Be Made Clean: The Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

This is the sermon I preached this morning at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Elyria, OH.  The text was Mark 1:40-45.  

Wow.  I kind of feel like I need to stop and take a breath before I even start.  A LOT has happened in these first 45 verses of Mark’s Gospel.  Thinking back over the past several weeks, we’ve heard most of the first chapter of Mark.  John appearing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and that one more powerful was coming.  Jesus coming to John to be baptized by him, and the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove and “you are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  The lectionary skips over the temptation in the wilderness, but that’s there too.  Then way back on January 22, we heard Jesus proclaim “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come hear, repent, and believe in the good news.”  Then he calls Simon and Andrew to follow him and fish for people.  Then he calls James and his brother John and they left their nets and followed him.  And then Jesus enters the synagogue and teaches and casts out an unclean spirit.  And all were amazed.  But that’s not all.  He heals Simon’s mother-in-law, then sees the “whole city” outside the door and cures many who were sick and casts out many demons.  He gets away to pray, but the disciples find him and they go throughout Galilee so Jesus can proclaim the message and he casts out demons as well.  And then a leper comes to him and begs to be healed.  Jesus heals him, but tells him not to tell, but instead to go show himself to the priest.  But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.  And that’s just chapter one.  No wonder Pastor Jaster needed a vacation!

This is one of the things I love about Mark’s Gospel.  The excitement.  The sense of wonder.  I often think of a child telling a story about a really exciting day when I read this Gospel.  And then, and then, and then.  It’s like Mark just can’t wait to get the story out because it is so marvelous and wonderful and amazing.  He just needs to tell it.  Kind of like the leper in our story today.

But before we get to him, let’s back up for a second.  Slow this rapidly moving story down.  Can you imagine, for a second, being that leper?  That one who had been cast out of society, who must have been in so much pain--physical, psychological, and spiritual.  Can you imagine what it must have taken for him to come to Jesus, to have the guts to show his face, to kneel before him and say, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”  For the one who had been cast aside for so long, what hope must he have had to beg at Jesus’ feet, “please sir, choose to heal me”?  And even though Mark tells the story so quickly, tries to jam pack so much in, don’t you think that for that moment, at least in the mind of the leper, everything must have slowed down to a snail’s pace.  How long was it before Jesus replied?  I bet that even if it was a split second, it seemed like forever in the leper’s mind.  

Was it a second, or ten, or a minute?  We don’t know.  But what we do know is that Jesus is moved with pity, or, as the word can also be translated, with compassion.  He reaches out and touches the one who hasn’t been touched in who knows how long.  “I do choose.  Be made clean.”  Wow.  You who haven’t been chosen for anything, except exile, for a really long time.  I choose you.  You who others have ignored.  I choose you.  You who has been cast aside, forgotten, neglected.  I do choose.  Be made clean.

There is so much going on in those six simple words.  I choose to be the one who can no longer enter into the city.  I choose to be the one who is rejected.  So that you can be healed.  So that you can be whole.  So that you can know that you are loved.

And then all of the sudden it isn’t just about healing that one leper anymore.  It’s about giving up everything for the sake of the world.  It’s about Jesus reaching out to us, to you and to me.  It’s about Jesus coming to us in those places of regret, and pain, and misery, and grief and no matter the cost to him, simply being with us so that we can move to a different place.  I do choose.  Be made clean.  It’s a message not just for that one leper, but for each and every single one of us.

I don’t blame the leper for telling, even when Jesus ordered him not to.  I don’t think I would be able to keep a secret in like that.  I was cast out, and now I am clean.  But when Jesus told the leper not to tell, he knew that this now clean leper hadn’t yet seen the real glory of the Son of God.  When Jesus tells the leper not to tell, he does it because the story is not yet complete.  The healing of this leper has just scratched the surface of the depths that Jesus will go for God’s people in the world.  And even though he was clean, even though he was no longer outcast and pushed to the edges of society, I doubt that that leper had any clue just how far Jesus would go.  I doubt that he could have imagined a cross, a grave, and empty tomb.  Jesus doesn’t want his story to become just about healing that one leper.  He wants it to be about healing for the entire world.  He wants the world to know that the Kingdom of God has come near.

Mark’s Gospel begins with the words The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  He understands that the stories he tells are just the beginning.  And since he can’t even be stopped by death, Christ continues to come to us.  His story is nowhere near over.  We are somewhere in the middle of it, catching glimpses of a Kingdom that has indeed come near.  Hearing whispers of a promise.  I do choose.  Be made clean. 

But let’s be honest, it’s not always easy to hear.  The world so often shouts work harder, produce more, run faster, out of business, you’re not good enough.  But in the midst of that, albeit sometimes faintly, comes the compassionate voice of Christ.  I do choose.  Be made clean.

So even if you can’t hear it on any other day of the week, hear it today.  Christ has chosen you.  You are loved beyond measure and saved by the grace of God.  The promise is for you.  We hear it most profoundly at Christ’s table, where there is food for all who come.  Where we hear the words “for you.”  Where we know that no matter what kind of week we had or what kind of week we’re facing, there is a place for us here.  Where we are made clean, forgiven of our sins, fed for the journey.  Where we receive the nourishment we need to go out to do the work God calls us to do--whatever that is.

And because the Holy Spirit works in strange, but marvelous ways, maybe the Spirit will work through us this week.  Maybe she’ll give us the passion to speak the words of hope to someone who needs to hear them.  Maybe she’ll give us the energy to feed the hungry or visit the sick or be a voice for change.  And maybe she’ll simply help us hear the words echoing at the back of our heads, in the midst of life and all it’s messiness, I do choose.  Be made clean.

Amen.