Leviticus 13:45-46; Mark 1:35-45
9/2/2001

Our text is Mark 1:35-45. This is not an easy text. There are keys to understanding it that are not obvious at first glance. Yet once they have been found and used, this text shows itself to be a beautiful and rich proclamation of the Gospel. As we look at this text this morning we want to see what God is doing in the history of salvation.

Some background on our text is appropriate. What has been the flow of Mark’s Gospel up to this point? The narrative starts with the appearance of John the Baptist in the wilderness and then records the baptism of Jesus. After that Jesus goes out to be tempted by Satan in the wilderness. This is followed by the imprisonment of John where Jesus announces that the kingdom of God is at hand.

Jesus then calls the first four disciples and starts teaching in the synagogues. He casts a demon out of a demon-possessed man and then heals Simon’s mother-in-law. Then Jesus goes through Galilee casting out demons. And in verses 40-45 Jesus heals a leper, which is the text we are dealing with today.

There are a few themes that run through this chapter that I want to show you. First, there is the theme of the wilderness. Verse 35 says, "In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there." And verse 45 says, "But [the leper] 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." The word in both of these verses that is translated a "lonely," "secluded," or "unpopulated" place is the same word used earlier in the chapter, but is translated wilderness. In verse 4 it says that John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness and the same word is used. In verse 12 it says that the Spirit impelled Jesus to go out into the wilderness and again it was the same word. So our passage is bracketed between verse 35 and 45 setting our context in the wilderness.

Another theme is that of conquest. First Jesus goes through the water in his baptism as Israel did in the Exodus when they crossed through the Red Sea. Next Jesus went out into the wilderness for 40 days, as Israel had gone out into the wilderness for 40 years. Mark is retelling the story of Israel in the life of Jesus. What happened next in Israel’s history? What should we expect next in the life of Christ?

After the wilderness, Israel conducted the Conquest of Canaan. They went into the land of promise and drove the wicked Canaanites out. The Conquest was very significant to Israel. After 40 years of wandering they were going to settle and flourish in the land in which God was to dwell. Yet in order for Israel to dwell in that land and for God to dwell there, first the wicked Canaanites had to be driven out and destroyed. So too, in verses 16-45, Jesus is going through the land in conquest. He is exorcising demons and removing sickness, both of which represent death – the result of the fall. Thus our passage falls into the context of conquest.

However, notice the difference. The ethnic kingdom-nation of Israel was but a picture of the kingdom of God. They drove out people – a physical picture of God’s enemy. Yet when Israel came into the land, they still became ill, they still died. Sin and its effects, the true enemy of God, had not been vanquished. What Jesus is doing, as he ushers in the Kingdom, is he conquers the true enemy of God, the spiritual enemy – sin. Where as the first conquest was physical – for a physical kingdom, the second is spiritual – for a spiritual kingdom.

I mentioned the context of wilderness, but what does it really represent? We saw that John the Baptist was baptizing in the wilderness and that Jesus’ temptation took place in the wilderness. Furthermore, we saw that Israel wandered 40 years in the wilderness. John’s baptism pictured the judgment and wrath of God that would soon be poured out. As Jesus underwent that baptism he was submitting himself to the call of the cross and the wrath that he would suffer there. As Jesus was tempted in the wilderness he suffered so that we might have a high priest who is able to sympathize with us as we suffer (Heb. 4:15). And so too, did the Israelites suffer many things, as they wandered in the wilderness a time of great suffering and judgment.

The wilderness is outside the camp. It is the place where one goes when he cannot enjoy the blessing of the covenant community. It is the place of banishment and exile – the place of desolation. Leviticus 16:10 says it is where the scapegoat was sent with the sins of the people. The wilderness represents suffering and judgment away from the blessing of the city and its community.

The wilderness is set in contrast to the camp – the city – the place where God dwells and that is why it is so significant. In the city is the presence of God, the place of blessing. But the wilderness is the place of desolation.

It is in this wilderness that the leper comes to Jesus. A LEPER – most pitiful among men. When Miriam, the sister of Moses, was struck with leprosy, Moses begged God not to let her be "like one dead." Leviticus 13:45-46 condemned a leper to a life of solitude. It says, "As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, 'Unclean! Unclean!' He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp." Levitical code prohibited the touching of one who is unclean. The leper was an outcast from the Covenant Community – unfit to be in the camp, banished to the wilderness.

Imagine, no close friends, unable to be close to your own family. Longing for someone who is not afraid of you, some one who is willing to talk to you. A leper was cut off from all intimacy – all interaction. Mothers would keep their children from going near them. Can you imagine going years without feeling the touch of another person’s hand, never being embraced by a hug? Not knowing what a kiss feels like? Days of weeping and yet no one to comfort you, to hold you, to share your burden? To look around and know that you are different from everybody else? To know that you are unclean, vile, disgraceful, unlovable, untouchable? To know that your very presence is repulsive, undesirable and unacceptable? To know that you are not allowed in the temple?

The job of the priest, according to Leviticus 13 and 14 was to examine somebody who is thought to have leprosy and pronounce them clean or unclean. As the leper in our passage comes to Jesus in the wilderness he falls on his knees and pleads with him to cleanse him. Yet what this leper is asking Jesus to do is beyond the job of the priest, he is asking Jesus to not just PRONOUNCE him clean, but to MAKE him clean. His request is great, but so is the one of whom he requests it.

Here is where we find another key to the text. Verse 41 says, "Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." The Greek text of verse 41 presents us with two options. Most English versions have "And moved with compassion…" Yet there is another possibility here, which is "And he was angry…" These are quite different readings, but both are legitimate possibilities and we must ask, "which is the best reading?"

That Jesus had compassion on the leper has some strengths. It is the most attested to reading. It fits the context of Jesus healing the leper – a compassionate thing to do.

However, Jesus being angry has its own strengths as well. First it fits the overall context of conquest in chapter 1. This chapter shows Jesus as a warrior who is enraged with sin and its effects and is going through the land cleansing it. Also anger fits the context of some harsh words in our immediate context. The word translated "sternly warned" in verse 43 is a very harsh word – it is used for a growling or a horses snort. Also in verse 43 Jesus is said to "send him away," a term which, when used in Mark, is always negative, used mostly of casting out demons, but also used in the cleansing of the temple and when talking about casting things into hell.

In my opinion the best reading is that Jesus was angry. However, let me clarify. It is not that Jesus was angry at the leper, but at the leprosy and what it represents. The leprosy represents uncleanness, sickness, death, curse, sin and the fall. Jesus is doing battle with sin and the fallen order. The language used shows Jesus treating the leprosy (and sickness in general) as if it were a demon.

The Lord of all glory, all holiness comes face to face with uncleanness. Leprosy was vile and had no right to be in the presence of God. As Christ looked at the leprosy it represented everything he detests – sin, the fall, the rejection of God. Christ had not made man to endure sickness and death. And yet here was one of his own creation – wrought through with the effects of sin. How could he not hate it? How could he not be angry? How could not despise the disease that lay before his eyes? To him leprosy is no different than a demon and he hated it as he hates demons.

The language used of the leprosy mirrors that of the exorcism in verse 25 where Jesus silenced the demon and it CAME OUT. So too did the sickness of Simon’s mother-in-law, in verse 31, LEAVE HER. Now here in verse 42 the focus is on the leprosy, it says "and immediately the leprosy LEFT HIM, and he was cleansed." The focus is on the demon or illness leaving the person, it is language of conquest. This is holy warfare as Jesus is cleansing the land preparing it for the arrival of the kingdom. Jesus was angry at the leprosy and he cast it out.

So we see Jesus’ wrath and hatred toward the leprosy. And yet we do see the compassion of Christ as well in that he stretches out his hand and touches the untouchable leper. To touch somebody who was unclean was to make yourself unclean, and yet Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the leper. This was probably the first touch from human hands he had felt in years. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him – and as he did, he healed him.

At this point Jesus STERNLY WARNS the leper. Jesus makes it emphatic that the leper is not to tell anyone, but to go to the priests to make an offering. And yet after the leper encounters Christ, he leaves and disobeys. Clearly he does not understand whom he has encountered. We are not told whether he went to the priests as he was told, but Mark is careful to tell us that he disobeyed Christ and told everyone what had happened. It was for this reason that Jesus is forced to stay in the wilderness.

What happens in the last verse of this passage is very important. The leper leaves his proper place outside the camp and is allowed to go back to the city, even to the temple. Having been cleansed this man is able to once again dwell among men, and even more enter the temple – the presence of God.

But what about Jesus? Verse 45 tells us that he had to remain in the wilderness. Do you see the irony? The leper, whose proper place was the wilderness, is sent back to the city and the temple, while Jesus, whose proper place is the presence of God, is forced to remain in the wilderness – the abode of the cursed. In touching the unclean leper, Jesus took the uncleanness onto himself and the curse due the leper. The Lord of life took death onto himself.

This time the conquest is taking place through suffering. Where the first conquest – the conquest of Canaan took place by the sword, this conquest is done through suffering. Christ cleanses the land of sin by taking its punishment upon himself and suffering the penalty. It is not a physical kingdom with physical enemies, but a spiritual kingdom whose enemy is sin. It is against this enemy that Christ fights.

In the Old Testament ceremony, the scapegoat, having had the sins of the people laid on it, was sent out into the wilderness (Lev. 16:10). So too does Jesus, the holy one of God, remain in the wilderness bearing the rightful curse of the leper, while the leper enjoys the privileges that are actually due to Christ – dwelling in the presence of God. You see redemption is only possible through the wilderness. It is only as Jesus suffers outside the gate that we, who deserve to be there, can enjoy the rights and privileges due the righteous – joy inside the gate – communion with God. We are the leper, wrought through with sin. Death resides in our bodies, and it is only as Jesus reaches out and takes that death onto himself that we are given life.

Here we have seen a preview of what is to come. As Jesus begins his ministry he suffers the curse due another – the curse due the leper, while he was outside the gate – in the wilderness. So too, at the end of his ministry he suffers again a curse due another – the curse due God’s elect, while he was outside the gate – on Calvary. The true leprosy, our own sinfulness – YOURS – MINE – has been put upon the only man who is really clean. If he is willing, he can cleanse – and indeed, he has stretched out his willing hand and cleansed those who are sinful and dirty. Through taking our sins upon himself and bearing the curse and wrath due us on the cross, he has, in exchange, given us his righteousness with the rights and privileges due him.

For those who are in Christ, our guilt has been placed upon the scapegoat and sent into the wilderness. The wrath of God against sin has been satisfied and been replaced with a sympathetic outstretched hand. We bear the curse no more. We are called into God’s own presence, having been made clean. Christ has born the curse in himself that we might not bear it ourselves. We have been sent back to the city from the wilderness, back to the city of God, just like the leper.

But let us not forget the crowd; Mark mentions it for a reason. He says that the crowd was coming to Jesus from everywhere. While their motives of seeing a miracle worker were wrong, their response was right – they came to the wilderness to Christ.

There has been a reversal brought. Because Christ suffered in the wilderness in this world, it is in the wilderness that we are in God’s presence. In this world union with God means suffering. Going into the wilderness is going into God’s presence. The kingdom Jesus has brought is spiritual. He brought it through the wilderness. And so as we seek that kingdom and his presence, it is to the wilderness we go.

Listen to the words of the author of Hebrews:

"We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13 So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14 For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come." (Heb. 13:10-14)

Verse 13 says we are called to go outside the gates to where Jesus is, the place of suffering, the wilderness. It is there that we are called to bear his reproach. While we are in this world, we will share in Christ’s sufferings, and a day will come when we enter in FULLY to the presence of God – in that heavenly city which is our home.

You see there are two things at work here. In one reality we have already been cleansed and given access to the temple. We can enter into God’s presence. We, like the leper, have been made clean. And yet, there is an aspect in which the fullness of that reality is not yet here. While we are on this earth, we are not home. We will suffer as Christ did, in the wilderness. Not because we are being punished for our sin, but because we are identified with Christ and bearing his reproach. The call of the Christian is identification with our savior.

Brothers and sisters, do you understand that, in Christ, you have been made clean? Do you understand that he has born your reproach, your penalty and you bear it no more? And to those who have not come, those who remain in their sin, Jesus is willing and able to cleanse you. Come to him.

Jesus is the conquering king. He is the compassionate priest. He has made atonement in his own body. His worthiness is your worthiness. His righteousness is your righteousness. He has given you access to the temple. He has bid you to come into the Father’s presence. He has blessed you with his own blessing.