A Risk Worth Taking
Mark 1:39-45a
University Christian Church, Seattle
February 12, 2006 (VISION Event Worship)
Rev. Sandy Messick

“Jesus if you choose, you can make me clean.”

A leper came and knelt before Jesus. “If you choose, Jesus, you can make me well.”

It sounds so simple. But it wasn’t simple at all.

• There were barriers that kept the man from Jesus. He couldn’t come close to Jesus, wasn’t supposed to associate with other people. He was an outcast. Some saw his disease as punishment for sin. He was hopeless, graceless, without identity apart from his disease, not even a name is given.
• And what if Jesus said no. What if Jesus was like all the rest: condemning, unforgiving, legalistic. He just had to kneel at Jesus feet. Just had to say, “Jesus if you choose…” It sounds so simple. But it wasn’t simple at all.

• Because what if Jesus said yes! What if healing really did happen. Then what?
• Sandy, what are you saying? If healing happened, why that would be the best thing in the world wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it? Except, even then, there would be costs. Everything would be changed.
• The man was a leper. He doesn’t even have a name. His whole identity was defined by his disease. Who was he apart from his disease? Who was he if not a leper, if not sick, if not in need of fixing. If you take away the very identity that told the world who he was, then what?
• Well sure, he could rejoin his family and friends. And that sounds so good, so easy, so right. But as soldiers have found out returning home from war, it’s not always that easy to re-enter the family. Not always that easy to figure out the rules, the customs, the new traditions. So if this leper is suddenly healed, if he suddenly returns home. Then what? How would he fit in. How would he, who had for so long been set apart, suddenly become a part.
• To kneel at Jesus’ feet, to request healing was to risk rejection, because what if Jesus said no? But even more, it was to risk being healed, and having to learn how to live in a whole new way, with a whole new identity, with a whole new purpose.
• Just go up to him, that inner voice urged. Just go ask. It sounds so simple…

• But somehow he did. Somehow that leper crossed the invisible line. Somehow his faith won out over his fear. Somehow he knew that it was better to risk his life, to risk rejection, to risk the possibility of failure, than to die in his fear.
• And so he stumbled forward to where Jesus stood, and he dropped to his knees.
• Or perhaps, he stopped thinking and analyzing and wondering, and just acted. Bursting out of the crowd as if he’d been shot from a cannon and throwing himself at Jesus’ feet.
• Perhaps the words tumbled out in a rush with face upraised, or perhaps the words were whispered in a low voice with eyes downcast.
• Jesus if you choose…
• However he got there, he was there. Laying it all on the line, fully open to whatever would come next. Jesus if you choose…

• And Jesus did choose
• The leper took the risk – “What would people think? What will Jesus think? What if healing happens, and then what?” The leper through the gift of a faith more powerful than himself dared to ask for healing…
• And Jesus did not disappoint. “I do choose, be made clean!” And suddenly a world that seemed hopeless was filled with hope. And suddenly a future that was no future had new possibilities, and new risks.

• Jesus told him to keep quiet. Get outta here, go show yourself to the priest, make a sacrificial offering, go home to your family, live a nice quiet life. But the man couldn’t. Really, could you? Could you keep quiet? This man sure couldn’t. How do you contain a miracle anyway? The last we see of the man formerly known as the leper, he’s skipping down the road stopping everyone he sees. Hey, guess what Jesus did? He made me clean, that’s what Jesus did? Hey, did you hear? Jesus healed me. He did, really he did. Guess what…Guess what….Jesus did.
• He skipped and laughed and rejoiced his way through the pages of history and east up 50 th and right on the corner of 15 th and on down the road right in front of University Christian Church and beyond.
• And here we stand, on the side of the road, watching as the man rejoices his way through life. Here we stand. And like the man we too are in need of healing.
• And Jesus still waits.
• Do we dare take the risk? Do we dare voice the question? Do we dare approach Jesus with our faith in our hands, and ask Jesus to heal us? To enter into our struggles. To guide our decisions. To fill us with the joy, such joy that cannot be contained. Do we dare approach Jesus with nothing to offer but our faith, willing, really willing to let go of all that’s defined us in the past? Because what if Jesus says yes…
• Jesus if you choose, heal us.