Touching the Untouchable
Mark 1:40‐45
Our Lord commands us not to misuse his name in the second commandment. We are not to use his name carelessly or to wield it with a power God does not authorize us to use it for. We do not use it to condemn others or things. We are also not to use it too swear or make vain promises or take vows we intend not to keep with it. Violation of the command also occurs in churches where His name is used to teach falsely about Him. Any teacher who is a false prophet breaks this commandment and will be liable to the fires of hell, so preaching, teaching and how we pray, that is, how we conduct our public worship services have eternal consequences. But in the positive we are commanded to use God’s name to call upon it in every trouble pray, praise and give thanks. This is not an optional thing. Prayer is commanded. It is Law. It is something you are required to do. It is a discipline that disciples of Christ do. And even though you are required to do it, it does not save you.
I make this teaching point because the protestant churches of the radical reformation use prayer as a means of grace as a way of receiving forgiveness. Since they deny the objective gifts of God, his baptism, his absolution, his body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, they rely totally on their subjective ability to believe in God and this results in the aberration of the sinner’s prayer, which by the way depends on the false teaching that it is Jesus in your heart that saves you at the expense of Jesus declaring you objectively forgiven.
So if prayer does not save us why bother praying? Another way to look at it is not only must we pray but we get to pray. Our heavenly Father through his Son Jesus Christ tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear Father. We pray to him because he promises to hear us and answer our prayers. Who else can we go to in our time of trouble? “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” We pray to God because He is the one who saves us. Prayer directs us away from seeking help and comfort from things other than the Lord. In prayer we acknowledge who are help comes from and when we pray with God’s Word it actually shapes our prayers therefore it shapes our wills and conforms them to the Lord as we die to self and the new man comes forth.
This takes us to our Gospel text this morning. Jesus is on the move. He has just left Capernaum and is now preaching and casting out demons, evicting Satan and His minions throughout Galilee. Despite Jesus request that the people stop talking about his miracles and silencing the demons who wish to make his identity known, word gets out. Leprosy was a fatal disease, highly contagious, and rather nasty. Left untreated, leprosy can be progressive, causing permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Extremities can become numb or diseased as a result of secondary infections; resulting in tissue loss causing fingers and toes to become shortened and deformed, as cartilage is absorbed into the body. Lepers were considered both physically and spiritually unclean. This means that they were segregated from their families and unable to go to the temple to sacrifice. By law they had to call out to warn people who came close to them that they were lepers. No one accept another could touch a leper. They were untouchable. There was no cure for leprosy so there was no hope.
The secret of Jesus had gotten out. The Leper heard of the miraculous healings that Jesus had accomplished in Capernaum. The Leper did not stay clear of Jesus or warn him to stay away. Instead , he approached Jesus, he knelt before Jesus and implored Him, saying, “If you are willing you can make me clean.” The Leper was praying to Jesus. There was no one else he could go to but to the creator himself. The leper was calling upon Jesus in His time of trouble and tribulation as the old hymn says He was taking it to the Lord in prayer. In Jesus response we see what sort of God we have. We know that Jesus does His Father’s will. The Son’s the Father’s and the Spirit’s will are the same. He has compassion and pity on that which he has created. God is not cause of Leprosy, He did not cause evil and it’s sinful affects and damage to come into the World. The leper just because God created Him was not entitled to the healing he asked for. In fact there was no mention on His part that he thought he was deserving. He simply in desperation makes the request. Where else could he turn too but Jesus, God incarnate, standing before Him.
Jesus is willing. Jesus could have just said the Word and the leper would have been cured. He did this with the 10 Lepers but in this case Jesus, as he did with Simon’s mother‐in‐law touches him. He touches the untouchable, he cleans the unclean. The law stated that touching a Leper made you unclean. But Jesus is God’s Law. Jesus is God’s Word. Jesus being the ultimate in clean cannot be sullied rather his touch makes the unclean, clean. It is not enough for us today to hear God’s word even though we know that faith comes by hearing and therefore our salvation is delivered but he, Jesus, touched you through the waters of baptism and made you clean. It is the Word of God combined with the water that touched you a born to die unclean sinner and before God has now made you clean.
Likewise since you on a regular basis still dirty yourself and make yourself sick with sin, His touch is felt in the hands of the Pastor as he places them on the penitent sinner’s head and pronounces absolution. Yes, He touches you with his very flesh and blood that you consume with the bread and wine at the altar. See now how he answers your prayers for help, your prayers for deliverance, your prayers for forgiveness. Jesus is not satisfied with simply speaking to you from a distance but He has instituted His sacraments so that He may stay in touch. Jesus says to his disciples, “Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Without the touch of Jesus, the Leper could do nothing. He could not offer sacrifices at the temple. He cannot serve his family or his neighbor. And so it is with us, without Jesus’ touch we receive in hearing His forgiveness and receiving His sacraments we too can do nothing when it comes to bearing righteous fruit.
It is this same compassion and pity that Jesus gives to us that we then give to our neighbors. It is this same undeserved forgiveness that we extend to the undeserving. It is the same touch from Jesus that enables us to reach out to those considered by our culture and society to be considered untouchable. The compassion that Jesus shown drove him back out into the wilderness. Jesus offered himself so fully to His creation that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lord’s had no shelter from the elements and no place to lay his head. This is the compassionate Lord that we call upon in our time of trouble. He will hear you. He will answer your prayers by sending His word. He will touch you with the mystery given through the bread and wine and the touch of the pastor’s hands given with the word of absolution. Now the peace that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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