Mark 1:35-45
Not many of us in this room would say that if our kids were sick or in danger, we wouldn’t take their place.
Read Mark 1:35-45
Big Idea #1: Time alone with our Father gives us essential rest and revitalization.
1.. Jesus Was Refreshed Through Prayer (35-38)
We cannot miss what Jesus models for us in the first verse. Remember the day that Jesus just had. He went into the Synagogue to preach, rebuked and cast a demon out of someone, had lunch at Simon’s house and healed his mother-in-law, and then the WHOLE city came to Him, and He healed all kinds of diseases and cast out all kinds of demons. You think Jesus would have been mentally and physically exhausted after this? So what does He do? Take a day off for a little R&R? Beach day with his bros? No. He wakes up early, before the sun has even peeked over the horizon, finds a quiet place, and spends time in prayer.
One pastor preached a sermon on this passage and called it, “Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There!” Jesus, in His humanity, knew the importance of recharging in the presence of His Father. When we get hungry, we eat. When we get thirsty, we drink. When we get tired, we sleep. In the same way that our bodies need to recharge, so do our souls. And we cannot think that when we are emotionally and mentally drained, that sleeping or simply slowing down will give us what we need. We are so busy. We jump from one thing to the next without even stopping to think. We get to the end of our day and can barely even keep our eyes open. And then we wake up the next day and do it all again!
We pour out so much energy and eventually we are going to hit a wall. We are going to burn out. Imagine we are batteries and we lose our charge. The only way to recharge is to plug into the source of life itself. Jesus shows us how! Get somewhere quiet and just sit in the presence of God. Withdraw from the noise, not just the audible noise, but the noise of busyness that floods our minds. There is something so life-giving when we can just sit. When I make time to do this, the first thing that I pray is that God would just clear my mind. Even if just for a moment, take everything that I am stressed about, take everything that I have to do today. And we beg God to drown out the noise so we can hear His voice.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Look no man in the face till thou hast seen the face of God. Speak thou with none till thou hast had speech with the Most High.”
We CANNOT overlook this. We cannot ignore this. Our lives depend on the ability to make time to spend with God for rest and revival for our souls.
Listen, even in this moment of prayer, Jesus had distractions coming at Him. When Simon and the others showed up, the interruption is not how we typically read it. See the language used here is almost implying a rebuke. Daniel Akin accurately paraphrases Peter here: “What are you doing here? This is not where you should be! You need to be with the crowds! We are building a following. Things are beginning to happen. You do not have time to be alone and pray!”
Notice, though, how Jesus responds. “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.”
The result of Jesus spending this time with His Father was a reminder of the mission to which He had been called. He cleared out the distractions, took care of the exhaustion, and had clarity of mind around what He was called to do.
His time with the Father gave Him 3 things (and more!):
A.. Rest
B.. Revitalization
C.. Clarity
Question for reflection: How often do we lose sight of what we are called to do? How often do our busy schedules become the thing that keeps us from doing what we actually SHOULD be doing?
This should be a non-negotiable, no matter how busy our lives, to make time to spend with God. Are you tired? Jesus says, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you REST.” Are you emotionally and mentally drained? Psalm 119:50, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your Word has REVIVED me.” Has life become so cloudy that it’s hard to remember what your purpose is? Isaiah 48:17, “This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.”
Listen, church, we MUST make this a priority in our lives.
BIG IDEA #2: The restoring work of Jesus moves us from outcast to accepted.
2.. Jesus Was Moved By Pity (40-41)
We’ve got to start here by talking about leprosy. This wasn’t an illness that we could categorize to someone like, my daughter has the flu, or my grandfather has pneumonia. Leprosy became the person’s identity. In fact one commentator likens it to a death sentence that “robbed them of their name, occupation, habits, family, and fellowship in the worshiping community.” The common belief was that leprosy was a punishment from God. In Leviticus 13, here’s what the law says: “As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered (or uncombed), and he shall cover his mustache and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’... He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” Jewish custom said that you couldn’t greet a leper. It said you had to stay 6 feet away. If the wind blew toward a person from a leper, they had to stay 150 feet away. I mean can you imagine the humiliation and shame that this would carry? Everytime you came near anyone, you had to yell, “Unclean! Unclean!” You were viewed, quite literally, as walking dead.
This doesn’t even take into account the physical pain and anguish this disease would produce.
With all of that in mind, think about the boldness that this man has to run into the presence of Jesus, with all the crowds around Him, and beg to be made clean.
Notice Jesus’ response. He doesn’t plug his noise. He doesn’t turn and run. He doesn’t cast shame and guilt on this man. It says He was “moved with pity.” Our minds imagine Jesus being moved with compassion for this man. Some early manuscripts actually use a verb that means Jesus was filled with “anger.” I think both of these are probably true. Jesus was angry at the evil that had corrupted human life, but He was also moved with compassion at the desperation of this outcast.
So what does He do? He breaks down the walls of human understanding by reaching out and touching the untouchable. And in that moment, Jesus doesn’t just TELL Him that He is willing to heal Him, but He does it. The skin lesions and deformities heal. His skin, restored. A lifetime being a social outcast brought to an end. And Jesus, in His infinite wisdom, tells this man to go straight to the priests to show them that he has been healed, and to “offer for his cleansing what Moses had commanded.” (For more on that, check out Leviticus 14:1-7). He says this because the testimony of the priest was essential for the people to accept the leper as officially clean.
Instead, he can’t contain his joy and excitement, and he goes and starts telling everyone he comes in contact with. I like to imagine him now walking through the streets yelling, “I’m clean! I’m clean!” Shaking every hand and hugging every person he can. But there are consequences to his actions. Look again at verse 45. Read vs. 45.
3.. Jesus Takes Our Place (45)
The leper, who was once an outcast, living in the desolate places, has been healed, and restored into community. Jesus, who was in the heart of the towns, is now living and doing ministry in desolate places. Don’t miss this! We, who were once outcasts, living outside of the community of God, the people of God, have been touched by Jesus, given new life, and brought into community, and in order for that to happen, Jesus had to take our place! We, who because of our sin were destined to live out our days in spiritual isolation, have been made new! We were hopeless, and someone had to step in and intervene. Jesus did!
But how often do we fail to believe that? We seem to think that our leprosy is far too bad for Jesus to possibly heal us. We tend to think that our sin is too great! No way Jesus can heal this! No way Jesus can fix me! I read a really great article this week in which the author said that thinking that way is actually a form of pride! My sin is so significant that not even Jesus can contend with me! The author destroys that lie by concluding that there is always more grace in Jesus than offense in us; more forgiveness in Him than sin in us.
Church, is this not great news?! We, who were dead in our trespasses and sins, literally walking dead, were touched by the blood of Jesus and immediately healed. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” In that moment we go from exile to redeemed, outcast to accepted.
And I just feel like we need to really let this sink in. We really need to understand the gravity of this truth. Let this hit you right now... We were the leper! But Jesus reached out to us and by His blood we are healed. Made new! Clean! Jesus in our place!
2 Corinthians 5:21 - “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Even as Christians, though, we need this reminder. Let me ask you this: What is it that is making you feel unclean? Is it shame? Is it guilt? Is it dishonor? Embarrassment? Failure?
Isaiah 53:4-6 - “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
So, when we feel unclean. When we are overcome with shame, guilt, embarrassment, failure, we run back to point number 1. We find a quiet place and we cry out to our Father for forgiveness, for restoration, to revitalize and remind us of who we are in Christ, and our purpose as His children.
