Arbor Dale Presbyterian Church

MMQB 2/13 2012

Since most people missed church yesterday, I will simply post this sermon on healing from Mark 1:40-45 with an introduction from 2 Kings 5.

Typical Introduction
When I begin my sermons I typically use a story or illustration to try to draw you in. I try to introduce the topic or the passage in a way that is accessible, interesting, and maybe even humorous. The assumption is that by taking something from everyday life I can take a hold of your imagination or curiosity or a need and then lead you to the truth, to life and hope by leading you to Jesus, his Father and their Spirit.

Today’s Introduction
Today I want to use one of the great stories of the Old Testament to introduce the theme of healing. Then I want to run into the story of Jesus we just read. The hope is that we might see what Naaman and the unnamed man from Mark see.
In 2 Kings Chapter 5 we find the ‘story of Naaman.’ This is for my money one of the best stories in the whole Bible. The story begins by introducing Naaman. He is a general in the Syrian army. He a great man of valor and might. He is highly favored by his master. He is someone that the Lord God of Israel has used to bring victory for the people of Syria. But Naaman has leprosy.

This doesn’t appear to be the kind of leprosy that is totally disfiguring. Or at the least, his leprosy hasn’t yet advanced to that stage. Either way it is a stigma. It was a disease in all its forms that cut people off from a full life with others. From an Israelite’s perspective these details add up to a clear picture. Naaman was gentile, a general in the enemy’s army, and a sinner. He is an outsider and out side the Lord’s favor even if he is a tool of the Lord.

Despite all that a young Israelite girl who has been captured by Naaman’s army suggests that if only he could see the prophet in Samaria, then he could be healed. The fact that Naaman jumps on this suggestion reveals how desperate he is. Naaman is so desperate that he is willing to travel to a weak country whose God hasn’t been strong enough to protect his own people. Naaman is so desperate that he packs up a huge treasure so that he can buy his way to health from a prophet he doesn’t know.

When Naaman arrives he goes to the King of Israel who doesn’t know how to heal him. The king knows one thing: “That God alone has the power to kill and heal.” Elisha the prophet knows this too. As a result, he isn’t worried by Naaman’s presence nor is he impressed by his power and wealth. Elisha simply trusts that the Lord God can heal Naaman. If the Lord is willing and Naaman is willing to humble himself and wash in the Jordan 7 times then the Lord might heal.

After some convincing, Naaman is willing. And so, he goes down. He goes down from the foot hills of Samaria to the low point-geographically of Israel. He goes down into the muddy waters of a season creek and washes himself. He goes down on his knees and comes up clean. He comes up like a child of God who has been healed in his heart and body. Because he is humble he is healed. Because God heals him discovers his place in God’s world. He says, “ Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel.”
Mark’s Other Child
In Mark another leper discovers the same thing, that he too is a child of God, an object of the Lord’s affection, a person with a place in God’s world and work. Mark begins with a humble leper and tells it this way.
Jesus has left Capernaum. He has come out from the city and the crowd’s expectations. He has gone to preach in the villages of that region. While he preaching and healing and travelling between villages a man comes toward Jesus and his entourage. He comes and cries out going down onto his knees and asking ‘if Jesus your willing you can heal because you are powerful and able.”
“If you are willing.” The words hang there, stop the action, the raise the possibility of the impossible. They suggest that the one God who can kill and bring to life might just do something drastic, powerful, and life giving. There is for this man no question of ability. He knows Jesus can do this. The only question is about willing; “Does God will for that man, at that moment, in that place to be healed?”
The answer from Jesus is “I am willing.” Jesus is willing to heal. He is willing to reach out his hand and give life. He is willing to touch the unclean man who was an outcast and considered a sinner. Jesus is willing to bring this man back to life, back to his family and community, back to whatever he was doing before hearing the L word. He was willing to bring him back among the people through whom God promised to work out his will and bring salvation to the world. He was willing to touch the man and become uncle. He is willing to reach out his hand and heal so that that man who was unclean might become clean, like a child without blemish.

Seeing Jesus and the Will of God
When you hear that story I want you to see that Jesus is willing. Jesus is able to kill and give life because he is God with God. He is able and he is willing and so he uses his power in love to give life. Jesus is willing to send this man back to his old life in a new way. He is willing and so he reaches out his hand to restore this man to his family and friends, his work and life and world and hopes and dreams. Jesus reaches out his hand and he man who was an outcast sees that he is a child of God.
Just as Jesus was willing at that moment and with that man in that place, Jesus is still willing to heal. How do we know that? In John’s gospel Jesus says “I have come that they might have life and have it to the full.” Jesus lives and dies so that we might have life and have it to the full. In doing so he reaches out his hand and touches all humanity. The one who knew no sin reaches out his hand and touches us. In doing so becomes sin so that we might become the righteous children of God. In his life, death and resurrection Jesus shows us again and again that he is willing. No matter how sinful we are, no matter how scared we are, no matter how isolated or deflated, confused or crushed he is willing.
Therefore, we can call out. We can get down on our knees like Naaman. We can humble ourselves by recognizing our need. We can like the leper from Mark cry out to that same Jesus.
We can cry out for healing
in our bodies,

in our hearts,

in our relationships,

in our community,

in marrriages,

friendships,
in institutions and governments.
We can cry out loudly. We can cry out specifically. We can cry out for big hopes and little troubles. We can do this because Jesus is willing. He is reaching out his hand, holding out his love and willing to lift you up so that you too can become a child of God.

Reasons for Holding Back
That would be a nice place to stop today wouldn’t it. Look at what we have done. I have told you two good stories. I have connected those stories from the past to Jesus’ willingness to heal us now because he has healed the human condition from the inside out through his life, death and resurrection. It would be nice to stop there with that invitation to cry out. But the truth of the matter is that we need to stop and consider this more deeply.
One way to do that is to ask why we don’t cry out. Why don’t we cry out to Jesus falling on our knees waiting for his healing power to touch us and those we love, to bless our friends and or enemies?

Our problem could be Naaman’s, we are just too proud. We might be up for a bargain, a trial or great task that would let us earn our healing, but to simply ask and be given what we can’t get for ourselves requires us to recognize that we are weak, broken and simply unable to give life. Pride tells us that I can figure a way out. It suggests again and again, despite the evidence, that things will just get better if I keep my head down and plow on. An overdeveloped sense of my ability keeps me from recognizing God’s power and willingness to heal. Pride keeps our mouths shut.

There is no room for pride in a life of Grace. And that is the kind of life that Jesus gives, one where we have access to the FAther in the power of the Spirit through his goodness and not ours. Life with and in Jesus isn’t and hasn’t ever been about how good you are. It is always about God’s goodness healing our brokenness so that we can live the kind of good life he created us for.

That means we can cry out despite our sin and despite our pride, despite what other people might think. Pride keeps us from thinking that we are like that leper. It keeps us from crying out because of what other people think. It keeps us shut up in ourselves and cut of from God as well as his people.

Another problem is fear. What if I pray big and Jesus doesn’t heal me? Does that mean that he doesn’t love me?

We have to face this possibility. It might not be God’s will to heal a certain habit or hurt here and now.

Nevertheless God will bring healing. He will wipe away our tears, death will be no more and all the consequences of sin will be overcome by God’s redeeming love. That is the promise of heaven. That is the promise we rest in when we confess each week that we believe that Jesus will come to judge the quick and the dead; that he will come back to judge and set things right through his love and power and will.

And so now, we cry out. We live in hope. We know the will of God revealed in Jesus and so we ask that he would be kind, would be quick and would be gentle.

One more reason. I think we often fail to cry out because we don’t know how to pray and don’t know how to pray through the complexity of our lives. That is a fancy way of saying we are overwhelmed. We feel to caught up in a web of hurt or a system of frustration that we don’t know how to pray. We don’t know where to start.

I have two suggestions when you find your self in this place. The first is to combine a simple cry for help with the Lord’s prayer. Start with a primal scream, move the prayer that Jesus gave us so we can learn to pray and then keep going. List you needs. Shout out through your confusion. Pray a Psalm like 13 that inlcudes the line: “Look on me and answer, O LORD my God. give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death.

The second suggestion is talk to God and talk to a person you can trust. Go to a friend who you know loves you and Jesus. Go and ask them to listen and tell you what they are hearing. Go and ask them cry out with you.

When we begin to share life in this way before God in the connection of his Spirit get a bigger vision. A bigger vision for how God brings healing and for the ways people live in faith when healing doesn’t take the form they would prefer.

At the end of both of our stories for today the person healed confesses the power and goodness of the Lord. There is joy that follows the suffering. Like the resurrection follows the cross there is uncontainable joy when God heals. With the expectation and hope of that kind of new life joy, let us cry out to the Lord who heals us.