Sunday Praise & Worship 10:00
Christian Education - 10:00 - Casual Dress - Loving Childcare
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Key verse: Mark 1:41 “Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be healed.’” We close our series on community this week by looking at Relational Reaching. Because Skyline community emphasizes relationships in all that we do, even our missions and outreach find expression in relationship. It isn’t enough just to send a check to a mission, although we welcome those gifts, too. Jesus Christ instead invites us to get personally involved through relationships. But, relationships are messy, and just because we are Christians does not mean that the relationships will be any less difficult or sticky. However, as Jesus followers, we live as he lived and continues to live: by getting involved in people’s lives and touching them just where they need to be healed. Our story today from Mark illustrates Jesus’ willingness to get involved in the messes of our lives. Mark’s Gospel begins right away with healing stories, almost implying an eager desire on the part of Jesus to get right down to the business of touching people’s lives. Here, a man with leprosy arrives. Leprosy defined any number of contagious skin diseases which would make this man ceremonially unclean. Therefore, he would have to live apart from the community, wear torn clothing, and shout out, “Unclean!” everywhere he went to warn people not to come near. (See Leviticus 13:45.) The man comes and kneels before Jesus and does not actually request anything. Instead he makes a faith statement: “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean.” Technically, only God can make someone clean, so his statement recognizes Jesus as Divine. His statement also reminds us of Jesus’ very own prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane asking God to let the cup of death pass from him if God was willing. (See Mark 14:36.) Early Christians, then, used the statement of the leper to teach people how to pray, recognizing both God’s ability and submitting to God’s will. Jesus responds to the man’s statement with compassion. Interestingly, some ancient manuscripts use anger instead of compassion. Anger actually fits better with Jesus’ “stern” warning later on in the passage. But, why would Jesus be angry? Jesus may have been angry because a system of laws that God designed to protect people had become instead a way of oppressing people. God gave these laws to a nomadic people who wandered in the wilderness, and separating sick people made sense to prevent the spread of contagious diseases. However, by the time of Jesus, the people lived in communities where they had water to keep themselves clean. Also, these diseases mostly affected poor people and the system designed to prevent the spread of disease in the wilderness adversely affected the poor who could not afford to take a week off from work to make the necessary sacrifices for purity. Jesus may very well have been angry at the alienation from society that this system caused. However, Jesus redirects his anger to heal and to restore, not to tear apart. Whether moved with compassion or with anger, Jesus willingly heals the man. But to heal him, he had to touch him. Again, according to purity codes, touching a leprous man would make Jesus unclean, too. Jesus, though, takes that risk. He gets involved and touches our messy lives in order to heal us. “I am willing,” Jesus said. “Be healed.” Maybe Jesus wants us to realize that God’s presence in our lives makes even the most mundane holy and even the unclean made clean. In other words, our lives are not holy because they are perfect or clean but simply because of Jesus’ presence with us in the midst of the mess. And, because of Jesus’ presence in our messy lives, he calls us to be present with others in their messy lives. After he heals the man, he “sternly” warns him not to tell anyone but to go have the priest declare him clean and make the offering necessary as a testimony to his healing. Although this seems a strange request, Jesus may have had several reasons for it. First, Jesus may have wanted to give glory to God instead of keeping it for himself. What a great reminder for us whenever we do something for others not to look for thanks or praise, but simply to offer glory to God. Also, part of the disease involved separation from community. Jesus may have wanted the leprous man to go to the priest so that he could also be restored to community. Finally, Jesus may not have wanted to be known simply as a healer. He had a lot to accomplish in his short years on earth, and while it may have been tempting to heal everyone, he needed to focus on God’s desire for his life. Likewise, too, God invites us to choose the needs we can focus on and not to become overwhelmed by the enormity of need. Questions for Reflection 1—Where do you see Jesus’ presence in the midst of your messy life? Is it hard to imagine Jesus there? How might you need to be healed? How might you need to be restored to community? What prevents you from recognizing his healing presence in your life? 2—What makes relationships tricky for you? What messy relationships are you involved in? How are you tempted to withdraw from that relationship when it gets sticky? How might Jesus be calling you to be a healing presence in that relationship? 3—How is Jesus calling you to offer yourself in mission or outreach? When you offer yourself, how do you like to be recognized? How can you help us recognize each other for such acts of service and love? 4—How did the Holy Spirit speak to you in worship today?
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