“Spread the News!”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. During the Epiphany season, the Gospel Readings focus on miracles that
Jesus performed: driving out demons; healing St. Peter’s mother-in-law from a
fever, and many other healings; and in today’s Gospel Reading, cleansing a man
from leprosy. There is an interesting comment included in the Gospel of
John about the miracles of Jesus: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the
presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.” So, we
are told that the Gospel writers were selective about which miracles of our Lord
they report. Matthew in his Gospel gives us some idea of the immense number of
miracles Jesus must have performed: “Jesus went through all the towns and
villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the Good News of the kingdom,
and healing every disease and sickness. . . Great crowds came to him,
bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid
them at his feet, and he healed them.” So, it seems that only a fraction
of the miracles Jesus performed are actually recorded in detail in the Gospels. Why were the Gospel writers so selective about which miracles of our
Lord they included? In ancient times books were written on continuous
scrolls, usually made out of papyrus, a paper produced from a reedy plant.
There was simply a practical limit to how long such a scroll could be. The
typical scroll on which ancient biographies were written was around 30 feet
long, about up to the peak of our Sanctuary ceiling. Much beyond that and
you would have to make the book two scrolls, which would double the cost, and
make it much more cumbersome to use and to carry, and therefore more difficult
to circulate widely. Although the four Gospels which tell the life of Christ vary in length,
it’s probably no accident that each one will fit onto one ancient scroll.
Because, if you really wanted something to spread and become well-known,
practically speaking, it had to be limited to one scroll. John in his
Gospel probably alludes to this when tells us why the Gospel writers found it
necessary to be selective in what they reported: “Jesus did many other things as
well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the whole world
would have room for the books that would be written.” Because the Gospel writers were selective about which miracles of our
Lord they report, when a particular miracle is included, especially in more than
one Gospel, that makes us ask, “Why?” The healing of a man with leprosy
recorded in today’s Gospel Reading from Mark also occurs in the Gospels of
Matthew and Luke. Out of all the healing miracles Jesus performed, why is
this particular miracle included by three out of the four Gospel writers? “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you
are willing, you can make me clean.’” In the ancient world leprosy was
considered the worst possible disease, because it was a slow, painful, living
death. And, because it was highly contagious, until recently those
afflicted with leprosy usually were forced to isolate themselves from their
families and society for the rest of their lives, in lepers’ colonies, perhaps
the most famous on a remote island in Hawaii. It seems Naaman in today’s
Old Testament Reading was an exception to this usual enforced isolation,
probably because he was such a valuable general. Only very recently, with the advent of modern antibiotics, could this
dread disease be successfully treated. Before that, for thousands of years
leprosy had been considered the worst of diseases, a completely incurable
affliction of living death. That’s why in today’s Old Testament Reading
when the king of Israel thinks he is being asked to cure Naaman’s leprosy he
tears his robes in despair and cries out, “Am I God?” And that is also why
this particular miracle is included in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
Because, the astounding power Jesus possessed to cure even leprosy demonstrates
in the most dramatic way that he is God. “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you
are willing, you can make me clean.’ Filled with compassion, Jesus reached
out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be clean!’”
This miraculous healing of the man with leprosy also has a deep symbolic
significance for all of us. For, like him, we also come to Jesus to be
cleansed, spiritually cleansed. As one of our hymns puts it, “From infection and
uncleanness, from the leprosy of sin.” All of us were born with the spiritual infection of sin, as David says
in Psalm 51, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother
conceived me.” Humanity over the millennia has devised many different
spiritual regimens and treatments that are supposed to cure us of our
sin-sickness. But, there is nothing we can do that has the power to
cleanse our souls. Like the lepers who were isolated from their
families because of their bodily uncleanness, because of the spiritual leprosy
of sin infecting our souls we all deserve to be isolated in hell from our
heavenly Father for all eternity. I suppose the hardest part of being a doctor must be when you have to
give people the bad news of a terminal diagnosis. St. Paul gives us the
bad news in Ephesians: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and
sins.” That’s what the man afflicted with leprosy symbolizes. Like
the horrible disease he suffered in his body, we are all by nature spiritually
afflicted with a “living death,” dead in our transgressions and sins. But, Paul continues in Ephesians announcing the Good News of God’s
miracle cure for our sin-sick souls: “But because of his great love for us, God,
who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in
transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” The same Jesus who has
power to cure even leprosy has power to cleanse and cure and heal your soul.
The Apostle John puts it this way: “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from
every sin. . . He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for
ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.” “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you
are willing, you can make me clean.’ 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.” Notice that Jesus both
speaks to the man and touches him and he is cured. In the same way, Jesus
still speaks to you and he still physically touches you to cleanse you from the
leprosy of sin. Like a doctor announcing a miracle cure, the Great Physician speaks to
you in his Word, the Holy Bible, proclaiming the Good News that your sinful soul
is cured, on account of his suffering, death, and resurrection. Paul puts
it this way in Colossians: “God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in
him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things . . . by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross. . . Once you were alienated from God . . .
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body, through death, to
present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.”
Like the man miraculously healed of leprosy, so that his skin was pure and
clean, the Good News is that on account of Christ’s blood shed on the cross you
are holy in God’s sight, without blemish. Jesus not only speaks to you in his Word, but just as he cleansed the
man with leprosy by speaking to him and touching him, in the Sacraments Jesus
still physically touches you, cleansing you from the leprosy of sin. The washing of Naaman in today’s Old Testament Reading prefigures the
Sacrament of Holy Baptism. The early church father Irenaeus commented: “It
was not without meaning for us that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy,
was purified by being baptized. This served as a sign to us. For, we
are lepers in sin, who are made clean from our old transgressions in Holy
Baptism, being spiritually born again by means of the sacred water and the
invocation of the Lord.” Paul says in today’s Epistle Reading, “You were washed, you were
sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God.” Through Holy Baptism your sins are washed away, your
soul is cleansed and made pure, without blemish, worthy of heaven. Just as
Jesus cleansed the man with leprosy by touching him, Jesus still physically
touches you in Holy Baptism, cleansing you from the leprosy of sin. Just as Jesus reached out his hand to touch the man sick with leprosy,
and he was healed, today in Holy Communion you will reach out your hands and
your lips to physically touch Jesus, and be healed of your sin: “Take, eat, this
is my body . . . which is given for you . . . Drink of it, all of
you; this . . . is . . . my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of
sins.” In the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the Great Physician is
dispensing medicine for your soul, to heal you from the leprosy of sin. “A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, ‘If you
are willing, you can make me clean.’ 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.” Out of all the healing
miracles Jesus performed, why is this particular miracle included by Matthew,
Mark, and Luke? Because this miraculous healing of the man with leprosy
has a deep symbolic significance for all of us. You are like the man with
leprosy, coming to Jesus to receive his Word, to feel his healing touch in the
Sacraments, and just like him to be spiritually cleansed, “from the leprosy of
sin.” But, there is also one big difference between this man’s story and
yours: “Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: ‘See that you don’t
tell this to anyone.’” Why would Jesus sternly warn this man, wonderfully
healed of the worst and most incurable of diseases, not to tell anyone? Jesus wasn’t playing the game of reverse psychology, trying to actually
encourage the man to tell by instructing him not to. For, today’s Gospel
Reading goes on to explain the reason why Jesus really did not want the man to
tell anyone: “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.” Just before today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus says to the disciples, “Let
us go into the next towns so I can preach there also, for that is why I have
come.” But, now Jesus’ main ministry, of preaching and teaching God’s
Word, is being overwhelmed by the immense crowds of those seeking healing, to
the point where he can no longer even enter a town openly, but must stay outside
in lonely places. That is why Jesus warns the man healed of leprosy not to
tell anyone. The big difference between his healing and yours is that this
prohibition is no longer in place. In fact, Jesus now commands the
opposite: “Repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in [my] name to
all nations”; “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them
to obey everything I have commanded you.” So, the big difference is that unlike the man miraculously cleansed of
leprosy, Jesus does not want you to keep it to yourself. He wants you to
share the Good News of your miraculous cleansing, your miraculous healing “from
the leprosy of sin.” He wants you to invite others to also be healed and receive
from Jesus this same cleansing. “He went out and began to talk
freely, spreading the news.” Like the man healed of leprosy, go and tell,
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