The Power of Forgiveness         Mark 1:40-45        February 12, 2006

Mark 1:40-45 Contemporary English Version (C.V.)
A man with leprosy came to Jesus and knelt down. He begged, "You have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to." (41) Jesus felt sorry for the man. So he put his hand on him and said, "I want to! Now you are well." (42) At once the man's leprosy disappeared, and he was well. 43After Jesus strictly warned the man; he sent him on his way. (44) He said, "Don’t tell anyone about this. Just go and show the priest that you are well. Then take a gift to the temple as Moses commanded, and everyone will know that you have been healed." (45) The man talked about it so much and told so many people, that Jesus could no longer go openly into a town. He had to stay away from the towns, but people still came to him from everywhere.

Healing has been the theme of these readings for the past three Sundays. This story is another example of the healing ministry of Christ. In biblical times, leprosy was a general term used for several communicable diseases. Lepers were all considered contagious, and quarantined. People believed that they should not touch them or even go near them. They were often forced to live in colonies outside the city. Lepers were shameful. Many believed that God had cursed them with the disease.

The leper who begged Jesus to heal him was doing something very brazen. He would have been an ugly sight, covered with sores. Some people moved away from him. Those who stayed to see what was about to happen kept their distance. But for the leper, Jesus was his last chance. He knelt down before Jesus and said, “You have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to.”

He had no doubt about God’s power. He only hoped that God would have mercy on him. Jesus heard him and felt sorry for him, and said, “I want to” heal you. Jesus touched this leper, in spite of the rules against it. The Pharisees were saying that if you so much as touched one of them, you were also unclean until the next day. But Jesus did not let this stop him. He touched him and said, “Now you are well.” And he was well.

Then the man told everybody, and people were coming to Jesus from all over like the paparazzi chasing a rock star. Jesus had to get away to dodge the crowds.

We don’t have colonies of lepers today. But have had the sick who are condemned and banished from society. Back in 1993, I took a position as a resident chaplain at a state hospital in Arkansas. As the state hospital, they took patients who were either unable to pay, or that no other hospitals would accept. They had several AIDS patients on one of the units, and I took that assignment, the unit called 3-C, on the third floor of building C. It was

In the hallways and rooms the paint was pealing. The hallway carpet was stained. In one spot in front of the nurses station, they fixed a tear in the carpet with duct tape. The ceiling was so low, I could easily reach up and touch it. That kept all the sick odors of the day lingering in the stale air.

One of the many patients I met was a man I’ll call Stan, about 35 years old. Our first conversation was about the Philadelphia Phillies baseball pined on the board across from his bed. Turned out both of us were raised in New Jersey, and both of us had been on a life journey.

He said he had found his way to Arkansas for a good job in designing graphics for magazines and journals. He said his life was good in many respects. He had a nice home in Hot Springs, many good friends. Several men and women came to visit him frequently. And he was very frank in saying that he would not live much longer.

We had long conversations and prayers of confessions and forgiveness. Stan knew that his sin was blatant promiscuity with men and women. For years he could not understand why he did what he did.

Over the course of several weeks, we talked about matters of his faith, his life, and impending death. Over time, I saw that Stan was able to talk about his fears. Each week, he confessed his sin, would accept his own sinfulness, the fear of his death and the grace that God gave him in Christ. I brought Holy Communion and messages of God’s love, grace and forgiveness.

I learned a great deal from Stan. He was a man who earnestly knew the struggle of life and faith. He developed the ability observe his fears and feelings in his soul without pretentiousness. He said that at first, he sought those who promised a miracle cure. He heard all those who say you can talk yourself right out of any disease. “Spiritual quaks” was the term that he called them. They led him to think that he could cure himself by his own thoughts. He said people that believe them are only lying to themselves, and people that sell that are selling snake oil. Stan said that for two years he was in denial that he was even really sick. But now he said the best way was to face his death head on, knowing that his only hope was God’s grace and mercy. Stan was teaching me about the real power of faith, and the healing power of Christ.

In order to care for our souls, it’s important that we understand the difference between a cure for a disease, and the healing power of Jesus. Curing a disease is always a temporary fix for a person until something else comes along that takes their life. Doctors can cure many diseases, and I am thankful when they do. I was sick more than once and been cured thanks to good medical care. But eventually all a Doctors patients die, and the doctor dies, too. A cure is always temporary. It’s just a matter of time till the next disease comes along.

Healing happens when our souls are at peace. Like Stan, we accept our fears, our anger, our compulsions, even our own death. We learn to live only by grace alone though faith alone. In the story of the leper, Jesus cured his disease, but even more important, he restored his soul. The leper in the Bible reading was not just cured. Jesus healed him. He could go to his priest and show himself. He could go home to his family and neighborhood. He knew that he should have died, but by God’s grace, he was alive. He was so filled with joy and thanks about it, he told everyone about Jesus, and the mercy that God had for him.

The pattern repeated again and again in Jesus work on earth. Jesus cured a few so that all souls could be healed. Finally at the cross, he gave up his life to the shame of the cross. God did not just cure him. God raised him, wounds and all, to new life. Now his kingdom had been established so that souls of all times and all places can be healed and raised to new life.

Like the leper, Stan was also so filled with joy with the forgiveness of God, he told anyone who would listen about the healing power of God’s grace and forgiveness, like his nurses and doctors. Many of them would listen intently to things he said.

One day, one of the nurses asked me if I though sinners like Stan would be going to hell. She had heard some of the spiritual quacks say that sinners like Stan were being punished with their disease, and were going straight to hell. I said, “Let’s go ask Stan about that.”

So we went into his room. He said, “Well Laird, you and others have told me my sins are forgiven. Whatever sins I’ve committed are now a mute point. I couldn’t sin again if I wanted to. I’m here going blind, can’t walk, can’t even get up to the bathroom without help. I’m constantly high on these pain medications. I may be losing my mind, but I know that whatever God decides to do with me will be better than this.

Stan went on to say that he was more at peace with himself than ever before. He was no longer angry or afraid. He had come to accept himself, sins and all. He had come to accept his fears, even his fear of death. Now that I am dying, I’ve finally come to terms with me. I think God has come to terms with me, too.” He had given up trying to regulate his feelings, and talk himself out of them. He said, “I know now what love really is.” It’s like the song, “I was looking for love it in all the wrong places” all my life. Stan had many gifts, but singing was not one of them.

Stan’s funeral was about two months later. In the funeral chapel, there were two distinct groups of people. On the right side were his family and their friends who had long ago abandoned him. I never saw any of them come to the hospital and visit him. They looked grimly at floor ground when I gave my sermon. None of them cried because they had banished him years ago. They left the funeral parlor into the night without saying a word.

On the left side were the familiar faces of his friends who visited him at the hospital. They mourned with their tears, laughed as we recalled his jokes, and gave thanks for his life. They invited me to a party at Stan’s house. I didn’t go because I had to go to work the next day. But now, I wish I would have gone, even if I would have called in sick the next day. I tell you this story in memory of him.

Now we are having a celebration, Holy Communion, with all those who are in Christ. As I deliver Holy Communion, I have a habit of remembering all the saints whom I have commended to the mercy of our Lord, Jesus Christ. They are the ones who are thankful for the forgiveness they have received. They are the ones who know that whatever sins they committed in their earthly life are now a mute point. God’s kingdom has come for them when they taste the new wine of the kingdom, and eat the body of Christ Jesus given to us for the forgiveness of sins. Thanks be to God for the mercy he gives us in Christ Jesus!

Oh, and by the way, remember that nurse that I brought to hear Stan’s testimony. She married me the next year. God is really good! Amen!

Amen!