If You Are Willing… Mark 1:40-45
Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- January 22, 2006
There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats. All over
An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, "Tightrope, I don't believe you can do it, but I'm willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to challenge you to do your act over
Well, after a lot of promotion and setting the whole thing up, many people came to see the event. Tightrope was to start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. Drums roll, and he comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous part of the falls -- blindfolded!! And he makes it across easily. The crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, "Well, Mr. Promoter, now do you believe I can do it?"
"Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it."
"No," said Tightrope, "do you really believe I can do it?"
"Well of course I do, you just did it."
"No, no, no," said Tightrope, "do you believe I can do it?"
"Yes," said Mr. Promoter, "I believe you can do it."
"Good," said Tightrope, "then you get in the wheel barrow."
The word believe, in Greek means "to live by". This is a nice story...makes you ask, how often do
Mark 1: 40-45
40A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you want to, you can make me well again,” he said.
41Moved with pity,£ Jesus touched him. “I want to,” he said. “Be healed!” 42Instantly the leprosy disappeared—the man was healed. 43Then Jesus sent him on his way and told him sternly, 44“Go right over to the priest and let him examine you. Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy, so everyone will have proof of your healing.”
45But as the man went on his way, he spread the news, telling everyone what had happened to him. As a result, such crowds soon surrounded Jesus that he couldn’t enter a town anywhere publicly. He had to stay out in the secluded places, and people from everywhere came to him there.
Mark: 2:1-12
1Several days later Jesus returned to
6But some of the teachers of religious law who were sitting there said to themselves, 7“What? This is blasphemy! Who but God can forgive sins!”
8Jesus knew what they were discussing among themselves, so he said to them, “Why do you think this is blasphemy? 9Is it easier to say to the paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up, pick up your mat, and walk’? 10I will prove that I, the Son of Man, have the authority on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, 11“Stand up, take your mat, and go on home, because you are healed!”
12The man jumped up, took the mat, and pushed his way through the stunned onlookers. Then they all praised God. “We’ve never seen anything like this before!” they exclaimed.
Jesus is confronted by a leper. The text before us tells us that “there comes a leper” face to face with Jesus.
He pleads with Jesus…”I beg of you, please…if you will, you can make me clean.”
The force of what the man is asking for is found in the Greek word used here. There are two words in the Greek that speak of desire, to be willing: The first is thelo which is a desire that comes from one’s emotions and boulomai which is a desire that comes from one’s reason. It is the first one that the man uses here. He appeals to the tenderheartedness of Jesus.
The leper has no doubt about Jesus’ ability to heal. He has heard about his healing ministry in
Why do you suppose he questions the willingness of Jesus to do so.
Leprosy was a terrible disease which became synonymous with sin. He is asking to be cleansed of his disease and restored to health. God has not done anything about his condition yet and it is obvious that he has had it for some time. Where has God been? Why hasn’t God done some thing for him?
Think of how many times that question is asked by the people around us.
Remember, God was not so moved to do some thing for Job early on in the confrontation with the devil. Job and his family went through a lot before God acts on Job’s behalf. It is as if God has abandoned him.
Jesus in this case is moved with compassion for the leper. Mark gives us some clear insight into the character of Jesus’ personality that the other gospel writers do not. Luke for example, speaks of Jesus reaching out his hand, but says nothing about him being moved with compassion.
Jesus reaches out and touches the man.
That in itself is remarkable.
Jews were not permitted to touch lepers. That was required by the Law. Jesus is always obedient to the Law. In fact he never, ever violated the Law. How is it then that he touched the leper? If Jesus touched a leper, he would have been in violation of the Law.
The Greek of the text before us is interesting. The rule of Greek governing our text says that Jesus was saying I will at the time he was touching the leper. But the thought “I will”, the determination to follow out his desire to heal the leper and the act of cleansing him preceded the spoken words and the outstretched hand. All of which means that our Lord did not touch the leper in order to cleanse him, but to show him and the people around him, that he was cleansed of his leprosy. The Lord, obedient to the Law, touched a cleansed leper. The first kind touch of a human hand that the leper ever experienced was the gentle touch of the Son of God. And the touch came after his cleansing and healing.
Think about it for a moment. Leprosy was a type of sin. The sinner comes to Christ crying, “Unclean, unclean, if you will, you can make me clean. And the Lord Jesus, moved with compassion, stretches out his hand and touches him, saying, “I will, be cleansed.” As in the case of the leper, he cleanses us from sin before he touches us. In John 1:12 justification comes before regeneration. Mercy is only given on the basis of justice satisfied. So it is, “But as many as appropriated him, to them he gave a legal right to become born ones of God, to those who put their trust in His name.”
So, as the sinner recognizes the Lord Jesus as the one who through his blood shed on
So Jesus tells the man…”Be cleansed”. And the force of the expression is “be cleansed at once” It is an immediate healing and cleansing. And the leprosy departed. The man is completely separated from the leprosy.
Jesus then told the man to go to the priest and offer what Moses commanded. He was not to tell others what had happened. He was to do what the Law required so that the man might be restored to the community.
But the man went out and began to tell others about what had happened to him. The text tells us that he continuously spoke about it…to others.
The result of it was that Jesus increased the popularity of Jesus effectively ending his ministry in the synagogues and stirring up the anger and jealousy of the scribes and religious leaders.
And people kept coming…they kept on coming to him from everywhere.
In chapter 2 we are told that Jesus goes back to
The house was filled with people. The crowd was phenomenal. The house was filled and the door way was crowded so that there was no more room for people even there.
Jesus began speaking with those gathered at the house. He was engaging them in conversation. The Greek word for “preaching” here is a word often used of the chatter of children. What we might think of in this context are the words from the hymn: In the Garden…”He speaks and the sound of His voice is so sweet, the birds hush their singing…” As our Lord spoke to the gathering, the beauty of his voice, the charm of his manner and the tenderness and love of his personality must have been to this weary, sick group of people as a breath from heaven. Jesus was talking with them about the Word.
It is into this context that they come to him, bringing a paralytic man. It was a man who had palsy. He suffered from a relaxing of the nerves of one side. He was paralyzed. And he was borne by four men. Their arrival creates a stir in the crowded house.
When they cannot bring the man into the house because of the crowd, they carry him to the roof of the house and “uncovered the roof”. The literal expression is that they “unroofed the roof”. Luke tells us that they “let him down through the tiles. The oriental roof was flat, and was most often the veranda of the house with a stairway leading up to it. Presumably they used the stairs to carry the man to the roof. They had to dig out or scoop out the roof after they had pried up the tiles to make an opening large enough for their purpose of letting the man down through the roof to where Jesus was.
And seeing their faith, Jesus says to the paralytic, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” The faith referred to is the faith of the men who dug up the roof and lowered the man to Jesus. Their actions are a testimony to their faith. It was their strenuous actions that brought the man into the presence of Jesus that speaks of their faith.
We need to say that not all illness or sickness is the result of sin in a person’s life. However, in this man’s case his sickness was the result of his sinful life. We know that because Jesus’ attention is first directed to his sinfulness, and not to his sickness. Isn’t it interesting that Jesus treats him with loving kindness. Jesus says, “Be forgiven.” The sense of the word used here is that of sending away, to let go or give up a debt, to remit or forgive.
One of the problems with our text is to be found in our understanding of the word forgive. We say that we have forgiven someone who has wronged us. By that we mean that any feelings of animosity we may have had toward them, has changed to one of renewed friendliness and affection. We do not hold the wrong done us against the person any more. But as far as the act itself is concerned, we cannot do any thing about it. It has been done and it cannot be removed from the one who has committed the wrong.
The word Mark uses here for forgiveness says that the believing man’s sin is put away on the basis of the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. He paid the penalty the broken law required and satisfied divine justice regarding the sin. And then on the basis of that God removes the guilt of that sin from the believing sinner. The man’s sins are put away, removed from him.
Notice if you will that there are scribes sitting there in the house. They had managed to get there early for some of the best seats! At this stage of Jesus’ ministry they are gathering ammunition to use against him, to challenge him. Their only desire is to cause trouble for Jesus and to pick out the flaws in his teaching.
They are reasoning in their hearts…that Jesus is speaking blasphemy. After all, only God can forgive sins. If a man were to assume the prerogatives of God, he would be blaspheming. Their logic is correct, but the flaw in their thinking is with the possibility that Jesus had a peculiar relationship with God that justified his claim to do so. And here Jesus making claims that only God could make.
And our Lord sensed their hearts. He knew their hearts. And asked them why they were debating these things in their hearts.
Which of the two is easier, Jesus wants to know, to tell the man that his sins were forgiven or arise and to take up his pallet and walk.
In order that they may know…beyond a shadow of doubt his power to forgive sins, he tells the man: “rise, take up your bed and walk”. Power here is his authority to do so. It is a delegated authority according to the word used here.
What happens when we delegate something to another person?
When we delegate something to another person to do for us, we are in a sense in that person doing the very thing we have asked another to do. The Son of Man on earth has the delegated authority, as the Son of God, from God the Father, to forgive sins. The miracle of Jesus here is another demonstration of his claims to be the Messiah, the Son of God are true.
They were all amazed.
Jesus had the delegated authority to forgive sins. God gave it to him.
He could heal and forgive.
He was willing to do so.
Having faith means that we trust Christ even when it does not look like he is going to do what we want or need Him to do for us. The men carried the paralytic to the house where they would find Jesus. They believed enough to tear the house up to get the man to Jesus. They knew that all they had to do was get the man to Jesus. They made it happen.
When we consider our needs it is not a question of whether he is willing to heal, or forgive, or provide for our needs. It is never a question of God’s willingness.
It is often a question of God’s timing. Sometimes we have to wait. We don’t like waiting on God. We want what we want when we want it.
I mentioned someone last week who told me that they have been praying, but God doesn’t listen. He wasn’t getting the answers he wanted. However, the person he was praying for needed healing. Guess what happened? A radiologist looking at an xray film of the person’s lungs did not like what he saw on the film. He went to the Doctor in charge requesting a cat scan of the lungs. The cat scan was done immediately and included the abdominal area. A review of the cat scan revealed a perforated intestine and surgery was scheduled to correct it. Just a coincidental thing…but it saved her life. God does answer prayer. He does provide. He is willing to give us what we need.
We have to give him time…we have to trust him.
Our problem is that we are not always willing to do that.
A man fell off a cliff, but managed to grab a tree limb on the way down. The following conversation ensued:
"Is anyone up there?"
"I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?"
"Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer."
"That's all right, if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch."
A moment of pause, then: "Is anyone else up there?"
How often do we ask, “Is anyone else up there?”
It is time for us to get in the wheel barrow.
--Dennis Gleason
