This is one of the most moving scenes recorded in the Gospel of Mark. A poor man covered in leprosy—an outcast from society, ceremonially unclean, separated from human contact and deemed untouchable—kneels at the feet of Jesus, declaring with confident hope and faith, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
What Jesus did in response was unthinkable in the ancient Jewish culture: He touched the untouchable! Jesus, filled with compassion, reached out his hand and touched that poor leprous man, declaring, “I am willing. Be clean!” The disease-ridden leper was immediately healed and made clean and whole!
What an amazing analogy to the redeeming power of our Savior, who compassionately reaches out and touches our sinful selves, making us morally clean and completely forgiven by God forever!
Read the full sermon transcript below!
We return this morning to our series of sermons from the New Testament Gospel of Mark. In recent sermons from Mark’s historical record of the blessed life and mighty works of our Lord, we have seen a constant theme. Mark emphasizes the complete authority of Jesus, thus establishing the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, sent by God to save his people from their sin, to redeem the world, and to reign over his kingdom forever and ever without end!
From this opening chapter, Mark has shown Jesus’ complete authority over all knowledge, over demons and the spiritual realm, over the world and the physical realm, over sickness and disease, and over the hearts of men and women.
Here, now, in Mark 1:40-45, we reach one of the most moving scenes recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is the story of a man covered in leprosy—an outcast from society, separated from his neighbors and community, not even allowed to enter the temple and worship God because of the strict separation of lepers from society imposed by the Old Testament Law of Moses.
Lepers were literally the untouchables of society, because if someone touched a leper, he himself—according to the ceremonial laws—became ceremonially unclean. But here we find that poor, despised, rejected, isolated man, trembling before Jesus and saying, “If you will, you can make me clean.”
Jesus did the unthinkable: He touched the untouchable. The perfectly sinless and undefiled Son of God touched that defiled man and made him whole. It is the perfect picture of how Jesus reaches out to defiled sinners—like you and me—and makes us whole. He forgives sinners of their sin; he cleanses the morally defiled; he draws near to us and does away with our former separation from God.
The encounter we will learn about this morning reveals not only the authority of our Messiah but also his heart. He is sovereign in power yet compassionate toward the lowly. He is holy and separated from sin, yet merciful enough to touch the sinner, cleansing him of defilement and making him holy. He is loving enough to touch the otherwise untouchable. Let’s learn about Jesus’ authority to cleanse us from defilement and make us pure and whole.
The Encounter
Let us begin our discussion focusing first on the encounter between our Lord and that poor leprous man. The very first verse of this present passage opens with a statement that is simple yet very profound (v. 40): A man with leprosy came to him. “So,” you might ask, “what’s so amazing about that? Was there something unusual there?” The answer is “yes,” very unusual. People with leprosy did not approach other people who did not have it. It was forbidden by law!
Leprosy is a term used in the Bible to describe several skin disorders of varying degrees of seriousness. This man must have had a very severe form of the disease, because in his gospel account, Luke, a professional physician, describes him as “full of leprosy.”
The more serious forms of leprosy were intensely horrible and still are. There could be permanent damage to the respiratory tract, the skin, and the nervous system. Tissue on body extremities could lose circulation and die. Leprosy consigned people to a slow death and a miserable life.
In Bible times, there was no cure for this disease, so lepers had to be quarantined. They lived in separate communities and were not allowed into cities, towns, or villages, as a matter of protecting public health. In Old Testament law, they were ceremonially unclean, unable to come to the temple and participate in its ceremonial worship of God. A person with leprosy was to wear torn clothing and let his hair hang loose, so he would be identifiable. If anyone came into his vicinity, he was to warn them that contact with him was dangerous. The leper was to cover his upper lip and cry, “Unclean! Unclean!” Furthermore, the law explicitly stated: He shall remain unclean as long as he has this disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
People in leper colonies were about as alone and as separated as people can be. They were separated from society, socially unacceptable, and religiously unacceptable. They had virtually no human contact except other diseased lepers. If they survived, it was only because someone had enough mercy to provide them with a little food. Lepers, for all practical purposes, had nothing. No health. No family. No friends. No normal home. No work. No hope. Nothing.
But the man in our biblical narrative was an exception, wasn’t he? He had something. He had hope. He had one hope, and it was Jesus. And he had something else: faith. He believed Jesus’ testimony and knew that Jesus was able to heal him of his dreadful disease if he were willing. This man with leprosy came to Jesus and knelt on his knees with his face to the ground. With full confidence in the Savior, he pleaded, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
That this man came into a city, where people were, was itself quite amazing; he could have been killed. His presence and appearance in his advanced condition—“full of leprosy”—naturally would be repulsive and horrifying to the people of the town. You can almost imagine people pulling back from this contagious man, mouths and eyes wide open in revulsion and fear.
But Jesus, the epitome of compassion, was different. Unlike others in the city, Jesus did the unthinkable (vv. 41-42): Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately, the leprosy left him, and he was cured.
Today, we have medical treatment for leprosy, even the most terrible form of it, called Hansen’s disease. With early diagnosis and treatment and a combination of antibiotics and other drugs, Hansen’s disease can be completely cured in most cases.
Praise God for giving mankind such wonderful knowledge and skill! But, even today, the treatment usually takes 6 months to a year. Notice Mark’s emphasis on the time factor of this man’s healing once he was touched by the power of Jesus (v. 42): Immediately, the leprosy left him, and he was cured.
There are a couple of lessons we might do well to focus upon regarding this man and the Savior Jesus. First, notice the manner in which this man came to Jesus. There were a lot of people who approached Jesus in his ministry, and many of them came proudly. For example, the Jewish religious leaders, the rulers and governors, the wealthy who felt self-sufficient, and others. They usually strutted right up to Jesus, full of judgment and criticism toward him, but sensing little if any of their own faults. Folks, no one struts into heaven. He makes his way there by a life lived on his knees.
This man came to Jesus with the kind of contrite attitude and humble assessment of himself that God honors, as James wrote: God resists the proud but draws near to the humble. This man did not approach Jesus, trying to convince him how good he was, for he knew he wasn’t. God has no interest in hearing us trying to convince him how good we are; he requires that we recognize what foul sinners we are and expects us to acknowledge how great he is.
This man was an outcast, and he knew it. He was defiled, and by law was to be shunned and avoided. He was separated from society, and in the eyes of his community, was worthless and no good. He was just the kind of man Jesus came to love and to save. He was the kind of man our heavenly Father desires to adopt into his family of sons and daughters redeemed by Jesus. He was the kind of man we all must be if we will have any part with God.
We all must realize our moral unworthiness. We must recognize that we are sinners who, by nature and by choice, have flagrantly violated God’s holy law and rightly deserve his wrathful displeasure. Until then, we remain like that leper—separated from God.
Isaiah the prophet, in speaking of Israel in his day, inferentially describes the condition of every person who refuses to confess his sin and receive God’s forgiving pardon (59:1-3): 1 Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. 2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. 3 For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.
There we are! Each of us. Is there any among us who will dare say he has known no sin? We are of ourselves altogether unrighteous. So, what are we to do? We must, like that foul, leprous man, cast ourselves onto our knees at the feet of Jesus, seeking his forgiveness and trusting by faith that he is willing to make us clean.
Then God, through Jesus our Savior, will touch our morally diseased souls and say, “I am willing. Be clean!” And immediately, we are healed and made whole, pardoned and forgiven, with all the condemnation of our sinful guilt taken away. Our cosmic moral crimes against the great Judge of Heaven and Earth are, as it were, expunged by him. Gone forever as if they never happened. And our place in God’s forever family is secured by the Holy Spirit with a seal no one can break. But before we can be forgiven, pardoned, and made whole, we first must realize and be able to say, “The leprous one is me! Make me clean!”
The Merciful Heart of Our Savior
We have considered the manner in which that leprous man came to Jesus; now let us consider the merciful heart of our Lord and Savior. We touched upon this, but let us return to say some more about it. What went through Jesus’ mind when he saw that poor man on his knees, acknowledging his helpless and pitiable self?
Mark explains it in verse 41, surely one of the most tender verses in all of Scripture. Mark says that Jesus was filled with compassion. The original language points to the inner movements of Jesus’ loving heart when it says, literally, that he was moved in his inward parts—moved to compassion from within.
Jesus was moved with pity for that man—a very real pity, surely not mere sympathy but empathy. Empathy means to feel, to share in, the feelings and experience of another. Jesus shared this man’s feeling of great sorrow and painful hurt. Jesus knew what it was to be in this man’s place in the eyes of the world. How is that so?
Do you remember how Isaiah, some six or seven hundred years prior to Jesus’ coming into the world, described what most of society would think of him? Many of you are familiar with those poignant words of God through Isaiah describing his own Son who, because of his great love, was sent into the world to save and redeem us (53:3-6, NIV):
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Why are the grace and mercy of Jesus so intense? Because he knew all about suffering. He knew about rejection, slander, hatred. He was well acquainted with grief, sorrow, and mourning. He empathizes and relates to us in our pitiable condition.
The New Testament writer to the Hebrews says it well, and furthermore also describes how that Jesus’ sympathy with the human condition should give us confidence (4:15-16): 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
We can approach our great high priest and mighty king with confidence that he is able and willing to make us clean. And when the King says, “Be clean,” nothing can resist his word, like that defiling leprosy that immediately disappeared from the afflicted man at the mere word of our mighty Savior. Nothing can resist his word—not sin, not shame, not the past.
When he forgives, forgiveness is total. When he saves, salvation is complete. Because he declares that nothing can snatch you from his hand, your security is uncompromisable. When he loves, you are totally loved. His grace is irresistible; his mercy crosses every bound and overcomes every obstacle; his goodness and kindness are toward all who will receive it; his love is without end and knows no bounds regarding his dear, beloved, redeemed sheep.
Are you a partaker of all the benefits that Christ gives to his beloved redeemed? If not, would you like to be? Perhaps you feel unworthy of the Savior’s touch—too stained, too far gone, too ashamed, too defiled and corrupted. But know this: the saving, healing power of Jesus has no bounds. His grace is not limited. His arm reaches even the most distant soul that calls upon him. The hand that touched the leper is still extended to sinners today.
No soul is beyond his salvation. No sin is beyond his cleansing. No defilement is too deep. No moral corruption is too far gone. No life is too messed up. Jesus doesn’t shrink back from your messed-up life. He enters your life and renews it. The Bible says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
No Cheap Grace
We have spent most of this sermon discussing our Savior’s compassion, love, mercy, and saving grace. It is right that we do so, because the story isn’t so much about the leper as the one whose grace made him whole. God’s grace—his loving favor toward undeserving human beings—is amazing indeed. But one thing we need to understand is that there is no cheap grace.
A few years ago, a controversy emerged about the relation of grace and obedience. There were those who insisted that once we are partakers of God’s salvation, we can pretty much live as we please because once God forgives us, why bother anymore with obedience? That view was often identified by a coined word—cheap grace.
The other belief was the right one. It is true that once we are partakers of God’s salvation and have been by God declared justified, nothing can undo that. That is true. But the one who has been truly converted will have a deep appreciation for God’s valuable grace that will motivate him to live in obedience to God out of deep appreciation.
This view recognizes that God’s grace commands our obedience. In our passage this morning, we see it. Jesus graciously cleansed the man immediately and completely. And then he insisted that the man comply with the ceremonial laws of the day (vv. 43-44): Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
When a person was healed of leprosy, the ceremonial law required that he go to the priests. After being examined by them, if pronounced clean, the restored person was to offer sacrifices that included two clean birds, water and blood and sprinkling with dipped cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet cloth. The ceremonial cleansing of the person was confirmed by his being sprinkled with water and the blood of one of the birds, the other one being released.
Jesus obeyed the law of God, his Father, perfectly, so he rightly commanded the man obediently to comply. Interestingly, however, the man did not obey the Lord. Rather than go to the temple, report to the priests, and offer the purification sacrifices, the man did exactly what Jesus had ordered him not to do.
Jesus ordered the man to tell no one how his healing had come about, but notice what he did (v. 45): 45 Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.
This man, after receiving the remarkable mercy and grace of the Lord, went and immediately disobeyed Jesus’ command. Mark, inspired by the Holy Spirit, obviously saw some importance in recording this detail. What might his reason have been? We do not know exactly; we can at best speculate.
Perhaps it was to show us the common human condition, the flaw that affects us all. Maybe the purpose of this detail is to point out to us that none of us is perfect; no, we are all sinners by nature. That leprous man who came to Jesus for cleansing is a very accurate portrayal of us!
Conversion by God’s grace does not mean we will never sin again—O! Would that it were so! Sadly, we will never get completely over the tendency of our fallen hearts to disobey our Lord until we depart this life for the glory of heaven. But one thing is for certain, and because of it, we should rejoice before God every day. It is that God’s grace and forgiving mercy never end. He will forgive—once, and then again, and again, and again, never ceasing.
That is why grace is not cheap! In fact, it comes with no price at all—it’s free! God’s grace—given as a free gift—is the one infinitely valuable commodity you possess that is of such great worth that no price can even be attached to it.
God gives his grace to us for free! But it is by no means cheap. God’s sharing his grace with us came about through giving up the greatest and most valuable thing he has – the life of his only Son, Jesus.
Cheap grace? Imagine for a while the Son of God nailed to a cross, writhing in agony, battered and bruised in body, broken and crushed in his heart, despised and mocked by wicked men till he finally died. Imagine his lifeblood collected in a gory puddle at the foot of that horrible cross. Imagine the pain and suffering God’s Son endured so that we can be the recipients of his redeeming grace that brought the forgiveness of our sin. No, God’s grace is not cheap at all! It comes at a cost beyond any comparison and is beyond any estimable value! We receive God’s saving grace for free because his Son Jesus paid the price of our forgiveness for us. He bore the cost of our free pardon and complete healing.