Sermon snippet – Unclean! Unclean!
INTRODUCTION – I delivered this sermon on March 1, 1998, using the first person throughout. Nancy Glendenning told me that I should preach more messages like this one. Make sure that you read Mark 1:40-45 before reading this shortened version.
Unclean! Unclean! Stay away! Come no closer than six feet, and if the wind direction changes and comes from behind me, flee – get at least 150 feet away. You can see that my clothes are torn: they have to be, according to the Law of Moses. My hair is uncut and unkempt as a warning to anyone who might stumble across me, for I am a leper. I am disfigured: you see that part of my ear is gone. One morning when I woke up, it was just gone. By the bite marks, I could tell that a rat had done it. Leprosy has destroyed my sense of feeling. I couldn’t feel that rat biting me; I slept right through it. Now I know why many lepers keep cats. I am disfigured, and I am very much alone. I have plenty of time to think. Why, why has this happened to me? I believe in the One True God; I believe that He will send the Messiah, the Savior. Yet people treat me as though I love the Evil One; I don’t ! Oh, I know that leprosy is used as a symbol of sin. As a boy, I was taught at the synagogue school. I know that sin, like leprosy, is disgusting. It spreads; it takes complete control; finally, it kills. I know all that, but tell me this: am I really worse than everybody else?
(verse 40)
Of course, I am always the last to hear, but more than anyone else, I needed to hear about this Jesus. Faith healers? They’re all fakes. They never really heal anyone, and they never let people like me near them. But this Jesus is different: He really heals people. Maybe He will heal me.
(verses 41-42)
He touched me! Do you understand? The Savior just touched me. What a miracle! No one has touched me for years. I remember the last time: my mother embraced me as I left with my father to go to Jerusalem. I remember my father’s hand on my head as we prayed at the Temple, as we prayed that the blotches on my skin were not the first signs of leprosy; but the priests were experts, and they knew that it was leprosy. I was isolated, separated from all that I had known. Since then, I have not known the touch of a human being, until the Savior touched me. Here’s another miracle: I felt the touch! My numbed body could feel again. Yes, I could feel the touch – and move. What I could feel is that I was cleansed all over – all over. Clean! Clean! Immediately clean all over – and all through.
(verses 43-45)
I shouldn’t be telling you all of this – at least, not now. Jesus told me not to say anything. But you understand, don’t you? I almost can’t believe it. I was a leper; I came to Jesus; He touched me and made me whole. Now I am telling you, because I hope that you will feel the same stirring that I felt when I came to Jesus: it was the stirring of faith. Here’s the truth: Jesus is the Savior. He healed my leprosy, but, more importantly, He healed my soul. If you don’t believe me, find out for yourself. Go to Jesus. Let Him touch you. He is willing. He will make you clean and whole – now and forever … What? You knew all of this? You know all about Jesus? Then why didn’t you let me know? I could have died from my leprosy! I could have died in my sins – how could you not tell me?