Sermon #3 - Humanity Overcome

The study of psychology tells us that our recall of a story or event revolves entirely around its climax. The climax acts as a mental peg on which we hang our recollection (Sadoski, 2001). Ours minds are tuned to remember first the key features of a story and then just to fill in the blanks from there. What this feature of our psychology means for us today is that if we ended the service at this very moment - which we're not gonna do - all that you would be likely to remember from today's passage is that Jesus performed a miraculous healing of a leper. That's the climax after all: Jesus cures the incurable. Like I said, it's very natural for us to to focus on the more exciting or interesting parts of a story. But to focus on these more dramatic aspects of today's scripture reading, I believe, is to miss its actual point. The good news of the story is not located in the performing of a miracle, but in the short exchange that precedes it.

Our passage begins with the leper coming up to Jesus, and saying to him, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." The Greek verb form used in this passage tells us that there is no sense of presumption in the leper's question as to whether Jesus will heal him or not. He did not come demanding a miracle. In fact, as a leper, he had no right to demand much of anything. At the time lepers were treated as the living dead. As if having a disease which deforms the body, eventually rendering the carrier unrecognizable, as if that wasn't enough, the social stigma attached to leprosy was perhaps worse. The Levitical code called for lepers to keep their clothes torn, their hair unkempt, and to live in isolation, cut off from all social interaction, even with their families. The code further demanded that when a stranger approached, a leper was to call out, "Unclean! unclean!" to warn of his or her presence.

So this leper undoubtedly went to Jesus with no expectations - his very existence was a lesson in rejection and disappointment. He perhaps had heard rumors of a healer and teacher traveling throughout Galilee casting out unclean spirits and preaching in the synagogues. He likely went to Jesus on the very off chance that this healer would even deign to come near to him. We can imagine the leper's shock when, upon his approach, he yelled "Unclean! Unclean!" and Jesus and his disciples did not run away / but stood unmoved. We can imagine the internal struggle going on in the leper's heart as he tried to fend off a sense of elation and a hunger for restoration, feelings that he was likely well practiced at extinguishing but were coming to surface because of the unlikelihood of the situation in which the he found himself. We can imagine the leper was even more surprised as he made his way up to the group, maybe his first human contact in years, to find the disciples not preparing to accost or assault him, but parting so that he could present himself to their leader. 

So overwhelmed was the leper at the situation unfolding before him that the Gospel reports him dropping to his knees before Jesus. The leper knew there was something different about this man, a man who would disobey even the most stringent purity laws by allowing a ritually unclean person into his presence. The leper knew something was up and this understanding is reflected in his words because the leper says, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." The question was not "Jesus, can you heal me?" The question was "Jesus will you heal me?" The question was not one inquiring into Jesus' ability but into his volition. In essence the leper was saying, " I know you have the power Jesus, but do you have the desire." "I know you have the ability to heal me Jesus, but do you have the empathy." "I know you have the capacity to make me whole again Jesus, but the question is do you have the compassion?"

The leper presents Jesus with a choice: Jesus can choose either heal him or choose not to. But when we read about these kinds of stories in the Gospels, these times when Jesus is confronted with the sick, the afflicted, the outcast and other, we don't think about him actually having to make a choice - we just expect him to do the right thing, to do the Godly thing. We like to imagine that these acts of mercy and love were no-brainers for Jesus. That when he saw an outcast, he knew he should should comfort that person, that when he came across a person who the the world said was lesser, that he knew should lift that person up. But it seems the leper had none of the same expectations that we do. The leper understood quite clearly what we oftentimes forget today - Jesus was a human. To suggest that Jesus knew instinctively what was right in all these situations is to deny him his human nature. Author Paulo Coelho suggests that Jesus only felt his divine nature in his heart because if he knew intellectually, if he was absolutely sure that he was divine then Jesus couldn't have been truly human. Being truly human is to live in doubt and uncertainy. Being truly human is to be unsure about our actions and our decisions. 

I submit to you the situations that Jesus encountered were anything but self-evident. Jesus had lived his entire 27 years in the same culture that had condemned this leper to a life of poverty and denied him of his very personhood. Jesus was very much a product of this culture. Had Jesus allowed this culture define him completely and had he conformed to the strict rules of 1st century Israelite society, he would never have even allowed this man within 100 feet of him. We see Jesus had already come over much of the social and cultural conditioning that we rarely do. But before he could perform the work of mercy and of love attested that forms the climax of our story, Jesus had to overcome everything his culture, his society, and indeed everything that humanity had taught him was right. He had to get over what his humanity told him was right so that he could do what was right in the eyes of God.  

Notice Jesus' reaction to the leper. His reply isn't just a knee-jerk response. If it was he most likely would have shuddered and run away - leprosy is not a pretty thing. Instead his reaction is twofold. Mark reports that before answering the man, before making his choice as to whether he would heal him or not, Jesus was first moved with compassion. The first part of his response was inward not outward. Before making his choice Jesus allowed compassion to work over his heart and OVER his humanity. Once his heart had steeped in compassion, then and only then could Jesus see past and through his human nature and act in his divinity. Once his heart had been thoroughly immersed in compassion THEN Jesus could say to the leper, "I AM willing." These are beautiful words. "I AM willing." Where the rest of the world had said I am not, Jesus acted in compassion and said I am - and healing, restoration, and wholeness were made to flow over the leper.

We must ask of ourselves too what kinds of healing, restoration and wholeness would manifest around us if we were to incorporate Jesus' two-part response to this leper into in our own lives. What if as a precondition to all of our decisions and all of our choices we allowed our own hearts to be moved with compassion. I'm not talking about just big decisions either, I'm talking about the small, mundane choices of everyday life too. Life isn't always going to just drop a bloodied up body in front of us so we can play Good Samaritan. Everyday of our lives we are confronted with hundreds of tiny decisions that, were we to approach them with a compassionate heart, would very much change the world in which we live for the better.

What if in our relations with our coworkers, our friends, and our family  - before we said the crass, callous, and hurtful things that we are, or at least I am,  prone to say - before we said all that what if we let compassion have its way with our hearts. Would our humanity be overcome and instead of hurting the ones we love would our relations flourish with new fullness and new wholeness?

What if before we went shopping we let ourselves be moved compassion - would we patronize stores like Wal-mart who refuse their workers a living wage or would we forgo our gallons of pickles and mountains of paper goods and instead support businesses with upright practices that seek not just financial gain but also to build up and give back to our communities? 

What if our preachers, before getting up into the pulpit would let their hearts be moved by compassion - would we have as many churches as we do fostering hate and homophobia or would we hear from our pulpits preaching that affirms our common identity as God's children above and against the sins of greed, gluttony and intolerance that threaten to tear us apart?

 

What if the leaders of the world's nations, before declaring war on other countries, first let compassion work over their hearts - would so many lives throughout the world be continually lost in ego driven battles or would we fight to the bitter end for the peaceable resolution of our conflicts?

Each of us, young and old, black and white, rich and poor, mighty and meek, are all confronted with opportunities to act with compassion and usher healing into an often fractured and hurting world. Like the question put before Jesus by the leper, The question facing us today is not, "Are you able?" The question is "Are you willing?" I want you to look at your neighbor and say, "Neighbor, are you willing?" Because if you are willing, if the world is willing, one day once and for all love will triumph over hate, acceptance over intolerance, peace over war, generosity over greed. And on that day our humanity will be overcome.