“The whole city had gathered at the door”
City – a place of people, culture, tradition, and attachment
“Looking for” (καταδιώκω / katadiōkō) – search for, pursue, hunt for
But Jesus “went away to a secluded place.”
“Went away” (ἀπέρχομαι / aperchomai) – go away, depart, retreat
He went away as if he was escaping the crowd and attention.
Secluded place (ἔρημος / eremos) – wilderness, desert
Why did Jesus go away to a secluded place?
People were looking for Jesus not because they believe Him through the Word. Rather, it was because he provided things to see (entertainment), food, healing, etc. It was for their own satisfaction, with the incorrect Messianic expectations.
Jesus would rather go back to the wilderness. In fact, this world itself is like the wilderness to Jesus.
Israel had become the spiritual wilderness, Egypt, and Babylon that eventually kills Jesus on the cross (Rev 11:8). As we have studied last week, even the synagogue had become a place of unclean spirits.
A leper came to Jesus (Mark 1:40–45)
Leprosy – During that time in the Jewish tradition and culture, leprosy was considered an illness given by God because of sin. It is an illness that affects the nerve system and kills the senses. Hence, when the illness progresses, the person cannot even feel a thing even when the skin decays and peels off or a body part falls away.
They were considered like living corpses. Those who were alive, but no different from dead.
This understanding of leprosy is applied spiritually to refer to the state of ignorance and insensitivity when death is ruling over and corruption is dominating.
The leprosy of this age
Leprosy is a state in which one cannot feel death even when it penetrates, and is a state of returning from order to chaos and emptiness.
God’s creation history is the creation and arrangement/separation of everything in an order according to God’s will (Word). However, Satan is trying to break that order and create a state of disorder.
If there is God, there is order. There is order in the family, church, society, and individual life. So, in order to achieve Satan’s goal of disorder, the existence of God must first be made meaningless. If you take God out, all balance will collapse, and something will be needed to replace God. Hence, Satan needs to remove God from our lives and society. What is the best way to get people to abandon God? It is to conceptualize God’s order and human freedom as two opposites.
God allows freedom within His order, but Satan makes people perceive freedom as the opposite of order and makes them think that they cannot enjoy freedom within God’s order. The answer to them now is to come out of that order or destroy that order.
The method used is ‘sexual freedom/liberation’. It instills the idea that “only by liberating sex can there be no oppression.” It makes people think that sexual liberation is the beginning of freedom. It makes one think that it is a means to fight against that oppression.
The Nazis advocated extramarital affairs and sexual liberation at the time. The reason is that ethics had to be eliminated. This is because ethics must be eliminated in order to capture and kill the Jews. When ethics are dismantled, people become beasts that can kill others without feeling guilty.
At that time, in the background of what happened in Germany in the 1920s, Christianity was already dead. As a result, there were many abortions and sexual immorality increased. Hitler’s Nazism actually encouraged it. They ignored all existing morals, traditions, and human dignity, and focused on the superiority of themselves.
Sexual liberation was introduced as a tool.
Now, in many places around the world, this plan of Satan is working well. Now in many places, these have become a norm. People do not even feel guilty because they are told not to look at it as sin (ignore God). It is my freedom even if I decide to steal, it’s my freedom even if I cheat, get into an affair, and etc. My senses become the highest priority and I become an animal that only obeys my senses.
Hedonism has taken the place of the Christian God. Humans cannot remain in a vacuum created by eliminating God. They need to fill themselves with something. But that place of God cannot be filled no matter how great a leader fills that position. So next they try to fill it with de-constructivism, then communism, and then hedonism.
Historian Alexis Tocqueville, who analyzed and criticized French history, said this: “Freedom cannot be established without morality, and morality cannot be established without faith.” However, the world is dismantling morality by offering freedom. So what happens? In the end, people become servants to the powers of the world and their own senses. A person like Hitler comes out and establishes an era of dictatorship over people who have become amoral zombies/lepers, and humanity becomes a slave, obsessed with drugs, pleasure, individualism, and humanism.
This is a spiritual leprosy that is spreading more frighteningly than the coronavirus in the society and times we live in.
Back to our passage in Mark…
Interestingly, Jesus who was trying to avoid the crowd when they were looking for Him does not avoid but seems to welcome this leper when he comes to Him. Moreover, Jesus says, “I am willing; be cleansed” and heals the leper at once.
Who is this leper? (Matthew 8:1–3)
Matt 5-7 are about Jesus’ sermon on the mount, including the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer. He preached very important message of the Word. And as He was coming down, people who had been listening to His teachings followed Him down, and this leper was from among that crowd.
In other words, he came to Jesus as a result of listening to the Word.
And we can see that this leper was not beseeching Jesus for the healing of his physical condition.
Mark 1:40 (NASB95) — 40 And a leper came to Jesus, beseeching Him and falling on his knees before Him, and saying, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.”
“If You are willing” – It has nothing to do with my gain or desire. This is a prayer seeking 100% for the will of the Lord and His mercy.
“You can make me clean” – This is a confession of his faith, beseeching for Jesus to clean him of his sins. It was a prayer of repentance. This is a religious expression, not a medical language.
And Jesus’ answer was “I am willing; be cleansed.”
Jesus knew exactly what the leper was praying for and that’s why He was willing. May we be able to lift up the prayer and life that will make Jesus, “I am willing”!
This is an aspect that Mark is emphasizing. Jesus heals and saves many people, but the purpose is more than just to heal the sickness: it is so people can come to know Jesus and believe Him. And Jesus’ focus is on cleansing them of their sins, so their bodies may also be healed.
This leper was a person who acknowledged that he was a sinner and sincerely wanted to be cleansed of his sins. The leper at least knew, and was told, what was the cause of his problem/sickness. Though he knew that it was a consequence of his sins, he did not have a way to get rid of those sins and this sickness.
Then when he listened to Jesus’ teachings, he found and saw the way! That’s why he came kneeling to Jesus to beseech Him with a true repentant heart.
This is the kind of prayer that is answered, not the ones that are for my comfort, convenience, only seeking for healing (immediate and apparent results). May we be able to pray the prayer that will draw Jesus to us and bring about miraculous works that begins from returning to God’s order!
The paralytic and four friends (Mark 2:1–12)
Let us cover the main points in line with Mark’s presentation and emphases of Jesus’ healing works.
There were three problems these four friends of the paralytic were facing in order to save their friend’s life.
(1) The paralytic cannot get up, and they need to carry him.
(2) There are too many people; no way to get to Jesus.
(3) The roof is not open.
But these friends did not let those problems stop them. Rev. Abraham Park said in his sermon that this is the unshakable concrete faith! They believed and did not let anything deter their belief! Even today, God is looking for people like that.
And he said, “Those who believe in such firm way will receive God’s blessings down to 10,000 generations!”
“The problem is the person who looks at problems as problems.”
How about us? Do we look at problems? There are people who only see problems, talk about problems, bring up problems.
The leper knew the cause of his problem. And after a long time of seeking and praying, he finally found the solution to his problems: Jesus! That’s why he came to Jesus.
May we also be able to see our problems and cause of those problems (my sins), come to God and seek for His help and cleansing!
Faith is what allows us to see the solution when there is a problem, and a way when there is no way.
The problem in this passage was the paralysis. But the friends did not give up before the possibilities and probabilities that the world is presenting them.
Those who have faith know where to put their focus. What was their focus? It was Jesus. Why? They, like the leper, realized that Jesus is the only solution. They had 100% faith that Jesus is their only goal and purpose and solution.
The path was blocked, the roof had no opening, but their faith allowed them to see the way.
Again, God is looking for those who have such faith. Mark 2:5.
Jesus forgave the paralytic’s sins by seeing the faith of the friends!
Conclusion
The miracles and signs of Jesus we studied in Mark today are not just about healing. Through this work, Jesus is giving faith and discovering people of faith. And Jesus was solving the root of all problems: the problem of sin!
Hence, the beginning of restoration and solution to all our problems is to realize that we are misaligned and out of order. We need to do whatever it takes to bring ourselves to Jesus, so He can put us back to the right order and cleanse us.
Another thing Jesus showed us is that Jesus forgave sins just with the command of His words. In today’s passage, Jesus asks which is easier to say: ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?
What do you think?
They are of two different realms. One is the physical result that we all seek to see and experience. But the other (Your sins are forgiven) is of the spiritual realm. What is more important, and which needs to come first?
That’s why Mark is emphasizing the importance of the Word that has the power in both the spiritual and physical world. The Word of creation is the Word He has given us! May we believe that!
AMEN.
