We Are Culturally Located
Where we grow up effects how we read the Bible. The culture that we live in shapes how we understand the Bible. Scholar Craig Keener says, “Assumptions about reality are often culturally formed.” Our beliefs about God, Jesus, mankind, creation, the afterlife, and the Bible are influenced, though not determined, by the values and assumptions of the society, and even the families, that we grow up in. This doesn’t mean that truth is relative. It simply means that the assumptions we bring to the table vary from culture to culture. For example, the game of soccer doesn’t change. It’s the same game everywhere in the world. But different cultures and countries view it and understand its importance differently.
Homosexuality and the United Methodist Church
This principle was illustrated this past week in a more serious way. The United Methodist Church (UMC) held its General Conference in St. Louis last week. The primary issue up for discussion was whether or not they should change their governing documents in order to allow the ordaining of practicing homosexuals to be pastors and whether churches could host or perform same-sex unions. The UMC is made up of churches in America, Africa, the Philippines, and other countries. I found it interesting, though not surprising, that the majority of the delegates from American churches wanted to allow and affirm homosexuality, while the majority of the delegates from Africa did not want to make the change.
What I see as an answer to prayer and God’s mercy on their denomination, the Traditional Plan – the plan to continue to affirm that the homosexual lifestyle is unbiblical, won the day. This was largely due to the overwhelming support of the African churches. An AP report said, “The strong showing for the Traditional Plan reflects the fact that the UMC, unlike other mainstream Protestant churches in the U.S., is a global denomination. About 43 percent of the delegates in St. Louis are from abroad, mostly from Africa, and overwhelmingly support the LGBT bans. ‘We Africans are not children in need of Western enlightenment when it comes to the church’s sexual ethics,” the Rev. Jerry Kulah, dean at a Methodist theology school in Liberia, said in a speech over the weekend. ‘We stand with the global church, not a culturally liberal church elite in the U.S.’” One delegate from the African country of Congo was asked why he thought that the Traditional Plan should prevail. He said, “Simple reason, because the Bible says a man must be married to a woman.”
Why is the UMC divided on this issue mainly along cultural lines? Because the cultures that we live in exert tremendous power in shaping what we believe. The Church in the West, in large measure, denies the authority of the Bible because Western culture exalts humanity over God, reason over faith, independence over authority, and science over religion. The Church in the Global South and East, in large measure, affirms the authority of the Bible because their worldview allows them to believe in God and the supernatural. “Assumptions about reality are often culturally formed.”
No Miracles in the West
This applies to the issue of human sexuality, but it also applies to the more foundational issue of the supernatural and the possibility of miracles. Western culture, in general, denies the possibility of miracles. The majority of the world (and the majority of human history), does not. Why does the Western world reject the supernatural? Because of the prevailing worldview in the West. The prevailing worldview in Europe and the United States is called naturalism. The main idea of naturalism is that nothing exists outside the natural, or material, world. Everything that happens in the world can be explained by and through natural causes.
By the way, the only thing required to prove that naturalism is false is to find one thing that cannot be explained by nature. C. S. Lewis, and others, have proposed that the existence of reason refutes naturalism. If there are laws of logic and reason that we use to explain things, then these laws came from somewhere. Did they come from the biological and chemical processes of nature? Or did they come from outside nature, perhaps from a Mind who thinks and reasons and made us in his image? Our ability to reason requires something outside the box of nature, thus naturalism is false.
No Christianity without Miracles
Naturalism is what leads many to assume that miracles are impossible. But if miracles are impossible then Christianity is impossible. Christianity depends upon the supernatural. Without miracles, all we’re left with is a Jewish teacher of morals and ethics who died for no apparent reason. This is the religion of Thomas Jefferson, not the religion of the Bible. Biblical religion is supernatural religion.
The Bible says that there’s a God who is Spirit and who’s always existed, who created the universe out of nothing, who made mankind out of the dirt, who sent a flood over the whole earth, who parted the Red Sea, who wrote his law with his finger on stone tablets, who sent food from heaven, who made water come out of a rock, who stopped the Jordan River, who made the sun stand still in the sky, who sent down fire from heaven when Elijah prayed, who raised the dead and healed lepers through Elisha, who sent his Son Jesus to be born of a virgin, cast out demons, heal the sick, raise the dead, be crucified unjustly only to be raised from the dead on the third day, who took Jesus back to heaven, who sent down the Holy Spirit with tongues of fire, and who enabled the first followers of Jesus to heal the sick and cast out demons just like Jesus did, who’ll one day send Jesus back to earth riding a white horse in order to save his people and defeat his enemies with a simple word from his mouth. On that day, the dead in Christ will be raised first and those still alive will meet Jesus in the air. They’ll be given new bodies and live in a new world.
If miracles aren’t possible, then the story of the Bible is false and the gospel of Jesus Christ is a scam. As Paul says, “If Christ has not been raised, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins and those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Cor. 15:17-19). If miracles aren’t possible, people should feel sorry for us.
Miracles and Redemptive History
There are miracles throughout the Bible, but most of them are clustered around three main time periods: Moses and the exodus, the ministry of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, and the ministry of Jesus. God sent signs and wonders at certain points in redemptive history in order to authenticate his revelation, to prove that his Word could be trusted. Israel needed to trust that God would deliver them from Egypt, so he sent plagues. When Israel was tempted to follow Baal instead of Yahweh, God did remarkable signs and wonders through Elijah and Elisha. And at the high point of God’s revelation of himself in Jesus, Jesus’ ministry was filled with miracles. God wanted to make it clear that he was acting and working in and through Jesus. Jesus said, “The very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me” (Jn. 5:36).
Miracles Reveal the Kingdom
Jesus’ miracles show us that God was up to something big in him. They prove that the kingdom of God had truly arrived with him. They also reveal what life in his kingdom looks like. Jesus revealed the kingdom of God that he preached through miracles. In God’s kingdom, there’s no evil, no demons, no sickness, no disease, and no death.
Jesus came to tell people that the kingdom of God had arrived with him and he proved that he wasn’t a liar by doing things unexplainable by natural causes. Jesus’ preaching was primary, but his preaching ministry was complemented by miracles.
Jesus Meets a Leper
The Gospel of Mark is full of accounts of Jesus’ miracles. Scholars estimate that 31% of the verses in Mark involve miracles in some way. Our text this morning is considered one of the most moving accounts of a miracle of Jesus (Mk. 1:40-45).
What makes this account so moving? Because of what it meant to be a leper in Jesus’ day. In the ancient world, there were seventy-two distinct diseases of the skin that fell under the broad term “leprosy.” Mark doesn’t tell us which one this man had. Perhaps it was what we call Hansen’s disease, the worst form of leprosy. Regardless of what form of leprosy this man had, the consequences for his life were tragic for people in those days.
God gave Moses laws about leprosy in Leviticus 13 and 14. If you were a Jew in the ancient world and you woke up one morning with something unusual on your skin, your heart would fill with terror. You were required to go to the priest, who would use God’s word to determine whether the outbreak on your skin was leprous or not. If it was leprous, not only did you face a physical malady that you’d probably have for the rest of your life, you were also faced with the worst possible scenario with respect to your home, family, community, and worship at the temple. If you were declared leprous, you were considered unclean, not just unwell. Because there was no cure for leprosy, and in order to prevent your disease from spreading to others, you were required to live separate from everyone you knew and loved. You couldn’t go to the temple or even enter Jerusalem. You had to live alone, apart from your family and friends. You were separated from all the blessings of common life, consigned to a living death. You were not allowed within fifty paces of another person. If someone was approaching you, you had to call out, “Unclean, unclean.” Lepers were the ultimate pariah, or outsider, in Israel.
This man had been examined by the priest and the verdict was leprosy. So he’d left his home, his wife, children, and friends and lived as a homeless man. Somehow he’d heard that Jesus was in the neighborhood, so he broke the law of Moses and ran up to him, begging him for mercy. Verse 40, “If you will, you can make me clean.”
The man wasn’t expressing doubt that Jesus could heal him when he said “If you will.” This was ordinary politeness, like saying, “If you would be so kind.” What’s clear is the man’s unquestioning assumption that Jesus can heal him, “you can make me clean.” This is remarkable because it was believed that leprosy was incurable, akin to raising the dead. But this man had heard the reports of Jesus’ authority and correctly assumed that his leprosy fell under the authority of Jesus. He believed that this miracle-working preacher could do something that no one else could do. Notice also that he asked to be cleansed, not just healed. He longed to be free from the stigma and isolation and rejection of leprosy, not just the disease.
Jesus Heals the Leper
Verse 41 says that Jesus healed this leper with a simple touch. Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, broke the law of Moses by touching a leper. A non-leper was not allowed to touch a leper. But Jesus touched him. This foreshadows the controversies that Jesus will soon have with the religious leaders about the ceremonial law (3:6). Mark shows us that Jesus is Lord of the law, that he has the authority to set it aside for his own redemptive purposes.
Have you ever come to an intersection where there was an accident and a police officer was waving people through? The light might be red, but if the officer is waving you through, you can ignore the light and drive through. Why? Because the officer’s presence supersedes the written law, so you have to obey the one who embodies the law rather than the law. In the same way, Jesus is the embodiment of the law and the enforcer of the law. If he says we can drive through the intersection when the light is red, we can. Jesus here again demonstrates his authority over the law as the One who wrote the law.
The Law Cannot Heal
The law could not heal this man. It could only condemn him and declare him unclean. It could do nothing to save him. But Jesus did what the law was powerless to do. The law shows us our sin but gives us no power to get rid of it.
Paul says in Romans 8:3-4, “God has done what the law…could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Keeping all the rules doesn’t make us right with God. Jesus came, kept all the rules – fulfilling perfectly the spirit, not the letter, of the law, died on the cross for people who’ve broken all the rules, in order that everyone who trusts in him and turns from their sins might receive his righteousness in the presence of God.
Jesus Does What the Law Cannot Do
Out of compassion, Jesus does for us what the law cannot do, just like he did for this man. Verse 41 says that Jesus was “moved with pity,” or “filled with compassion” (NIV), and “stretched out his hand and touched him.” When Jesus saw this man’s condition and heard his plea for help, his heart welled up with compassion. To voluntarily touch a leper was unheard of in that day. No one would even consider such a thing. But Jesus did so without hesitation. By touching him, Jesus was saying to him, “I’m prepared to become what you are – a man under the judgment of the law – in order to share with you what I have – freedom and life.”
Touching this man should’ve made Jesus unclean, but it worked in the opposite direction. Instead of the man’s uncleanness coming on Jesus, Jesus’ cleanness came on this man. Jesus’ purity is stronger than any impurity. Jesus’ power is stronger than any disease. And Jesus’ compassion is greater than any social taboo.
This is what happens when we come to him, confess our condition to him, and ask for his touch. He takes what we have and we get what he has. He takes our sin and we get his purity. No sin you bring to Jesus is stronger than his ability to forgive, cleanse, and restore. When we come to him in faith, his heart swells with compassion, his hand stretches out, and he says, “I will; be clean.”
This is the miracle of the gospel. In an inexplicable way, the holy and pure God takes our sin without becoming sinful and makes us righteous without losing any of his righteousness. The naturalist who doesn’t believe in miracles is stuck trying to remove their sins and make themselves clean. How is this even possible? How can we remove from the ledger things already done? How could good things cancel out bad things? How would we know if we’ve done enough good things? How can we ensure that we won’t do anything in the future that we can’t undo?
What is the naturalist supposed to do with their guilt? Not just regret, but the universal experience of actually feeling bad about things we’ve done? How can nature remove these feelings? Only a miracle-working Savior can take away our guilt and clear our conscience. Only his word is powerful enough to heal our uncleanness. Just as Jesus healed this man of an incurable skin disease with a simple word, so he miraculously heals us of our incurable sin disease with a simple word, “I will; be clean.” Only the one who believes in the possibility of miracles can live in the freedom and joy of being forgiven by God.
The Disobedient Evangelist
When the miracle of conversion happens and someone really puts their trust in Jesus, there’ll always be visible, and even immediate, results. This is what happened to the leper. Verse 42 said that he was made clean immediately. Then in verses 43-45, Jesus tells him not to talk about what happened, except to tell the priest.
Verse 44 lets us know that Jesus wanted to uphold the law when it was in the person’s best interest. He wanted the man to be formally recognized as clean by the priest so that he could enter back into society. This is yet another part of Jesus’ grace toward this man. He healed him and restored him to his community.
Verse 45 says that the man couldn’t contain himself. He became a disobedient evangelist! Why would Jesus tell him to remain silent? The reason is pragmatic and theological. Verse 45 tells us that the publicity from this man’s healing created a problem for Jesus. He could longer openly enter towns and was confined to minister in “desolate places.” If this leper told every other leper what’d happened to him, Jesus would be swarmed with lepers, taking him away from his main mission, proclaiming the kingdom of God.
But he also told him to be silent because he knew that people completely misunderstood his mission. Jesus knew that people were waiting on a champion to rescue them from the Romans, not on a Suffering Servant who’d rescue them from their sins. Jesus wanted to avoid theological misunderstanding of who he was and he wanted to carry out his ministry with as much freedom from the crowds as possible, so he charged this man to keep silent.
We No Longer Have to Be Silent
Now that Jesus has died on the cross, risen from the dead, and been exalted to the Father’s right hand, his followers no longer have to keep his identity or his mission a secret. We’re charged to proclaim his message to all the nations. Let’s pray that more would come to him, not just to be released from their physical pain, but to hear his message, the message of his kingdom coming into the world, the message of him identifying with us in our sin and bearing the judgement of the law against us, so that we may have what he has and live with him where he is.
The miracles of Jesus aren’t an embarrassing part of our faith. As one scholar says, “They are testimony to the compassion of God for human beings benighted by sin and circumstance.” Jesus’ healing of this leper shows us that the kingdom of God has come near, that life in his kingdom is free from disease, isolation, and rejection, and that he is full of compassion for all who come to him.