Be clean!

Luke 5:12-16

Key Verse 5:13

“Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.”

Good morning! I did not expect our power point will work today. So I didn’t make strong power point today. It is very nice to be here in the clean center. The title of today’s passage is “Be clean!” too. The key verse comes from verse 13. May we read this verse together? “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.” Let’s pray.

In today’s message Jesus healed a man with leprosy. Leprosy at that time was an incurable disease. And we really wanted to know how Jesus healed this man of leprosy. Physically speaking we don’t have leprosy in our bodies. But somehow we also have something incurable in our body or in our hearts. Mainly our hearts are very negative and dark. One man told me around 2 pm in our Sunday afternoon that everybody is trying to throw a spear at him. At first I did not understand what does it mean by ‘spear’ because I asked, ‘spear’, what does it mean? But he really meant ‘spear’ that everybody who are enjoying eating and fellowship with God and with brothers and sisters are trying to throw a spear at him. That’s how he really felt it. Later it turned out that it all came from his inner darkness and negative thoughts. We may not have problem as serious as he has. But we all have some kind of incurable aspects weather it is inherited or something, for example, something like very negative and dark thought. So here we also want to know how Jesus can help us as well as we see how Jesus helped the man with leprosy. 

First, Jesus was willing to help, heal, or cleans the man with leprosy. ^”While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” (verse 12) The expression ‘covered with leprosy’ shows this man was fully developed in terms of leprosy. Usually leprosy starts and people die in 10 or 20 years. So this is not something that you can live with it, but it is the cause of one’s death maximum maybe 20 or 30 years. 

This man came along while Jesus was one of the towns. When he When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” He knew that Jesus had power to cleanse him, but he did not know whether Jesus was willing or not. Why was he not so sure whether Jesus was willing to cleanse him? It is because there is no guarantee to be healed even if he asks. God does not automatically guarantee that he will heal us whenever we pray. So he came to Jesus and say, “Lord, if you are willing you can make me clean.” Now in order to come to Jesus this man should have overcome maybe 2 or 3 inner obstacles. 

The first obstacle is the idea that leprosy was incurable. It was incurable in those days. There is no way for any man to be cured of the disease in those times. We saw that general Naaman was healed of his leprosy by prophet Elisha. And this man was healed of leprosy. And we don’t know who was healed of leprosy other than these two people. Bible mentioned about Simon the Leper. If we think about it only 3 people were mentioned in the bible who were healed of leprosy. Leprosy was incurable disease. I don’t want to show the picture of leprosy. It shows very deforming bodies. It is so disturbing. This disease starts with skin problem. The skin becomes white. And it attacks nerves and nerves loses sensitivity, and fingers, toes, ears are torn away and then they die. In addition to death, lepers should be separated from parents, brothers, sisters, and people in their towns and camps because it is contagious. So by the law of Moses they were carried away and they should live by themselves. This is another suffering of lepers. Loneliness and rejection and becoming unwanted people. So the first obstacle this man should overcome to come to Jesus is the idea that it is incurable disease. It was not healed. No one was healed as long as this man knew. 

Somehow this man overcame the idea that this is incurable disease but believed Jesus was able to heal him. And he is able to heal him. This is the first step he could overcome. 

There are many problems of life as we live to serve God. As we also find many obstacles too. There are some problems that are so fundamentally rooted that we are not so sure whether we could overcome through Jesus or not. 

The second obstacles this man should have overcome is ‘condemnation from God.’ Leprosy in the Bible was used as God’s punishment as least 3 times in my understanding. The first one was ‘Miriam’. When Miriam and Aaron challenged Moses’ authority as the leader God struck her with leprosy. So her skin became white. Obviously God judged her and punished her with leprosy. Another case was king Uzziah in Israel. King Uzziah disobeyed the command of God and wanted to offer incense in the temple against the command of God. God commanded the priests to have privilege to offer incense in the temple. But the king Uzziah became so proud because God gave him a great success, and he wanted to offer incense. And leprosy broke out from his forehead. It was clear that God delivered the judgment against king Uzziah through leprosy.

There is another man named “Gehazi”. He was a servant of prophet Elisha. Against the command of his master prophet Elisha he went to Naaman, and took the gift from him, and lied to prophet Elisha, and he was struck with leprosy. Elisha said, “Naaman’s leprosy will cling to you” and he became leprous for the rest of his life. 

All of these kinds of cases show that God is punishing people and leprosy was God’s instrument to judge his people. When this man was struck with the leprosy he could have thought ‘God punished me because of my sin.’ And who can overcome this sense of condemnation because everybody does sin? Not even one person is exception. Everybody sins, and God can use leprosy as his judgment and punishment. Who can overcome such huge sense of condemnation from God? This man could have believed that ‘my leprosy was caused by my own sin.’ He had to overcome that. 

In order to approach Jesus this man even broke the law of Moses. According to Moses’ law he was not supposed to move around in one of the towns. He should live in a separate place. But he even broke Moses’ law and came to Jesus. He did not have anything to lose. “If people stone me to death let it be so because I am already a dead man. I don’t have anything to lose.” He was so desperate that he came to Jesus when he was full of leprosy. And he begged Jesus. He fell with his face to the ground and begged him. He did not demand Jesus. He did not say, “If I go to him, the Lord, you should heal me because I am in a desperate situation.” But he said, “Lord, if you are willing you can make me clean.” 

“Lord, I know you have power to heal me, but I am not so sure whether you are wiling.” “What if the leprosy comes as the result of God’s judgment? Maybe you may not be willing. But if you are willing you can make me clean.” That was this man’s appeal. 

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing. Be clean!” Jesus did not need to reach out his hand and touched the man. He can still heal him by saying, “I am willing. Be clean!” But the first thing he did was to reach out his hand and touched the man. No one wants to touch the leper. No! No one wants to touch the leper. First of all, he will become unclean and he cannot have fellowship with God. And leprosy is contagious. So he can get the leprosy. Who wants to touch the leper? But Jesus touched the man. He stretched out his hand and touched the man. “I am not different from you. I am as you are.” With great compassion of touching Jesus said, “I am willing. Be clean!” And immediately leprosy left him. 

This touching healed inner part of his wounds of the man. People do not want to touch leprosy. There was one pastor who was helping lepers. At his first visit of his church there were people lined out and he was shaking hands with them. One grandma held his hand although she did not have fingers for such a long time. And the pastor asked her, “Why do you do that?”, and the grandma said, “I became a leper at the age of 17. But until now I became so old that I was never able to touch any hand of healthy man. This is my first time that I can touch the hand of healthy man.” No one touched her.

And the scholars found out that among babies in incubators some babies touched by nurses have high rate of survival compared to the babies who were not touched. In the morning daily bread time at 5:30 am there is hugging time. I don’t know whether it is culture of America or not, but I like to touch or hug. My daughters know that. But they all grew up. So I cannot do as many as I want. I like to touch or hug. It really gives me sense of unity and oneness, and it removes many barriers. Try it! 

Try to hug instead of just (showing hand touch). This is good but hugging is better. And Jesus was willing. “I am willing.” Now we know God does not answer all our prayers.  So we may also pray, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” But we need to remember one thing. If the leper thought “I don’t know whether Jesus is willing. So I am not going to go to ask him. If he had done so he would never had a chance to be healed.” Although he did not know whether Jesus was willing or not he came to believe, believing that Jesus has power to heal him. We need to come to Jesus although we may not know whether Jesus is willing to heal us or not. Otherwise we will not have any chance to experience Jesus’ miraculous healing in our lives. 

After leprosy left him, this is what Jesus told him. ““Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”” (v.14) Jesus asked this man to remember Moses’ law. Jesus helped this man to obey Moses’ law and offer sacrifices Moses commanded for his cleansing as the testimony to the priest. The priest was working as a doctor in those times. And they should issue a health certificate to help the man to return to his camp or community. But at the same time there is implication that Jesus was helping him to obey the command of God, the word of God, the command of God according to Moses. 

This man might have broken Moses’ law in order to come to Jesus. But Jesus was helping him to obey the command of God. Jesus gave us freedom. But God asks us to use our freedom to obey the word of God instead of using it to indulge in our sinful desires. God asks us to use our freedom in Jesus Christ to serve one another in humble love. What are the sacrifices Moses commanded? 

Let’s read the book of Leviticus 14:1-20 responsibly. 

“The LORD said to Moses, ² “These are the regulations for any diseased person at the time of their ceremonial cleansing, when they are brought to the priest: ³ The priest is to go outside the camp and examine them. If they have been healed of their defiling skin disease, ⁴ the priest shall order that two live clean birds and some cedar wood, scarlet yarn and hyssop be brought for the person to be cleansed. ⁵ Then the priest shall order that one of the birds be killed over fresh water in a clay pot.⁶ He is then to take the live bird and dip it, together with the cedar wood, the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, into the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. ⁷ Seven times he shall sprinkle the one to be cleansed of the defiling disease, and then pronounce them clean. After that, he is to release the live bird in the open fields.

⁸ “The person to be cleansed must wash their clothes, shave off all their hair and bathe with water; then they will be ceremonially clean. After this they may come into the camp, but they must stay outside their tent for seven days. ⁹ On the seventh day they must shave off all their hair; they must shave their head, their beard, their eyebrows and the rest of their hair. They must wash their clothes and bathe themselves with water, and they will be clean.

¹⁰ “On the eighth day they must bring two male lambs and one ewe lamb a year old, each without defect, along with three-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with olive oil for a grain offering, and one log of oil. ¹¹ The priest who pronounces them clean shall present both the one to be cleansed and their offerings before the LORD at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

¹² “Then the priest is to take one of the male lambs and offer it as a guilt offering, along with the log of oil; he shall wave them before the LORD as a wave offering. ¹³ He is to slaughter the lamb in the sanctuary area where the sin offering and the burnt offering are slaughtered. Like the sin offering, the guilt offering belongs to the priest; it is most holy. ¹⁴ The priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot. ¹⁵ The priest shall then take some of the log of oil, pour it in the palm of his own left hand, ¹⁶ dip his right forefinger into the oil in his palm, and with his finger sprinkle some of it before the LORD seven times. ¹⁷ The priest is to put some of the oil remaining in his palm on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering. ¹⁸ The rest of the oil in his palm the priest shall put on the head of the one to be cleansed and make atonement for them before the LORD.

¹⁹ “Then the priest is to sacrifice the sin offering and make atonement for the one to be cleansed from their uncleanness. After that, the priest shall slaughter the burnt offering ²⁰ and offer it on the altar, together with the grain offering, and make atonement for them, and they will be clean.”

So this is a big thing. They have to offer 2 birds. And then they have to wash everything and they were allowed to enter the camp. But he cannot enter into his tent for 7 days. On the eight day there should be atoning sacrifice – 2 lambs and 1 ewe lamb. Now when you look at this, what does make the man clean before God? Now let’s assume that this leper came to the priest. He was already completely clean. So theoretically speaking he just needed to prove that he was completely healed of leprosy. Basically the priest just could tell him, “We will wait a month or even a year to know that you are healed. And we will just let you in.” But the priest offered sacrifices; first 2 birds and 1 was killed. And blood was shed in the clean water. So what made him clean before God? The fact that his body was already healed or the blood of the sacrifice? It is not the fact that the body was healed of leprosy but the blood of sacrifice that was offered for him. It made him clean before God. 

Figuratively speaking, no matter whatever we do it cannot make us clean before God. Only the blood of Jesus that was shed for us can make us clean in the sight of God. To be clean or unclean was a huge problem in the past. If you are ceremonially unclean you cannot have fellowship with God. You cannot enter into the temple and worship God together with others. You cannot meet God. The first thing about ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ appears at the time of Noah. God commanded Noah to bring clean animals and unclean animals. ‘Clean’ and ‘unclean’ was very important issue because if you are unclean you cannot have fellowship with God. 

And God opened the door for his people to be clean in his sight not through their own bodies but through the sacrifice, the blood sacrifice, the sacrifices Moses commanded. I don’t know how many people could enjoy this provision, the sacrifices Moses commanded. But God made it very specific that the leper, even though he is completely healed, would be not be clean in his sight unless he brings sacrifices Moses commanded. 

Did the man obey Jesus’ command? Today’s passage does not say about it. But the gospel of Mark shows that he did not obey. He went out and freely talked about his healing. Today’s passage says, ““Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” (v.15-16)

Jesus became busier. But he still maintained time to pray. What did he pray? Maybe he prayed for the leper he healed too. Jesus is the Son of God. He didn’t sin. So it seems like he is the last person who needs to pray compared to all of us. And he was very busy, but he still made time to pray. There is one man. I don’t know his name because I forgot his name. He is the second general secretary of UN (United Nations). This guy said something like this. “When I am busy I woke up in the morning and pray one hour. When I am extremely busy I woke up 2 hour earlier”, meaning he prayed 2 hours. 

Our common sense says “If you are so busy and if you have so many things to do you need to sacrifice your even one hour prayer to do things you need to do. But this man increased the time of his prayer doubled when he became extremely busy. 

Martin Luther, the founder of reformation movement, said the same thing. Since he is so busy and he has so many things to do and discharge, he need to pray 3 hours in the morning. 3 hours in the morning, that is a lot of time. What he was saying is this: “If I use my 3 hours of morning time to do what I need to do I will not be able to discharge all my duties properly. But if I do spend 3 hours in the morning in prayer I will be able to discharge all my duties properly.” That is what he was saying.

Anyhow Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed when he became busier. When more people came to hear him and be healed of their sickness Jesus made sure of his prayer time. 

How can Jesus help us to overcome our dark and negative thoughts? Our sinful desires arising in our hearts makes us unclean in the sight of God. First, Jesus can help us because Jesus is willing. Jesus is willing to help us. Do not doubt the love of God. What the bible says is, of course, some people will pray and do not receive God’s answer. For example, Job prayed for his healing. But he was not healed. Then he was healed when God’s time came. 

Apostle Paul prayed for the healing of thorn in his body. But Jesus didn’t answer although he prayed 3 times. But Jesus did say to him, “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” What if apostle Paul thought “since I don’t know if Jesus is willing to heal me or not, I am not going to pray for the healing of my thorn”. What would happen to Apostle Paul? He would never know Jesus’ revelation. “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness.” So Jesus answered his prayer. Jesus healed the thorn in his body in a different way, revealing why he did not want to heal him. It was to make him strong – to make his power complete in the life of apostle Paul.

So we need to believe that Jesus is willing to cure our incurable diseases, physical diseases and spiritual diseases especially dark and negative thoughts. Adam and Eve became so negative when they disobeyed and ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then their eyes were opened. They realized they were naked and they made covering of them. Their eyes were not opened to the love of God who allowed to eat the tree of life and enjoy all the provisions in Garden of Eden. They are sharply opened to shame, and fear and guilt. And they complained toward God and each other. Adam said to God, ‘the woman you put here with me she gave me some and I ate it. And I am a victim.” Eve said to God, ‘the serpent deceived me. I am a victim.” Adam and Eve complained toward God and each other.

Our eyes are very dark and negative since then. We see weaknesses of each other. We see the weaknesses of ministry. We see all negative side of each other. And we complain and we fall into sorrow and we condemn each other. We shouldn’t do that. 

Let’s come to Jesus and ask him and beg him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Open my eyes toward your great love, your unlimited love on the cross, and open my eyes to see good things of others and good things of the ministries and be very thankful toward each other. Can we do so? (Amen!) Ultimately Jesus healed our inner dark and negative thoughts with his sacrifice on the cross. We should remember his love and his resurrection and breaking the power of sin and death and come to him believing his willingness to heal us. We also need to believe he is praying for us. After risen he is sitting at the right throne of God, and he is praying for us. And he is willing to cleanse us from all our sins, elements of death, and all our dark and negative thoughts. Praise God! 

One word: I am willing.