EverGrace Church

Dennis White: Let's open our Bibles to Mark chapter 1. We are in our "Jesus Sees Me" series, and today our topic is "Jesus Restores Us."

Guest (Male): Yes.

Dennis White: We don't want your claps, we want your diapers. Send lots of diapers Sam's way. Clean ones, actually. Formula too. All right, let's open our Bibles to Mark chapter 1. We are in our "Jesus Sees Me" series, and today our topic is "Jesus Restores Us." Mark chapter 1, verses 40 through 45.

"And a leper came to him, imploring him and kneeling, and said to him, 'If you will, you can make me clean.' Moved with pity"—I don't like that translation, I like the word "compassion"—"he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, 'I will; be clean.' And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once and 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, for a proof to them.' But when he went out, he began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter."

Amazing story, isn't it? We don't really know what leprosy is so much. We don't deal with it here in the United States. We see it in the movies, we kind of have an idea about it, but it's a very serious disease. It actually was incurable up until the 1960s. Up until then, if you had leprosy, you were dead. Not only that, but you were ostracized from the community. Not only that, but you lost your good looks. Leprosy was a very serious disease that would eat the skin so much so that it would deform the body and then slowly cause you to die because it eats your insides also.

It is for this reason, actually, when we read about it in the Bible in the Mosaic Law, that you had to be ostracized from the entire community. You were forced to live outside the camp and live in your own camp, what they would call leprosy camps. Actually, even today in other countries, you can still go to leprosy camps where people have this disease. For whatever reason they are not cured, and for whatever reason they are in dire need of help, in dire need of a friend, in dire need of a helping hand. Amazing, isn't it?

And it's because of this, the lepers' community, where they were forced to live in camps, that they were also forced to not participate in religious activity. They were forced to stay away from their families, they were forced to stay away from community. Leprosy really brought anguish on all levels for the individual. It brought physical anguish, there was pain and suffering; it brought mental anguish—we're going to get there in a minute—but it brought mental anguish from being separate from your family, it brought social shame, and it brought religious anguish. They truly became outsiders.

On top of all this, leprosy was considered a disease that was caused by sin. This doesn't surprise us because a lot of us today, when we have something happen in our life, what do we think about it? It's because I did something wrong, so God is repaying me for that evil thing. Have you ever said that? God is repaying me, God is causing this to happen because I refuse to be obedient to him. And on and on it goes. Leprosy was much the same, but actually, leprosy was pointed to one certain sin, and that was the sin of slander.

Let's open our Bibles actually, we're going to read a quick little story, but it comes from the Bible, Numbers chapter 12, verses 1 through 2 and then verse 10. Numbers 12:1-2 and verse 10. This is where the idea of leprosy being because of the sin of slander in your life. Listen to what the Word of God says. "Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of his wife, his Cushite wife, whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. And they said, 'Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?'"

Verse 10: "And when the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous." Interesting verse, isn't it? The context here is that obviously Moses has married someone that is not Jewish. It's interesting how these two ideas actually coincide. He marries someone who's not Jewish, and yet the accusation is, "Does God only speak to him?" But in the Law of Moses, the Jews could not marry outside of their own nationality. They had to marry other Jews. Yet here is Moses, "This is what you have to do, but look at me, it's okay." That's how Miriam and Aaron were looking at it.

And they were also being used by God. Aaron was speaking for God and Miriam was also speaking and singing for God. They were both being used by God. So the question arises in their hearts and they say, "Is Moses the only one who speaks for God?" But it must be more egregious than a simple statement. As you dive in further, you find that Miriam was slandering. Now, what is slander? Slander is that I go around and I begin to speak something about someone. The thing about slander is that there is truth there. I speak the truth amongst other people to create dissension. That's what slander is.

So here is Miriam, she is like, "Oh, this is true, right? Does God not speak to all of us? Yes, He does. Oh, this is true, right, that we are not supposed to marry outside of our own nationality? Is this not true?" Again, speaking truth, but what is the motivation of that truth? It's not from the heart of God, it's not in grace or in love, it's not with a question mark, but it's actually a statement with an exclamation mark designed to destroy Moses. And it is with this in mind that God says, "Oh no. Oh no." So He gives Miriam leprosy. By the way, who cures Miriam? It's also God. God gave it, God took it away.

So because of this, from that point on in the Jewish culture, they identified leprosy and a person that had it as being someone who has engaged in the sin of slander. So every time someone has leprosy, not only are they ostracized from their community, not only are they ostracized from their family, not only do they have the inability to worship freely, but now they are looked at and they are identified immediately with their sin. Could you imagine just wearing a name tag with your sin constantly? "Hi, my name is Dennis and my sin is..." And then, oh, now I got to keep adding different badges because, guess what? There's more and more sin in my life.

That is what it was like for the leper. Whether they committed slander or not didn't matter because it was part of their culture, it was a part of their wives' tales that said if you have leprosy, therefore you are a slanderer and there is sin in your life. Get away, not only are you unclean, but you are an evil person. And actually, we continue to compound upon this idea because, again, as we have mentioned, there was no cure up until 1960 for leprosy. So you were forced to live in these camps.

In the Bible, we do read of two cases, only two that were cured, and who were they cured by but God himself? We see that in Numbers chapter 12 with Miriam being cured in verses 10 through 15. We see it again actually with Naaman in 2 Kings chapter 5, verses 1 through 14. The only two times that leprosy has ever been cured. Great, this is good news. I have leprosy, I am known for my sin, now I'm told to go live in a camp and I will never be healed. I pray to God, yet I know that the Bible says that there's only two instances where a person's been healed. Therefore there is no hope for me. Therefore my life is forever changed.

Interesting, isn't it? I want to stop right here and I want to look at our own lives. I don't think any of you have leprosy. You guys are all looking real good today. So how does this apply in our life? Because we don't have leprosy. Well, there's a spiritual aspect to it because although we don't have leprosy, there are things in our lives that will cause us to feel like either cultural, religious, or personal outcasts.

Meaning, have you ever gone to church and feel like you don't belong here? That God is too holy, that I have to get myself right before I step foot in a church ever again? Have you ever felt that way? Why? Because you feel like you are a religious outcast and you belong in the outside camp and you don't belong here. Have you ever felt like a cultural outcast? Like, oh, there is a sin in my life and every time someone looks at me, they see what's wrong with me.

I was talking to someone the other day and talking about different labels that we can have in society and it seems like everyone today, if you go to the right doctor, you can be diagnosed with some form of autism. Now instead they took autism out, now they call it neurodivergent. And if that's you, it's okay. But it's true, if you leave your house and you go to a doctor, there are constantly labels being slapped all over you and that is how you are defined and that is how the culture looks at you. And that actually will cause it to make it more difficult for you to get a job, it'll cause it to be more difficult for you to...