Mark 1:40-45 - Homiletics

The leper healed.

Among the many miracles wrought by the Divine Physician upon the bodies and minds of suffering mankind, the evangelists have selected certain as types of the Saviour's spiritual work, as well as illustrations of his beneficent ministry. Every class of sufferers seems to represent some special aspect of sin and need, and every recorded miracle seems to convey some special lesson concerning the Healer's grace and power. Let this narrative be thus regarded, and we find here—

I. A SYMBOL OF HUMAN SIN AND MISERY . Leprosy was evidently so regarded among the Jews, and upon Divine authority, as is clear from the detailed directions given in Leviticus for its treatment by the priests. A loathsome, spreading, and generally incurable disease, leprosy was regarded with universal repugnance and disgust, and lepers were excluded from ordinary human society and banished from ordinary human dwellings. This disease, therefore, has always been regarded as emblematical of sin, which lays hold of man's moral nature, cripples and disables it, spreads to every department of his being, and is by human means altogether incurable. It renders the subject of it unfit for the society of holy beings, and unworthy of a place in the Church of the living God.

II. The conduct of this leper is AN EXAMPLE OF BELIEVING APPLICATION TO CHRIST . We observe:

1 . Approach to the Saviour. Though lepers were not permitted to come into the neighborhood of their fellow-men, this man drew near to Jesus, with the boldness inspired by necessity and hope.

2 . There was reverence. He knelt, he fell on his face, he worshipped the Master; thus evincing his sense of inferiority and need, and his conviction of Christ's authority.

3 . There was faith ; for his language implies this, "Thou canst make me clean." Not perfect faith, but sincere and in accordance with what he had heard of the great Healer.

4 . There was entreaty. He besought Jesus, as one who felt that here was his only hope, "Here I live, or here I die."

III. The record describes CHRIST 'S POWER TO SAVE . The unusual fullness of the narrative gives us an insight into the movements and operations of Divine mercy.

1 . Our Lord's action is traced to compassion , which stirred within his Divine heart—the source of all our salvation, the ground of all our hope.

2 . Contact with the sufferer was the means and the symbol of healing. What Naaman expected Elisha to do to him, that Jesus did to this sufferer—laid his hands upon the place, and recovered the leper. How often is our Saviour represented as thus condescendingly and compassionately coming into personal contact with the wretched and sinful! It is the spiritual touch of the Redeemer that heals the sinner's maladies and banishes his woes.

3 . Jesus exercises his authority , utters his Will, pronounces the sentence of release, "I will; be thou clean!" What simplicity, majesty, authority, in the Saviour's language! It is thus that he addresses every believing suppliant, that he rewards the faith of every lowly applicant. No voice but that Divine voice can give this assurance and pronounce this sentence of liberty.

4 . The healing is effected by him who is Lord of nature. No failure attended the Saviour's ministry of compassion. The leper's doubt, if he had any, was as to Christ's willingness, not as to his power. The result proved that there was no deficiency in either. The leprosy departed, and the man was cleansed. Christ's is ever a full and complete salvation; for he is "mighty to save."

IV. THE SAVIOUR HERE SANCTIONS THE OPEN EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE . In bidding the cleansed leper go to the priest and present the customary offering, Jesus not only magnified the Law and conformed to custom, he also approved a grateful spirit, and commended the public acknowledgment of Divine mercy. It is well that we should "pay our vows unto the Most High," that we should "bring an offering, and come into his courts." He is the God who "healeth all our diseases," and every signal interposition on our behalf ought to be gratefully and publicly acknowledged.

V. We remark in this narrative the working of AN IMPULSE TO CELEBRATE AMONGST MEN THE MERCY OF GOD . Our Lord had reasons for enjoining silence upon this healed leper. Yet he would not be displeased with the grateful and benevolent spirit which led him to publish and blaze abroad the matter. Every Christian must exclaim, "The Lord hath done great things for me, whereof I am glad!" "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!"

VI. We see the issue of this miracle in THE INCREASING FAME OF CHRIST and the increasing number of applicants to him for relief and help. The tidings of this marvellous cure awakened such public attention to Christ's power and grace that he could not for a season fulfill his ministry in the crowded towns, but retired to secluded spots, where, however, he might well be sought and found by those who were drawn to him, not by an idle curiosity, but by a conviction of his power and grace, and by the urgency of conscious need.