1/5/2012 11:30:16 AM
JESUS TRADES PLACES WITH A LEPER
Mark 1:40-45
I have to admit that I have taken this title from a Message given by John MacArthur and the reason that I have done this is because the title makes sense of the verses. (Sorry John)
40 ¶ And a leper *came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, "If You are willing, You can make me clean." 41 Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and *said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." 42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. 43 And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, 44 and He *said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.”
I will discuss the reason this title fits here a bit latter, but first I want to review a bit about why it was that Jesus healed people. We spoke briefly about this in the last lesson from Mark’s gospel. We see in verse forty-one that Jesus was moved with compassion and that is one reason why he healed people. We also said that it was prophesied that He would heal people. Jesus also healed people to show object lessons about the gospel. For instance in John chapter nine Jesus healed a man who was born blind and the blind man later testified “once I was blind, but now I can see.” That is true of all true believers in Jesus Christ. Jesus also healed to authenticate who He was and that His message was the truth. This power was also given to the apostles early on in order to authenticate the message of the Church, of the Gospel. We read in 1Cor. “13: 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.” Many scholars believe that the perfect means the completion of the Bible. I know it can also mean the second coming of Jesus Christ. As we go through the book of Acts we see healings at the beginning of the book and even towards the end of the book when Paul was shipwrecked on Malta, but when we read latter on in Paul’s letters we see that people he loved were sick and he was concerned that they would die and is says nothing about any healing for them other than they did not die which brings me back to the statement that my friend gave to me when I first became a believer and that is that God heals you every time but the last time.
You really can talk about this section of Scripture without mentioning what a Leper is for the story is about a leper that Jesus cleansed. John MacArthur says in his message on this section that the bacteria that causes leprosy was found in a mummy in Egypt so it is thought the disease began in Egypt. There are drugs today that can stop the advancement of leprosy, but not able to take care of the effects that it has done. Leprosy numbs the areas of the body that it attacks and so a person who has leprosy cannot feel pain in the area where he has it. It also attacks the immune system and that is how most people with leprosy will die for they cannot fight off any diseases.
We read in the Scriptures that God has actually cursed people using leprosy. When David was talking about Joab he said in 2Sa 3:29 "May it fall on the head of Joab and on all his father’s house; and may there not fail from the house of Joab one who has a discharge, or who is a leper, or who takes hold of a distaff, or who falls by the sword, or who lacks bread.’”
In 2Chronicles 26:21 “King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and he lived in a separate house, being a leper, for he was cut off from the house of the LORD. And Jotham his son was over the king’s house judging the people of the land.” The reason he was a leper is found in 2Kings 15:5 “The LORD struck the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death. And he lived in a separate house, while Jotham the king’s son was over the household, judging the people of the land.”
Leprosy is a picture of sin and at the end of this lesson I will quote from John MacArthur’s sermon on this subject. I have listened to the message a number of times and the ending is very moving and that is the reason I wish to quote it.
Verse forty: “And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, "If You are willing, You can make me clean.’” We have seen that the popularity of Jesus has grown to fever pitch and so a leper decides to come to see Jesus in order to be cleansed. It was not lawful for the leper to be in contact with others who were not lepers so this man was taking a chance in order to come to see Jesus. We can say that this was in the providence of God and for the glory of God that the leper came to Jesus. Because of the reputation that Jesus had the leper felt that Jesus could cleans him of his leprosy.
Verse forty-one: “41 Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and *said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed.’” We have already discussed that Jesus was moved with compassion. Jesus loved the man and so he had compassion on the man and then Jesus touched the man, which according to the law He was not suppose to do, but we are talking about the God who created the universe, the One who gave the Law and so He touched the man in order to cleanse the man of his leprosy. It is interesting that we see healed in this passage, but we see cleansed and that is important to note. When we are saved from our sin we are cleansed from our sin and we are made anew.
Verse 42: “42 Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed.” We again see Mark’s favorite word here, immediately showing that this cleansing happened without any delay and the man was cleansed. This is how it is when a person is saved from their sins as they trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
Verses 43-44: “43 And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, 44 and He *said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’” Here is where we talk about Jesus trading places with the leper for we see the leper who was away from the towns and crowds now able to go into the towns and be around the crowds, while Jesus who was teaching in the cities and towns will not be forced to go out into the country because He is now even more popular. This will be the beginning of the end of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee.
Jesus tells the leper not to tell anyone but to go to show himself to the priest and too offer the prescribed sacrifices for a leper when he is cleansed. Jesus wants this man to go to Jerusalem and to testify to the priests of what the Lord has done for them. By doing this he would be obeying Jesus, but we will see he didn’t do it and therefore disobeyed Jesus.
Verse 45” “45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere.” We have already talked about this verse showing how the man disobeyed the Lord and made it impossible for Jesus to continue His ministry in the towns, something He told His disciples they were going to do.
At this time I want to quote the ending of John MacArthur’s message on this section: “So Jesus trades places with a leper. And I think that's a metaphor in closing for what He did at the cross, is it not? We are the spiritual lepers who lived in alienation and isolation from God. We met Him, we were brought into the presence of God in the Kingdom. But the only way we could ever be taken from our isolation and brought into the presence of God was if He left the presence of God and went Himself into isolation. And that's what He did on the cross because Jesus was forsaken, because Jesus was treated as an outcast we are accepted and welcomed into the presence of God.
“So here you see in this one little healing, Mark uses language that really irresistibly draws us to the fact that Jesus takes the place of sinners. We thank You, Lord, again to this wonderful glimpse of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank You for each glimpse we have but never enough. And even when we look, we know there's much more that we surely missed. What a joy it would have been to have been there then. We think we would have believed, but the whole nation rejected Him, it seems to us incomprehensible.
“We don't even know what happened to this man. We have no idea what happened to this man, but we do know that when he had an opportunity to obey, he refused. So whatever he meant by “lord” didn't seem to be very serious.
Father, we want to thank You that Jesus Christ exchanged places with us, that He traded
places with us, that He took our sin and our judgment and our punishment, that He became an
outcast, that He was forsaken by You in order that we might be received and accepted and be made sons. We rejoice in this with grateful hearts. And we ask that You would cause us to proclaim this great message which is such blessing to our own hearts, may we tell the story. Leprosy is a picture of sin, is there any better physical picture of sin, destroys the whole person, alienates, isolates, cuts people off from You. But Jesus ushers the sinner into Your presence by taking the sinner's place. What a wonderful truth this is. Thank You for it. We thank You for the salvation that is ours in Christ, and we ask, Lord, that You give us opportunity to proclaim it to His glory. Amen.”
1/5/2012 12:48:46 PM
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