"Moved with Compassion!" (Mark 1:40-45)

"Moved with Compassion!"

Falling in Love with Jesus…all over again! An epic journey through the Gospel of Mark (message #10)

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

March 20, 2011

The Word of God from Mark 1:40-45 (NAU), "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." ⁴¹ Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed." ⁴² Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. ⁴³ And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, ⁴⁴ and He said to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." ⁴⁵ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere." [Prayer]

The context of our Scripture lesson today is found in Mark 1:39, "And He went into their synagogues throughout all Galilee, preaching and casting out demons." After Jesus cast out demons and healed many who were sick in Capernaum, he left that city in order to fulfill the purpose He came--to preach the Gospel and usher in the Kingdom of God. He immediately took His disciples from His place of prayer and left on a preaching tour that would take months.

But, in today's story, we see again that His preaching ministry was being hindered by the clamoring crowds who are now coming from everywhere and preventing Him from publicly entering a city. The news is traveling well beyond one city, even one region, and people are coming from "Galilee and the Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan" (Matthew 4:25). In this time period of Jesus' ministry Mark only tells one story--the healing of this man with leprosy. But the Gospel of Matthew has three chapters (Matthew 5-7) of Jesus' preaching in this time period--the heart of Jesus' teaching called the Sermon on the Mount.

Instead, Mark showcases only one healing; one healing that was not even an encounter initiated by Jesus--this was a situation that presented itself to Jesus Christ in the weeks, if not months, of His preaching tour in Galilee. Don't you wish we had a day to day journal of Jesus' life!?! And this just happens to be the healing that results in Jesus being essentially disallowed by the clamoring crowds from doing that which He left Galilee to do--preaching the Gospel!

Why would Mark focus on this story? I believe Mark focuses on this story because it highlights a core characteristic of Jesus Christ both as fully human and as fully God. The original Koine Greek word translated compassion in Mark 1:41 is splagchnizomai which literally means "to be moved as to one's bowels." To be moved with compassion is to be moved at the seat of love. Jesus is compassionate to the core of His being and we know that at the core of Jesus' being is the core of who God is--"God is love" (1 John 4:8)!

The dictionary defines compassion as, "a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering." This modern definition misses one key ingrediant that the ancient language captures and that is the seat of feeling. Why do you feel deep sympathy and sorrow for someone who is suffering? Why do you have a strong desire to alleviate the suffering? I believe the answer is found in who God is and how God demonstrates who He is to the world through His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is compassionate to the core of His being and we know that at the core of Jesus' being is the core of who God is--"God is love" (1 John 4:8)! To be moved with compassion is to be moved with the very essence of God who lives in you! Compassion is part of the DNA of a Christian because the living God lives in us through the Holy Spirit!

Let us learn from Jesus what it means to be moved with compassion in our own lives and as the body of Christ.

First, COMPASSION MOVES US TO MEET THE NEEDS OF OTHER PEOPLE!

Mark 1:40-42 begins the story, "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.' Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I am willing; be cleansed.' Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed."

The Jewish people believed that God alone could heal leprosy so when Jesus healed this man of leprosy it was monumental! God was doing something new in their midst!

Jesus' declaration was through His response to the leper's declaration of faith. The leper was not challenging Jesus' willingness, but declaring with a desperate faith born out of his desperate situation that Jesus was God and He could heal his leprosy. How many of us came to know Jesus Christ in the midst of a desperate situation in our own life? Are you available to people in their desperate situations?

Let's learn what it meant to be a leper in Jewish culture to fully comprehend the magnitude of this Scripture. From Leviticus 13:45-46, "As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered, and he shall cover his mustache and cry, 'Unclean! Unclean!' He shall remain unclean all the days during which he has the infection; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp."

This was a formal part of God's Law in ancient Judaism, but in our cultures today there are still people who are treated like lepers and are set on the fringes of society. Who are the lepers in our world? Do you respond to them as Jesus modeled for us? Are you willing to follow Jesus?

We are called to follow in the footsteps of our Master Jesus Christ. This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. God meets us in the brokenness of our own lives not because we deserve it, but because of who He is--God is love! As Christ-followers, we are then commanded to meet the needs of other people because of what God has done for us in our own lives.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 teaches, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

How has God extended a healing hand to you in your life? Are you willing to extend a healing hand to other people in the midst of their suffering?

Show Japan video and lead in prayer.

Compassion moves us to action and we cannot simply meet the felt needs of someone without ministering to their greatest need of all--atonement for sin and reconciliation to God! COMPASSION MOVES US TO WITNESS TO JESUS CHRIST!

Our Scriptures lesson continues with Mark 1:43-44 stating, "And He sternly warned him and immediately sent him away, and He said to him, 'See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.'"

After meeting the felt need of this leper, Jesus then directs him to follow the procedures set forth by the Jewish Law so that the man who once was an outcast amongst his own people could rejoin his family and friends; his community. Under the Jewish Law, the priest would provide atonement for his sin and reconciliation to God! He would be allowed into the fellowship of God's chosen people!

Although our Scripture does not verify whether he man cleansed of leprosy did or did not obey this part of Jesus' instructions, we know that Jesus was moved with compassion to meet this man's greatest need for atonement and reconciliation as prescribed by the Law. Leviticus 14:20 prescribes, "The priest shall offer up the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he will be clean."

Here is the good news of the Gospel; we no longer have to present ourselves to a priest to make sacrifices to atone for (pay for) our sins. Thank you Jesus for fulfilling the Law, including the priestly system and the sacrificial system! Hebrews 2:17 proclaims, "For this reason he [Jesus] had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people."

Jesus Christ died on the Cross and fulfilled every aspect of the Law. He did not discard the Law, but He fulfilled it and He is the One who reconciles people back to God because He became the final atoning sacrifice for all sin. He became the merciful and faithful high priest for all time. When we are moved with compassion to meet the felt needs of another person, we cannot stop there; we must witness to Jesus Christ who is the only One who can meet the deepest need of all people for atonement and reconciliation with God. Our vision at FBC is to be a house of reconciliation where every person who comes into contact with us (you and I, we are the church; the church is not a building, it's the people of God!) will not only experience reconciliation with God, but will then join with us in the ministry of reconciliation.

But it must start with our obedience to respond to the desperate situations and desperate people in our lives with compassion; to be ministers of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 teaches, "All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation."

Are you willing to serve as a minister of reconciliation by witnessing to how Jesus Christ met your deepest need and by inviting people into the community of God through faith?

Compassion means to be moved in your bowels, in the deepest place of who you are. It is in this deepest of places we must allow Jesus Christ to be Lord and invite the Holy Spirit to have power in our lives so that we will love like Jesus loved.

COMPASSION MOVES US TO LOVE LIKE JESUS LOVED! Mark 1:45, "But he went out and began to proclaim it freely and to spread the news around, to such an extent that Jesus could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas; and they were coming to Him from everywhere."

Jesus Christ triumphantly put the needs of humanity before His own to the point that once again in this Scripture passage we see His healing of the leper (and his growing fame) preventing Him from entering any of the cities to continue His preaching tour of Galilee. When we are moved with compassion there is usually a cost to ourselves! Jesus paid a price!

In the same way, Jesus Christ went to the Cross and died a sinner's death, not because He was a sinner, but because He was moved with compassion at the desperate state of our souls. Jesus laid down His life for each of us because there was no other way for any of us to have our sins atoned for and be reconciled to God then through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Compassion (Love!) moved Jesus to pay our debt in full; He paid The Price! "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

The Bible teaches us as followers of Jesus Christ that we are to love like Jesus loved. 1 John 3:16 states, "This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."

Have you experienced the love of God through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? How do you love others?

Will you stop meeting the needs of other people if someone that you help takes advantage of your acts of compassion? What will it take (or what has it already taken) to harden your heart to other people's needs and to write certain people (or people groups) off? Are you willing to ask God for the grace to forgive and to reconcile? Pray.

At what cost was Jesus moved by compassion in the context of this passage and when He took all our sins on the Cross of Calvary? Are you willing to pay the price in your own life to meet the needs of other people? Respond.