Too Wonderful to Be Silent
Text: Mark 1:40-45
Rev. Dr. John E. Manzo
February 12, 2012
It was 1873, and Dr. Armauer Hansen of Norway had astounding news for the world: leprosy was caused by a bacterium (Mycobacterium leprae). Until then, the disease was thought to be from a curse or sinful ways. The disease was renamed and called Hansen’s disease and is now readily treated----but it rarely afflicts people.
Modern medicine knows that leprosy is spread when an untreated infected person coughs or sneezes (but not by sexual contact or pregnancy). However, leprosy is not very contagious; approximately 95% of people have natural immunity to the disease. People with leprosy who are treated with medication do not need to be isolated from society. (Historically, people with leprosy were sent to "lepers' colonies" on remote islands or in special hospitals.)
In Jesus’ day, however, leprosy was a cursed disease.
People were isolated and shunned by society.
People suffered greatly because their nerve endings died and they couldn’t feel anything, making them prey to all sorts of parasites, etc.
They were also condemned by society because leprosy was seen as a curse which was a punishment for sin, dreadful sin. A person afflicted with leprosy was perceived as a horrible sinner----at least to the people around them. There was never any thought that it was a random affliction and had nothing to do with the moral conduct of a person.
So it is that a leper comes to Jesus begging to be healed. Jesus is moved with compassion and heals the man and tells him to go give thanks to God according to the prescriptions of Moses. But Jesus also has a warning----don’t tell anyone who healed you.
Two things were at stake because a healing like this was going to cause a huge response.
For one, any chance of Jesus going anywhere quietly was going to end. People would swarm him, asking for help.
Secondly, there were going to be questions. Lepers were sinners. Lepers were recipients of God’s harshest judgment. No compassion was in order towards lepers. They were outcasts to society----they were the people no one loved----they were God’s most hated people. Who did Jesus think he was to offer compassion?
But...
The man who is healed cannot hold it in. He announces to the world that Jesus had healed him. When the news is too wonderful to be silent he can’t do anything except share it with the world.
There are all sorts of lessons in this story of Jesus healing the leper.
The first lesson is about the overwhelming generosity and compassion of Jesus. Jesus loved people first and foremost. On occasion, sometimes we get it.
Here's a story about Fiorello LaGuardia who was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of W.W.II. He was adored by many New Yorkers who took to calling him the "Little Flower," because he was so short and always wore a carnation in his lapel.
He was a colorful character -- he rode the New York City fire trucks, raided city "speak easies" with the police department, took entire orphanages to baseball games, and when the New York newspapers went on strike, he got on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids.
One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself. Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter's husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving.
But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. "It's a real bad neighborhood, your Honor," the man told the mayor. "She's got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson."
LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said, "I've got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions. Ten dollars or ten days in jail."
The fine, by today’s standards, would have been in the neighborhood of $165.00 which, for a person with no money, is an impossible amount.
But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous hat, saying, "Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents, eight dollars in today’s money, for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr.Bailiff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant."
The following day, New York City newspapers reported that $47.50, a bit more than $775.00 in today’s money, was turned over to a bewildered woman who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren. Fifty cents of that amount was contributed by the grocery store owner himself, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.
Someone beautifully said:
"Sympathy sees and says, 'I'm sorry.'
Compassion sees and says, 'I'll help.'
When we learn the difference, we can make a difference. When we learn the difference, we begin to understand Jesus.
Jesus reached out with great compassion, a compassion filled with justice, but always a justice based on love.
A second lesson is about the leper. He has to share the good news with people. He is so filled with gratitude for what Jesus had done for him, that he began to proclaim it to anyone and everyone who would hear him.
I think, at times, our approach to the issue of faith and gratitude to God is an attitude that response to God is good, response to God is appropriate, but we shouldn’t get carried away.
Think about this for a second. Who have you shared your faith with of late?
If you like it here at St. Marks, have you invited someone to come with you----or is that getting carried away?
If you saw someone you didn’t know sitting in the pews around you, did you talk to them, and get to know them as a brother or sister in Christ, or is that getting carried away?
If you like St. Marks, and so many people tell me they love their church, who have you invited lately, or shared with friends and family about how much you love your church?
Ponder something for a moment. If you eat at a good restaurant do you tell people about it? Do you invite friends and say, “Hey let’s go to dinner there?” Of course!
Or, if you see a great movie, do you tell everyone? Of course.
Or if you love football, do you tell everyone that you love football and that you love your favorite team? I know I do. I drive people crazy talking about the Giants, but you already know that. Of course, sports’ fans always love to talk about their teams.
My point is, of course, that we share excitedly about so many things in our lives but often we don’t share much about church.
Here, however, in the Gospel of Mark is an opposite example. Jesus does not want this man he healed to share this news. For Jesus there were all sorts of reasons for not wanting the leper to share often reasons beyond our comprehension.
But for this man who was healed by Jesus this was too wonderful to be silent. He HAD to share the good news.
The lessons of this story are two-fold.
One is about the goodness and love of God; the other is the fact that the news is too wonderful to keep silent. Let us rejoice in God’s goodness; and share that Good News with others.
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