"And there came a leper to him,
beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand
and touched him, and saith unto him,I will, be thou clean. And as soon as he
had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. And
he straitly charged him, and forthwith sent him away, and saith unto him, see
thou say nothing to any man; but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and
offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded, for a testimony
unto them. But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad
the matter, insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but
was without in desert places. And they came to him from every quarter."
Mark 1:40-45.
Our Lord was at this time sowing the seed of the kingdom
in Galilee, visiting its towns and its villages. In the midst of a country
village, or at the market-place of a larger town, he often stood among the
people; the true Wisdom lifted up her voice (Prov, 8: 1, 3), proclaiming life
to the sons of men.
On one of these occasions he was met by a leper; or
rather, it seems, he was interrupted by the unexpected visit of a man all white
with leprosy. The Evangelist Luke (v. 12) speaks of the occurrence as taking
place in one of the towns. If so, the case was altogether remarkable; for,
according to the ancient law that shut out the leper from the camp, no one in
that state was allowed to enter the gates of any city. Like the four unhappy
men (2 Kings 7:3), the leprous person might come up to the gate, but must not
enter. In the case before us, however, the man's misery and earnestness appear
to have led to a perilous experiment. Persuaded of the Lord's power to heal,
longing to put it to the test, almost sure, also, from rumours that had gone
abroad, that his willingness might embrace such a case as his, the man will
venture to do this new thing - he will come in all his leprosy into the city!
He will rush along, and ere ever the angry people have had time to recover from
their astonishment at the boldness of the leprous man, he hopes to find himself
cured and whole at the feet of Jesus. There was both daring and doubting in his
action. He is like Esther venturing into the presence of the king, 'If I
perish, I perish.'
What a lively picture of a soul awakened to true anxiety
for salvation! O to see many such in our day! O to see the 'kingdom of heaven
thus taken by violence.'
The earnestness of the man is seen yet farther in
his manner. He 'knelt' before the Lord, and next 'fell on his face' (Luke
5.12); his attitudes giving emphasis to his words. Even as our Master himself,
when clothed with our leprosy, in the garden of Gethsemane, first fell on his
knees before his Father, and then prostrate on his face as his agony
increased.
He'besought' Jesus - he addressed moving cries to him, and this
was the burden of them all, 'IF THOU WILT, THOU CANST MAKE ME CLEAN!' He has
some fear, some doubt, some secret dread lest the Lord should see reasons for
withholding the exercise of his power; but still he has great faith. He does
not, like Martha, consider Christ's power as needing to be sought from God
(John 11:22); he believes the power to be lodged already in Christ's person; he
believes, too, it is power so great, that it can reach his case. Yet, let it be
remembered, up to this time, there had not occurred any case of leprosy
cured. As yet, Jesus had not, so far as is recorded, healed any such.
History, however, told of Namaan healed by miracle; and this man does not doubt
but Jesus can work this miracle, if he will.
Brethren, if this man reasoned
thus in himself, 'though Jesus has never yet done so great a thing as the
cleansing of a leper, yet he has done enough to convince me that he can, if he
will' - surely much more may every soul here say, 'if Jesus has saved souls as
guilty as mine, then surely he can save me.'
There was in this leper's case
an unhappy dimness of vision as to the Saviour's grace. 'Whether or not he has
a heart that will go the length of taking up the case of one so unholy as I am,
I know not' - this was the man's lingering suspicion. But the Lord Jesus had so
much grace in his heart toward sinners, that, in spite of his doubt, he took up
the man's case at once. 'Moved with compassion, he put forth his hand.'
The word is, 'his bowels yearning, he put forth his hand.' It is remarkable how
often we are told of our Master's compassion. In Matthew 15:32, at the sight of
the multitude; in Matthew 20:34, looking at the blind men in vain rolling their
eyeballs to find the sun ; in Luke 7:13, when he met the weeping widow of Nain
at the gate. All who knew Jesus, knew and felt that he had bowels of mercies,
and in this they could not fail to recognise the very character of Jehovah;
'the multitude of whose tender mercies' Psalm 51:1.) were the theme of David's
song, and the hope of David's heart.
Jesus 'put out his hand and touched
him.' He touched the leper. He was not afraid of being contaminated;
he knew that no pollution would come from the man to him, but that, on the
contrary, healing would go from him to the man. Christ is the fountain that
cleanses others, and is itself never polluted. Christ can let John lean on his
bosom, and in so doing can convey purity to John, while John communicates no
stain to his Master. Though Jesus touched the leper, he did not, in so doing,
break the Mosaic law; for the law forbade any contact with the defiled, only on
the understanding that this contact would spread the defilement. But Christ's
touch removed it, instead of receiving its contagion. Even as he ate with
publicans and sinners, and yet broke no law of God; for he did so in order to
draw them forth from their miry clay.
Jesus saith unto him, 'I will, be
thou cleansed.' Our Master is as willing as he is able. He exhibits both
qualities here in equal degree, and at one moment. It is with Divine brevity
that he expresses himself, in the very style of him who could say, 'Let there
be light.' But there is infinite fulness revealed by these simple words; for
herein we see the heart and the hand of 'God manifest in flesh,'
and find that the depth of his grace and the extent of his power are alike
unsearchable.
'And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy
departed.'
Here again is the finger of God. How characteristic of Godhead
is this immediate effect! 'He speaks, and it is done.' Nothing is a
barrier to the Lord's will and power. And hence it is that in pardon of sin the
stamp of the Divine character is plainly seen in the sinner being at
once and completely forgiven. A gradual pardon, or an incomplete
pardon, would want altogether the mark and impress of a Divine original.
Our Lord then 'straitly charged him' i. e. with authority, in the tone,
of the Lawgiver - he charged the man as to his future conduct - he bade him
tell none of his cure. 'Say nothing to any man.' Some people's own soul
is greatly injured by their telling others what they have experienced. Pride is
often fed by this habit of speaking about themselves, and the individuals are
drawn off from personal application. Neither this, nor any other passage,
discountenances a believing man telling what God has done for his soul, if, by
so doing, others are to be blessed, and God glorified. But this, and many other
passages, guard us against the abuse of this matter. In the case of Jairus'
daughter (5:43), the parents were not to tell the miracle, probably in order to
punish Capernaum's unbelief, and the previous scorn of the multitude. In the
case of the transfiguration, the three disciples were 'to tell no man till
Christ was risen from the dead,' because, until then, the time was not suitable
for revealing that special wonder. In another case (Matt.16:20), the disciples
were not to tell that 'Jesus was the Christ,' because at that time they were
unfit to teach others regarding him, ignorant as they were of the necessity of
his death.
In the case before us, the man may have been charged to be
silent only till he had visited the priest; and this visit was according to the
law of Moses regarding leprosy. By that law, as laid down in Levit. 14:2-32,
the priest was publicly to proclaim the leper's cleansing; and in so doing in
the present case, a 'testimony' would be borne to the reality of
Christ's wondrous works. And then the mode in which the cleansing was made
known was well fitted to send back the cleansed man's thoughts - to the
Saviour. For the ceremonial rite observed in pronouncing one clean, was
sprinkling him with blood of a bird killed over running water. This
blood was dropt on the man from a living bird, that had been dipt
therein, and that was let loose to fly at liberty. Our Lord, no doubt, loved
that type well, for it so fully spoke of himself as the dying and yet
the living one - his death and resurrection.
The leper did not obey
the command. In this he sinned. No doubt it might seem excusable to man for one
so benefited to blaze abroad his benefactor's kindness. Men might say it was
pardonable zeal. But illtimed and too forward zeal may be real sin. The man
really, by so doing, misrepresented Christ, saying, in a manner, 'The Lord was
not sincere in his charge; it was affected modesty.' O what a reproach to cast
upon the uprightness of him whose love 'vaunted not itself, and was not puffed
up.' And besides, by his mistaken zeal, he hindered Christ's public work,
'insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city.'
Brethren, let the law of Christ direct us, while the love of Christ constrains
us.
And now let us fix our attention on two important views of our Lord
which are both illustrated by this narrative.
I. The reality of Christ's sympathy in our sorrows.
There is
real and intense pity for human misery in the heart of Jesus. It only waits for
an occasion to shew itself. The leper's affliction gave such an opportunity.
His beseeching cry touches the spring, and the door flies open. He rolls the
stone from the well's mouth, and lets us see how deep and cool are the waters.
He breaks the box of spikenard, and diffuses the fragrance on us. Blessed day
in which this man probed the heart of our compassionate High Priest!
What,
then, is there in Christ's heart? There is love to the needy, and tender pity
to the helpless, sympathy for the sorrowful, and bowels of mercies for the
miserable. This man came rushing into his presence in haste; his fellow-men
shrank back from his touch, and ran aside at his approach. He kneels, falls
prostrate, beseeches, spreads out his snow white hands, lifts up his sunk eye,
draws attention to the disease that has made his whole person loathsome, and
utters an imploring cry, 'Lord, if thou wilt thou canst!' I am driven
off all shores now - is there a haven for me in Thee?
The sight and the
appeal moved Jesus. See how he feels for misery, He feels for the tears of the
distressed who have no comforter. He often bends his ear to the prison-door to
hear the groaning of the prisoner. He listens, and yearns over the moans of a
sick-bed. He pities deeply the sorrows of awakened souls. And his people's
every affliction is felt by him. At this hour, Jesus has all this
fellow-feeling; for it is still as true as ever, 'We have not an High Priest
that cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities.' (Heb. 4:15.) We
should never read the gospel history, brethren, without remembering that most
precious verse, 'Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, and to-day,and for
ever.' (Heb. 13:8.) 'Yesterday,' he was in Galilee healing the leper;
and you see his heart then 'To-day,' he is at the Father's right hand;
and you see his heart still. Yet a little while, and he shall come the second
time to them that wait for him; and you learn what to expect of him on that day
- 'the same for ever.'
This compassion was called forth into
exercise - brought out in acts - by misery being laid before him. As when they
laid the palsied man, silently, at his feet. As when at Nain he saw the widow's
tears. As at Bethany 'when he saw Mary weeping.' Therefore let us lay before
him our distress and trouble. Let us open out our wounds in the physician's
presence, 'Lord, here is my sore;' and, 'Lord, here is my perpetual pain, and
my incurable wound.' Do this by special, particular, minute, confession of sin;
or by definite and full declaration of sorrows. It is thus you draw off the
bandage and shew the ghastly sore, and move the pity, and draw forth the skill
of Jesus. You may object: 'Of what use in our doing so? He knows our sorrows
already?' True; but our High Priest - our brother - uses human rules, so to
speak, in this matter. It was his own way on earth; he unbosomed all he felt to
his Father, and he desires us to do the same.
It is not because he is slow
to feel. No; he is easily touched. The leper's case is stated, and
'immediately he puts forth his hand.' Peter begins to sink in the water;
and forthwith Jesus stretches out his hand. Jairus tells the sorrows of a
father's heart; and scarcely has he got to the end of his tale, ere Jesus
arises and goes with him. All this shews that he has a full heart of tender
pity. He is, indeed, far, far more easily moved than we; just because no sin
ever blunts his feelings, or introduces selfish regard into his calculations.
His holy, loving soul hastens to relieve a suppliant's pain.
Some never
really shew Christ their disease - their sorrow - their wretchedness. Chagrin,
or the sorrow of the world, works their ruin.
O unhappy one, whom the
world hath deceived, and who feedest proudly on thy very wretchedness, unbosom
all to our High Priest, and find his flowing compassion thy cure. O suffering
ones, try these deep compassions. 'As one whom his mother comforteth, so the
Lord thy God would comfort thee.' It is thus that his own have always been
upheld and refreshed. Such is the character of Him who is our physician.
II. The manner in which Christ heals our soul's diseases.
Very many narratives in Scripture appear to have been inserted there because of
their peculiar fitness to illustrate spiritual truth and the ways of God. Thus
David's cave of Adullam; and David's interview with Mephibosheth, whom he
pardoned for Jonathan's sake; and the Queen of Sheba's visit to Solomon; and
Jeremiah's drawn up from the miry clay of his dungeon. But especially may we
say this of a narrative like this before us, wherein the disease is
leprosy, which all agree is remarkably typical of sin, and
wherein the healer is Jesus. We have no doubt this man's case was meant
to teach us the sinner's mode of coming to the Saviour for pardon.
Keeping
in mind, then, that leprosy shewed the nature of sin, here is
represented a sinner of the most loathsome kind, laden with deadly sin, from
head to foot polluted. Feeling and thoughts, words and actions, have all been
evil, and only evil. Next, there is here represented this great sinner sensible
of his case, awakened to deep concern under it. Nature awakens concern in the
diseased for a cure, and leads him to a physician; and the Holy Spirit awakens
concern in the sinner, and turns his joy into mourning until he has found a
remedy, directing him where to go, and opening his heart to embrace the Saviour
revealed to him. Now here are such a man's difficulties in seeking the Saviour;
here are exhibited such a man's enquiries when he has come so far as to feel
that he must find a Saviour or perish. Here is that man's case set before us in
the anxious moments he spends ere the scales have for ever fallen from his
eyes, and the fulness of the grace of a forgiving God been discovered.
The
man comes to none other but the Lord Jesus. And what was the warrant
that emboldened him so to come? All the warrant lay in the Lord himself,
what he had heard of his works, and what he knew of his character. And such is
our warrant for coming as sinners, as ungodly, as lost, as unjust, as unclean,
as desperately wicked, to the Lord our Righteousness. We find nothing in our
own hearts or lives to warrant a single hope; but we hear of the Lord, that
'they who know his name, put their trust in him.' We hear that there is
boldness found by 'the blood of Jesus,' and by the fact that himself
also is 'the High Priest over the house of God' - and so his work and
his living person put into our hands an ample warrant for a bold approach.
This warrant, when held even by a trembling hand, avails - Christ's work and
person, seen even by a dim eye - the blood and the High Priest, alone trusted
in even by a fearful heart, bring us into the Lord's presence, and within touch
of the golden sceptre. The leper's heart had still a lingering suspicion,
'If thou wilt;' but then it did at the same time repose confidence on
him so far as it knew his mind. He did believe the fountain to be deep and
wide, able to give out much; and approaching it thus, he was made by the Lord
to know to his blessed astonishment; that not only was it deep and full, but
full to the very brim. Jesus at once hasted to say, 'I will; be
clean,' putting the man at the very edge of the fountain, and laving him
with its waters.
We sometimes think that we believe Jesus able to pardon
and save, but we are not sure that he is willing to go so far as to save us.
For the lurking suspicion in such cases is, that there is about us an
unworthiness that will in all likelihood repel him from us. But this is a
misunderstanding, a gross misconception of Christ's reasons for saving any. His
grace is misrepresented by such a thought; and did we see how he pardons
solely for reasons in himself, not for any cause in us, we would be
delivered from this hinderance. Jesus here removes this very fear; for so great
is his grace, that even doubts of himself are swept away by it.
Nor is
there any price paid for pardon, even as the leper's case was all free.
He came to get; he never once thought of offering a gift in any shape. It was
well known that Jesus did all his wonders without inducement on the part of the
receivers. The man went feeling, 'He gives, and I need to get.' And so it was,
Christ gave, and the leper received - not a word of conditions, not a word even
as to duty, until the case was perfected. And thus it is with pardon of
sin. The coming sinner's appeal to Christ - his simple confidence in him
for pardon - is responded to by an immediate bestowal of forgiveness.
The Lord has not to go and fetch the gift; nor has he to bid the applicant go
and return again; or go and abide many days in patient hope. The pardon is in
Christ, who at once says, 'I will.' But perhaps you object, 'But there is
something like a price, for we must have faith in him ?' But is this a
price? Was the leper's coming to Christ a price? In fact, faith, so far from
being a price, is the soul's believing that it is saved without a price.
You may say that you have often tried to get to Christ, and have often prayed.
Well, but all the time you may have never searched his heart. You may
have thought of 'Thou canst,' but very little of 'I will.' You
are still a stranger to the joy of believing his present readiness, and his
present power. You have not been aware, that instead of bringing a price to him
- e.g. excited feelings, bitter repentance, humiliation - he has on his
part been ready all along to give an immediate pardon, whenever he saw it could
be done in a way honourable to himself, - that is, you were content to receive
it without a single qualification on your part at all.
Brethren, who of you is this day as the leper? The fear of man has no
influence on you now to keep you back; you could face a whole city in your
search for a cure. But you have still some unsatisfied doubts. These doubts are
no honour to Christ; they are no blessing to yourself. The Holy Spirit, in
savingly revealing Christ to any soul, removes them altogether. A Saviour
better known would satisfy them. Though no case so bad, or at least so peculiar
as yours, had ever occurred before, yet he can reach it with his holy skill.
The sinner that believes 'Thou canst,' might surely look a little
farther and see that also written on his heart, 'I will.'
Survey
his person. See the priest's robe, the priest's girdle, the priest's mitre, the
priest's breastplate, with its row of names, each name telling of a man of
Israel, to whom the Prince and Saviour gave repentance and remission. See the
palms of his hands, on which are engraven the names of Rahab and Manasseh, and
thousand, thousand lepers cleansed and glorified.
To such a Saviour you
may go: go even with doubts; for you may go to hide them all in his pierced
side, as Thomas did. Carry doubts, which form so great a part of your misery,
to this compassionate Saviour. 'He can, and he will,' let this
henceforth be your song, as you run your race with your eye fixed on his
person.
From The Free Church Pulpit, Vol. III, pp 454 - 461.
HTML transcription files copyright © 2001-2006.
Jane Newble
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This sermon added 20 July 2001