello my… fellow lepers.

after he Had passed away and he was buried there in Molokai. But the Belgium wanted his body because he was a hero, A saint for doing what no one else would do.

The molokais said "fine, you can have the body, but just give us the right arm. And let his arm remain here in the grave. Because that is the hand that reached out and touched us.”

Joseph knew, that Jesus cared more about the sick and the hurting and those in need of a gospel that changes both body and mind, Then he does us staying uninfected. What if it’s worth it to venture out into the darkness to find the lost? What if it’s worth it to enter into cities of depravity to bring the light? What if it’s worth it to enter into homes of hate in order to bring the love? What if it’s worth it for us to venture into the destitute… The broken… The sick… And the hurting… In order to save the lost.

Friends… What if my friend Graedy was right, and I was wrong?

What if it was not that Graedy had not been taught to be aware of his surroundings and to keep himself safe, but instead his heart, that was transformed by the love of God, Ached to see people know Jesus more than his desire for safety? What if… Imagine for me a second, what if… He cared more for the sick, and the injured, and the mentally unfit, then keeping himself ritually clean, Because he took Jesus seriously when he touched leper… Wow