Mark 1:35-45

Amen. This is the word of God, and may he help us as we seek to learn from it this evening.

Now, we’re all familiar with the fact that the Lord Jesus, during his earthly ministry, taught tremendous spiritual truth by means of parables. That was the primary means that he used in conveying those truths that he wanted to convey.

But we also need to realise that the miracles that Jesus wrought were really like acted parables. They convey spiritual truth to us if we consider them as we ought. Whenever you think of it, as you read through the Scriptures, you discover that people who are still in their sin are spoken of as being blind, they’re spoken of as being deaf, spoken of as being paralysed, even of being dead. And of course, the Lord Jesus performed miracles in all of those areas. As we watch him dealing with those people physically, it teaches us lessons spiritually about how he deals with the sinner.

And so it is whenever we come to see this leper and how the Lord Jesus dealt with him, because leprosy is used in the Scriptures as a picture of sin, and the leper is a picture of the sinner.

1 The recognition

And so here we see this leper, and the first tremendous thing we learn with regard to him is the recognition that he had. What did he recognise?

He recognised his true condition, that he was indeed a leper. Indeed, Luke, in Luke chapter 5, in his account of this, he being Dr Luke, gives us extra little details, and he tells us he was full of leprosy. And this man recognised his true condition. And this is something that is crucial for sinners. They need to recognise their true condition. We’re so well acquainted with the words of Romans, that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Just previous to that, Paul says that it has been proved that both Jew and Gentile, we are all under sin. No matter what our background is, no matter what our religion is, no matter what our status is, this is the great common denominator: we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

But you see, here’s the great problem. There are some who just don’t accept the fact that they’re sinners at all. Not many, but some. In my lifetime, I’ve only met three people who have said emphatically that they were not sinners.

Most people will accept that they are sinners, but there are some who simply will not accept the fact that they have sinned. They don’t even believe that there is such a thing as sin. And you see, this is one of the things about this whole idea of atheistic evolution. You get rid of God, and of necessity you get rid of the concept of sin, because you’re left to make up your own morals and your own standards. You set your own rules. Mankind is able to do that if indeed there is no God. But there is a God. And he has established the moral standards, and we have all fallen short of that, and we have sinned in the sight of God.

But while most people do accept it, there are so many people who minimise it. They’re like the person who has a physical ailment like leprosy, and they just minimise it. Well, it’s not so bad. Or else they engage in comparisons. I’m not as bad as so-and-so or that person there. See those people that go to Emmanuel Baptist Church? I’m just as good as any of them, so I’m all right. And have you heard that sort of thing so very frequently?

There are those who just deny that they’re sinners. There are some who minimise their sin. There are some who are just so incredibly careless about it. You ever met the sort of person, and you speak to them and you tell them about their sin, and they just smile and admit, yes, I know I’m a sinner, no big deal, I’m a sinner, I can smile about it, no problem?

And they’re just so incredibly careless about that, like the sort of person we all have had acquaintance with, I’m sure, who has got a physical malady, but they’re just so careless about it. They’re careless about taking their tablets, they’re careless about attending the doctor’s appointments, and they’re just careless about doing the things that are necessary to care for their own health. They’re careless about their sin and being in that state. But it’s tragic, there are some people who are proud of their sin.

Ever met people like that who are proud of their sin? I remember many years ago, when we were still in Craigavon — that’s a long time ago — I was in Craigavon for seven years before going down to Stonepark and Fermanagh for twenty-nine years, almost. I remember being in the doctor’s surgery — my mind’s gone blank — yes, Craigavon, one Monday morning. And there was a group of women sitting there, and I actually had to move my seat because they started to talk about the weekend they’d had, how much they’d drunk, the state they got into, the sort of things that they did whenever they were in that state. And they were just trying to outdo one another in this matter of their sin.

You find people like that as well with regard to their illnesses. You get a group of men maybe together and they start talking and swapping their stories about their illnesses. They’re trying to outdo each other about how many tablets they’ve taken, how bad they are, and how often they’ve had to go to hospital. They’re nearly proud of the fact. But how sad it is to think of people being proud of their sin. Imagine that leper sitting in the leper colony and them swapping stories, and one saying how bad he is, and the other one rolling up his sleeve and saying, well, look at this, look at the state of that. And now they’re trying to outdo each other. That’s no more ludicrous than people trying to outdo each other with regard to their sin and boasting about it.

But here’s something that is really tragic: there are those who love their sin. That’s what it tells us in John chapter 3, that this is their condemnation, that light has come into the world and they love darkness rather than light. They love their sin and they don’t want the light and the truth of Christ. And there’s maybe somebody like that in this congregation even this evening.

I remember one occasion, and it’s not that long ago, preaching in the open air in a place — I need to be careful how I phrase this, because you can get into trouble for saying things in this present political climate — but this group of young women approached me, four of them, and they asked about a particular lifestyle that they were engaged in. And they said, if you engage in that lifestyle, will you go to hell? So I said, there are lots of reasons why people will go to hell, and I opened up in 1 Corinthians and read to them from the Bible that list that Paul gives of those who will not enter the kingdom of God. And you know, there are the cheats and the liars and that sort of thing, but also those who indulge in that sort of lifestyle they were talking about. I said, I have to be honest with you, the Bible says yes, you will go to hell.

And so they talked with me, and then when we finished the conversation, they even thanked me for talking to them. But one of them said, I would rather keep my lifestyle and go to hell. And maybe that was just bravado, but I tell you, it made my blood run cold. I love my sin and I want to keep my sin, even if it means hell. What an awful state to be in.

But this man was utterly, utterly convinced of his true condition. And because of that, he had this desire, and it was an urgent desire for cleansing. He wanted to be dealt with. He wanted to be delivered from this condition that he was in, and he was so urgent that he just burst through all of the regulations, because he shouldn’t have come near Jesus at all. He shouldn’t have been near any of those people. He should have been ringing his bell and crying out, “Unclean! Unclean!”, warning people to stay away. But he was too urgent for that. And so he comes right into the proximity of Jesus and kneels at his feet.

He is so urgent in his desire that he longs to be cleansed from his sin. And it’s an urgent desire for total cleansing. He doesn’t want to keep any part of it. He wants it all to be gone, every bit. He doesn’t say, Lord, cleanse me if you will, but let me keep a little bit of it that I can look at now and again and enjoy. You know, that’s the sort of cleansing some people want. They want the Lord to deal with the grosser sins, or the sins that are messing up their life, the sins that are causing them trouble, but they would like to be able to get those dealt with and retain other sins that they enjoy. But it’s not like that. It’s all or nothing. All has to be dealt with. All of the sin must go.

And you see, he recognises his true condition, and in recognising that, he also realised his only solution. There was only one person who could deal with his leprosy. No one else in all the world could deal with it, only the Lord Jesus. He was the only one.

And isn’t this what Peter emphasised whenever he was speaking there in the Acts of the Apostles, after being hauled in to give account for their actions and the things that they had been teaching? As he spoke to those people about Jesus, he told them that there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Note that great imperative: must. It’s an essential. There’s only one name by which we can be saved. That’s the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. John, in his first letter, the fourth chapter, writes that they bear testimony to this fact, that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, and he is the only Saviour that has been provided for this world. There is none other. The only one who can rescue from sin is Jesus Christ.

And notice this too: with this recognition there is an absolute resignation to the rights of Christ to do as he will. He says, “If thou wilt.” If you want to, you can make me clean. He didn’t come making demands, didn’t come saying you must make me clean, but he falls at the feet of Jesus and he says, I bow to your sovereign will, as it were. If you want to, you can make me clean.

So here is this recognition. Folks, if you have unsaved friends, unsaved family, unsaved neighbours, unsaved work colleagues, here’s what you should pray for them. Pray that Almighty God will, by his Spirit, create within them a conviction of sin, that it will be burned into their consciences, the reality of their state and their condition before a holy God. Because it’s only when they realise their condition and understand the state that they are in that they will look for the one who will help. They will not turn to him otherwise until they’re convicted and convinced of their sin.

2 The response

So there’s the recognition, but then secondly, there’s the response. And what a response it was.

I want to suggest to you something that isn’t in the passage here, but since this man was classified as being full of leprosy, as said by Luke, I think it’s not going too far with our imaginations to suggest that there would be a sense of revulsion. This leprosy is a dreadful, dreadful thing, and it has such an impact upon the body that those I’ve read who are acquainted with it, and are scholars who understand it, say that the human senses, when you’re confronted with somebody who was full of leprosy, would find it revolting, the very sight of what has occurred. It has this effect that it destroys the nerve endings, so your sense of feeling is gone.

So if there’s somebody working in their kitchen, and there’s a pot and it has a handle that is virtually red hot, they’ll lift it with their hand that has leprosy and they won’t feel it burning. Or there are those perhaps who’ve got it in their feet, and they will injure their feet walking on things and they’ll not even be aware of it. So the sores will be produced, and it eats away the flesh and presents them with a horrible sight. But there’s also a stench that comes along with that, that you can very much smell as you would be in the vicinity of it. And some even say that there is a taste that almost can come with the odour, and the senses would be repulsed. It would be a sense of revulsion.

And here again is the problem with people in their sin. Whenever they acknowledge their sin, but yet they do not realise the seriousness of it. And it is serious because of what an offence it is in the sight of Almighty God. So often people are talked to with regard to their sin in relation to what it does to them. Your sin’s damaging you. Your sin’s a danger to you. But they need to realise that their sin is such an offence to God.

And the Bible makes it so very, very clear. There in Romans chapter 3, we find Paul speaking about sin and the state of people in their sin. He says in verse 9:

What then? are we better than they?

That is, the Jews. Are we better than the Gentiles?

No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable,

or, as the ESV puts it, worthless.

there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

And what a portrait of the sinner and the state and condition that they are in. But those verses are lifted out of Psalm 14, and those are the words and the phraseology that you find in Psalm 14. But see there where it says about being unprofitable or worthless? In Psalm 14, it actually uses a word, “filthy”, and that word originally has the connotation of being stinking. That word is only used three times in our Bibles — there in Psalm 14:3, in Psalm 53:3, which is just a quotation from Psalm 14, but also in Job 15:16, where it speaks about the abomination and filthiness of men who drink iniquity like water. And it’s saying that in our sinful state, in the sight of God, we’re stinking.

Now that’s offensive language to use, isn’t it? But we need to, as we often say, get real about this and what God really thinks about sin. And he says, you stink in your sin in my estimation. And you know, there in Habakkuk chapter 1, verse 13, we read this:

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.

And there’s a stench in the nostril of God with our sin. God cannot look upon evil and sin. He is so pure, and it is so repulsive to him. And as if things aren’t bad enough whenever you consider that, what about what Isaiah tells us? Isaiah 64:6, that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

Now I want you to sit here this evening and think, what are the best things that you have ever done in your life? If you were asked to list the very best ten things that you’ve ever done in your life, and you make that list, and you take them and you present them to Almighty God, and Almighty God looks at your best righteousnesses and he says, they’re filthy, they’re stinking before me, because they’re tainted and marred with the fingerprints of your sin. This is what God thinks of our sin.

And here is this man before the Lord Jesus, and yes, it was a revolting sight, but notice the emotion, because it tells us that he had compassion on him, that he was moved with compassion or pity. But pity really isn’t a strong enough word for this word. The word that underlies this term “compassion” in the Greek language, it’s almost as if the Scripture writers were inspired to invent a new word to convey the depth of meaning in this. The idea is that the whole inner man of our Lord Jesus just went out towards this man with empathy and care and tenderness as he saw him in the state that he was in.

You know what an amazing thing it is, how compassionate our God is towards sinners, and how compassionate our Lord Jesus Christ is as he sees sinners in their state. And the more we become like Christ, we should be made more tenderhearted. As we see people in their sin, it should grieve us, it should break our hearts, it should move us to the very innermost part of our being as we see their state and condition.

But then you see, he looked on him with compassion. And there’s an old song by Jeannie C. Riley, and it says this: “Jesus’ compassion put his love to action.” And you see, there’s the action that comes as he is moved with compassion. And what does it tell us? Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand. What did he do? He touched him.

Now Luke tells us that this man came, and with Mark he agrees that he got down on his knees before Jesus, but Luke tells us that he fell on his face. He is bowed right down into the dust before the Lord Jesus, and the Lord Jesus touched him.

Now young people as well as the older people who are here, use your imagination. Can you picture the scene? And I want to ask you, what does Jesus have to do to touch this man? Anybody want to tell me? Picture the scene. He’s down, face to the ground, in the dust. What does Jesus have to do to touch this man? Pardon?

Somebody said stoop down. He had to stoop to reach him.

Now, every time Jesus deals with the sinner, he has to stoop. But what a stoop he made in order to be the Saviour for sinners. We remember so well those wonderful words in Philippians chapter 2, don’t we?

Being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.

Even within that wonderful agreement within the divine Trinity, whereby they made the plan of redemption for sinners like you and me, it was necessary that the Son of God should agree to be the servant of Jehovah, as he is called in Isaiah, and come into this world to play that servant’s role and to provide the way of salvation for us. And here he is, you see, and that is his stoop in itself, that he was willing to take the servant’s role. He made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and then he was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man — and we say that so glibly, don’t we? That he who was God willingly allowed himself to be found in fashion as a man.

I was looking around at the little babies here this morning that were present. And every time I see a little baby — I saw Robert and Lois’s latest little one, ten days old — and the tiny little fingers, the tiny little toes, and the utter and complete dependency on another to care for it. That’s exactly what the Son of God humbled himself to be. He would be carried about and treated just like that little baby, but he will grow up. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Now, it was a stoop for him to die, but to die on the cross — Roman citizens weren’t allowed to be crucified. Roman people and society wouldn’t even have talked about crucifixion. It was such a vile, vile form of execution. But he was willing to humble himself and take that mighty stoop in order to become the Saviour for sinners. And as Paul puts it in Ephesians 4, he says that he descended to the lower parts of the earth. That’s not a geographical thing. That is the state and condition that he reached as a man, in his humanity, in this world.

You might remember what it tells us there in Isaiah 53, that he was to us as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form or comeliness. When we saw him, there’s no beauty that we should desire him. He’s a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Just utterly classed as the lowest, most contemptible thing on this earth.

And in Psalm 69, that’s a prophetic Messianic psalm, and it speaks about the Lord Jesus. In verse 12, it’s as if the Saviour is speaking and he says this: they that sit in the gate speak against me, and become the song of the drunkards. Now there’s great significance in the fact that those who sat in the gate in Bible times weren’t people sitting out sunbathing. They weren’t there people-watching. They weren’t there having a gossip. That’s where the judges sat. That’s where the rulers of society sat, the higher echelons, if you like. And they’re all speaking against him. But then the drunkards, that is the other end of the social spectrum. They get together and they just sing. Can you imagine the tuneless song of the drunkards as they mock Christ? He can’t be brought any lower.

And he stooped. He stooped to touch this man, and he’s willing to stoop to touch the vilest sinner who will come and trust in him and cry out to him for mercy. And as he does stoop and touch this man, think about the lesson that that conveys to us.

The first lesson is this: Jesus did what no one else either could or would do. There was nobody else who would have touched that leper except another leper like himself. No one else would have touched him. And Jesus will do what nobody else could or would do for you when you come and trust in him.

And you know, the Lord Jesus did more than was asked. The man never asked Jesus to touch him. He just said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus did more than that man asked. He didn’t just cleanse him, he touched him. What that must have meant to that man. He would have remembered that for the rest of his days. What a sense of assurance it would have imparted to him.

You know, I mentioned this morning I was saved when I was eight, at a camp in Carnlough, and when I was lying in the bed that night and cried out to the Lord to save me, all I wanted from him was to know that my sins were forgiven. I never dreamt then of the things that he would bring into my life and the blessings that he would make over to me, the joys it would be. He gives more than we ask for, and sometimes that’s a good job. Did you ever think of this? This is just an aside. If the Lord only gave you what you ask him for, what would you have? Sometimes very little, because you don’t ask him for much, maybe.

But you see, he did more than was asked, and he did more than he needed to do. The Lord Jesus didn’t need to touch that man to heal him. He healed other people when he was nowhere in their proximity whatsoever. He could raise Lazarus from the dead without touching him. He could have healed that man without touching him. But he comes, this compassionate, gracious, merciful, loving Saviour, and touches this wretched man and assures him that he is loved, cared for.

And then there’s a communication. Jesus spoke to him. What had the man said to Jesus? If you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus just touches him and says, “I will; be thou clean.” He sort of repeats his own words to him. Isn’t that wonderful? Here the Lord Jesus touches the man, speaks to him. What is the result? It tells us that he spoke to him, “Be thou clean”, and as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him.

Whenever you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and you cry out to him simply from your heart to be cleansed from your sin, to be washed and made white and right for the presence of the Lord, my, he will do it. And he will clean you. He’ll wash you. And it’s complete cleansing. Complete.

I know what a marvellous thing it is. Remember Isaiah chapter 1:

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Though they are the most glaring, unmistakable sins, and, oh, they’re ingrained and staining you so deeply, come, and I can wash you and make you clean. Isn’t that what David cried out in Psalm 51?

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Whiter than snow. Have you been to Jesus and been washed? You should be saying, praise God for it. What a wonderful work he has done. Oh, how he had to stoop to clean and to wash me. That’s what you should be crying out. But oh, you should be longing for every sinner you know to be brought to Jesus, that they too might be cleansed and made clean.

And maybe there’s somebody in this congregation tonight and you’re a sinner. You’re dirty in the sight of God, filthy, not fit for his presence. Not fit for him even to look upon you. But yet, if from your heart you’ll just cry out to him, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean, he will. He’ll wash you from your sin, make you fit to stand in the presence of Almighty God, clean and clothed in perfect righteousness. Fit for heaven for all eternity. Oh, I would love to see it, that you would come to Jesus. Come to him, come to him even now. Trust in him alone.

Well, may the Lord bless his word to all our hearts, and may the Saviour get all the glory that is due his name.