If you would turn with me in your Bibles back to the gospel of Mark, back to the first chapter, where we will pick up in our series in this gospel that we began back in February. We are looking tonight at Mark 1, starting in verse 35. You can find it on page 837 in the pew Bibles.
You know, one of the lines that is sometimes quoted about the Roman empire is – it comes from the Roman writer and historian Tacitus. The line is, “They,” the Romans, “make a wilderness and call it peace.” It’s a speech from an opposing leader somewhere in Scotland, modern-day Scotland. It’s a speech from an opposing leader to his troops. He’s trying to rally his men; he’s trying to stir them up to get revenge for previous defeat. He’s trying to summon all of their bravery and loyalty. And the full quote goes something like this, “These fatal Romans, thieves of the world. Lacking lands now to devastate, they rode the sea. Alone amongst all men, they covet rich and poor alike. Theft, slaughter, plunder; they give the name empire. They make a wilderness or a desolation and call it peace…They may take our lives but they will never” – no, that part’s not a part of it! The point is, the Roman peace, the famous Roman peace, it came at a cost, and not everyone really liked it because wilderness, desolate places, it meant surrender; it meant defeat. It meant humiliation.
But you see, if you can remember back to where we’ve been in Mark’s gospel, Mark’s gospel begins in the wilderness and that is where God was at work. John was a voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. He baptized in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus was baptized there, and then the Spirit drove Jesus out further into the wilderness for forty days where He was tempted by Satan and the angels ministered to Him. There is an association in these early chapters between Jesus and the wilderness. And we find the same thing in these verses tonight. Two times the word that is sometimes translated as “wilderness” or other places as “desolate places,” comes up in these verses. In verse 35 it tells us that Jesus “went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” Verse 45 says that he was “out in desolate places, and people were coming to him from every quarter.” What we find is that Jesus went to the wilderness. He went to the place of alienation, of isolation, of uncleanness. He went there, He went to desolate places and to desolate people and He didn’t just call it peace; He actually made it peace. And He brought healing and restoration and life to desolate places and to desolate people.
So there are two things I want us to see from these verses tonight. Number one, I want us to see power, power in the life of Christ. And then secondly, power for the Christian life. Power in the life of Christ and power for the Christian life. Let’s, before we read these verses, pray and ask God’s blessing. Will you pray with me?
Our Father, we bow before You and we confess that we come in a place of weakness and inability. And were we to come on our own, we could not understand what You have to say to us. These words would have no impact upon us were You not to move and to act upon us by Your grace and mercy tonight. We need You. We need Your help. We need the Holy Spirit to make Your words come to us in power and in grace and to lead us into all the areas that You call us in our lives, to do so to Your glory and for the name of Jesus. Help us to see Jesus. Speak, Lord, for Your servants listen. We pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Mark chapter 1, verse 35:
“And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, ‘Everyone is looking for you.’ And he said to them, ‘Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.’ And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, ‘If you will, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, 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 he went out and 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.”
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.
First, power in the life of Christ. Let’s remember back to a few weeks ago and the demonstration of Jesus’ authority. If you remember back in verse 22, “The people were astonished at Jesus’ teaching because He taught with authority and not like the scribes.” They were amazed. They were amazed with His authority to cast out unclean spirits and to heal the sick. But where did Jesus get this authority? Where did Jesus get such power? Well, to answer that question we have to go back a little further, earlier in chapter 1, to the baptism of Jesus and to the Holy Spirit descending upon Him at His baptism. You see, it’s the Holy Spirit that filled Jesus with the power that He needed in order to carry out His calling and His ministry in the flesh. And that may sound obvious enough to us if we are familiar to any extent with the Gospel message, but that was enough to stop me in my tracks, to fill me with wonder and awe in those early days of seminary and studying the person and work of Jesus with Dr. Thomas, because Dr. Thomas said something like this. He said, “Jesus did not resort to His divine nature in order to accomplish what He needed to be done in our human nature.” But no, from the beginning to the end of His life, He was empowered and strengthened in His human nature by the Holy Spirit. He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. He grew by the Spirit. And as He embarked on His ministry that He was called to do, Jesus was equipped and directed by the Spirit of God. See, that’s how He could be made like us in every way, yet without sin. That’s how He could be fully human and in His human nature teach with such authority and perform such mighty signs and wonders. And see, it’s that Jesus, He depended on the Holy Spirit in every way.
And in a way, it sounds wrong to a certain extent, maybe even heretical to say that Jesus was limited in some way. Or that there were things that Jesus did not know. Or that there were things that Jesus could not do. And yet that’s what the Bible tells us. It tells us that He grew in wisdom, that He needed sleep, He needed rest. We’re told that Jesus wept. And He even said that He didn’t know the time of the end. It’s mysterious to us, isn’t it? It’s mysterious to our finite minds; maybe it’s even shocking to a certain extent. But you see, Jesus was dependent on the Holy Spirit, and that’s exactly what we see here in Mark chapter 1 verse 35. It says, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” He prayed.
There were more important things to do, or at least there were things that seemed like they were more urgent to do, and what we find in these verses is that Simon and those who were with Him, they were searching desperately for Jesus. The word for “searched” in verse 36 has the sense that they were busy trying to track down Jesus. In fact, the Amplified Bible, which kind of gives some of the sense of some of the Greek words, it translates this as, “Simon and the others were pursuing him eagerly and hunting him out.” You see, this was a determined search on their part because the crowds were waiting. They were waiting for Jesus. “Everyone is looking for you,” verse 37 says. There were people to see. There were things to do. He didn’t want to disappoint everyone’s expectations, did He?
But you see, Jesus needed to pray and there was not anything so urgent that it would keep Him from withdrawing to a quiet place to pray. There was nothing more important for Jesus to do than to get away and simply to pray. In fact, what we see in these verses is that Jesus stopped to pray so that He could go on to do what He needed to do. It was in prayer that focused His calling and His purpose. It was in prayer that He was able to say, “No,” to the expectations and the demands of the crowd. It was in prayer that He was able to say in verse 38, “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” You see, prayer was an indispensable part of Jesus’ life and ministry that enabled Him to proclaim the Gospel. It enabled Him to minister the kingdom of God with power. Prayer was the place of Jesus’ preparation.
And there are three times, three times in Mark’s gospel that we find a specific attention on Jesus in prayer. One time is in Mark 6:46. It’s almost in the middle of the gospel, in the middle of His ministry. But there are two other times that we find that in Mark’s gospel. One is right here in chapter 1, and then again – where? In chapter 14, at the end of His ministry, at the time of Jesus’ greatest need – where is He? He’s in the Garden of Gethsemane. And He said to His disciples in Mark 14:32, “Sit here while I pray.” You see, this is the source of Jesus’ power and it comes from a place of weakness actually. It comes from a place of utter dependence upon the Holy Spirit. It was in prayer. He was not too busy to pray. In fact, He was too busy not to pray. Think about it, all the things that He came to do, all that He came to accomplish, He submitted it to prayer.
Don’t you wish that we could say the same about ourselves more often? And here’s the thing. Billy told a story the other day about walking through the church hallways to the Tuesday prayer meeting. It was a few months ago. And one of the kindergarteners walking through the hallway asked him where he was going. When he said he was going to the prayer meeting, she said, “Well pray for me too!” See, one of the great things about Jesus in prayer is that He prays for us too. And Jesus in prayer means that He sympathizes with us. He knows our limits. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our burdens. He knows our tears. He knows our trials. He knows the deepest desires of our hearts. And even more than that, He intercedes for us. He intercedes for us at the right hand of God. Hebrews 7:25 says, “He always lives to make intercession.”
Which tells us something, doesn’t it, about Jesus – not just His source of power, but His use of power. The way He uses such great power not only in prayer, but what we see in these next few verses, what we find in the verses after this, from verses 40 to the end of the chapter, is we find Jesus going from a desolate place to a desolate person. Verse 39 says, “He went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.” And then verse 40 – there came up to Him a leper. Leprosy was a skin condition. It could refer to a number of different skin conditions but it was usually connected to something that made the skin scale off or flake off. It was socially ostracizing. Lepers were considered impure. They were cut off from their community. They were forbidden from the places of worship. In a word, lepers were “unclean.” In fact, the key word that you find throughout Jesus’ interaction with this leper is the word “clean.” Look at verse 40. It says, “You can make me clean.” Verse 41, “Be clean.” “And he was made clean,” verse 42. The word in Greek is the word from which we get our word “cathartic,” meaning “a release” or “a relief.” The leper is unclean and he needed to be made clean; he needed to be restored.
Someone was telling me recently about how they had been reading through some of the verses about leprosy regulations in the book of Leviticus recently. Like when Leviticus 13:40 says, “If a man’s hair falls out from his head he is bald, yet he is clean.” Now your guess is as good as mine why that verse came to mind while she was talking to me! But a couple of verses later, Leviticus 14:32 says that, “If the head is bald and has a reddish white spot on it, he is leprous and he is unclean.” And the leprous person was to wear torn clothes and to cover his upper lip and to cry out, “Unclean! Unclean!” Leviticus 14:36 says, “He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.” It was desolate. A desolate place and a desolate person.
And you see, this man in Mark chapter 1, he was desperate. He bowed down before Jesus. He fell before Jesus. He basically throws himself down at the mercy of Jesus and he implored Him, he pleaded with Him, he begged Him for help. And what did Jesus do? Well, we’re told that Jesus did not ostracize the man. He did not shun the leper. No, He did not even keep His distance from him, but instead He stretched out His hand and He touched the man. He touched him. Jesus moved toward the outcast. He took hold of this untouchable person, the unclean.
And instead of the unclean man making Jesus unclean, Jesus actually made the unclean man clean. It’s just two words in the Greek, four in English, verse 41 – “I will. Be clean.” “And immediately – that favorite word of Mark’s – “Immediately the leprosy left him and he was made clean.” You see what Jesus is doing here? He is using His power, the power of the Holy Spirit, to help the helpless and to restore the broken and the lowly. Why? Verse 41 tells us He was “moved with pity.”
In 1912, the American theologian, B.B. Warfield, he wrote an essay that has been called a hidden jewel on a sometimes neglected topic. The topic is the emotional life of Jesus. This essay is called “The Emotional Life of our Lord.” And in that essay, Warfield wrote that, “It belongs to the truth of our Lord’s humanity that He was subject to all sinless human emotions and that the emotion that we should naturally expect to find most frequently attributed to that Jesus whose whole life was a mission of mercy is no doubt compassion.” The most frequent emotion attributed to Jesus – compassion. Compassion for the multitude. Compassion for the sheep without a shepherd. Compassion for the demon-possessed. Compassion for the widow. And compassion for the leper.
And that word for “moved with pity” or “compassion,” it’s the word from which we get our word, “spleen.” It’s a strong emotion. It comes from deep down. It’s a gut feeling. You see, this man suffering, it moves Jesus. It moves Him toward the man in compassion to heal him, to “make him clean,” verse 42 says. We don’t think of power like that so often, do we? Power is competitive. It’s intimidating. It’s unflinching. It’s ruthless sometimes. But what do we find here? We find power paired with pity. We find command carried out with compassion, great compassion. That’s the power in the life of Christ.
And perhaps that should make us reevaluate what it means to have power in our own Christian lives. So we see first in this passage power in the life of Christ. The second thing we see is power for the Christian life. What does James say? James says, James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” What is prayer? What does our catechism tell us? The Shorter Catechism says, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of sins and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.” Where do we see that definition in these verses that we read tonight? Not from Jesus’ example exactly, because we don’t know what Jesus prays here. But would it be going too far to say that we see that definition of prayer in the man with leprosy? “An offering up of our desires for things agreeable to God’s will.” He says, “If you will, you can make me clean.” “With confession of sins.” Verse 44 says, “Go, show yourself to the priest and offer what Moses commanded.” “And thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.” Well what did he do? “He went out and he began to talk freely about it and to spread the news,” verse 45.
Now of course we have to take into account, as we think about pairing those two things together, that we don’t have a priest anymore and there’s no more sacrifice because of Jesus’ once and for all sacrifice. And then there’s that whole part about the man not following Jesus’ instruction but telling everybody what had happened. But I think there is something refreshing in this man’s response is that he did not have it all together when he engages in prayer and praise. It was something that was spontaneous and it was sincere coming from his heart.
A bunch of years ago, I can’t remember the exact occasion, it was a meal or something else as a family, but one of the grownups prayed and one of our children said after the “Amen,” said, “That was like a ruling elder prayer.” And sometimes we think about prayer like that. Like it’s maybe long and is given in a formal setting. Maybe it’s even intimidating. But I think we see something of two different approaches to prayer in this passage. One is that Jesus is intentional to set aside time and to get away in order to pray. And we need to do that. We need to be intentional. We need to follow Jesus’ example in our own lives and set aside time to pray. But we also need to be like the leper, don’t we? Even if we don’t have it all together, even if we don’t know the right words to say, even when we don’t say very much at all, to pray. In fact, isn’t that what we find so often in the Bible? Yes, there are longer prayers in the Bible, the Psalms are included in those, but there are short ones too, aren’t there? Like, “O God, heal her, please.” Or, “Remember me, O God, for good.” “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord!” “Come quickly, Lord Jesus!” “And if you will, you can make me clean.”
There’s power in prayer. There’s power in setting aside time to be refreshed, to fellowship with God, to wrestle with His providence, to seek His guidance and His direction. And there is also power in always being ready at any moment in just a few words to cry out to God for mercy. We are always dependent, always dependent on the power of the Holy Spirit to live by the Spirit and not according to the flesh; to live by faith and not by sight. And that starts with prayer. A posture of submission as a needy sinner and with a heart of gratitude and contentment. Prayer.
But let’s not leave this passage without also saying something about compassion. Jesus was “moved with pity,” verse 41. He was moved with compassion for the unclean man. Are we? Let me just say it again. This man, this leper, he didn’t get himself all together. He didn’t have it all figured out. He didn’t clean himself up before he went to Jesus. In fact, he gets a little too close for comfort from the very start, doesn’t he? He gets within arm’s reach of Jesus when he was not supposed to do that. And he doesn’t do it all right even after Jesus heals him either, does he, because he could not stop talking about Jesus. Actually, I wish I was a little more like that myself.
But how would we have reacted to this man? How would we have reacted to this leper? What about if he had been an immigrant or a refugee? What about if he had been poor, couldn’t keep a job, struggled with an addiction? What about if he was, well, fill in the blank. And I’m not saying anything about what it means to be wise in those interactions or what is even the right thing to do, but I’m just asking, “Are we moved with compassion? Do we care?” Because Jesus did. And what this man needed, what every person needs is what Jesus alone can give, and that is mercy and healing. This man needed Jesus. Don’t we? And shouldn’t we be moved with compassion for everyone who needs Jesus?
That’s what power looks like in the Christian life. That’s what power looks like. It’s not forming little coalitions or using people and using connections or gossip or bullying or money talks or any of those kinds of things. It’s weakness and dependence and humility and compassion. It’s seeking God first and seeking His kingdom because that is the way of God’s kingdom. That is the way of Jesus and the cross. That is the cross and the resurrection. Second Corinthians 13:4, “For He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but in dealing with you, we will live with Him by the power of God.” Weakness. Compassion. Death. Resurrection. The power of God. For you in the invitation of the Gospel.
Let’s pray.
Father, we pray that You would, in this brief glimpse of the great power and compassion of Jesus, that You would again draw us to Him, expose our sins, expose the hardness of our hearts, expose our great, deep need of Your grace and mercy and healing. And would You show us again how You have provided that for us in Jesus’ death and resurrection. And now would You send us out from here in constant prayer, that we would pray without ceasing, and through every moment of our lives we would submit to You. But that we would also go out from here in compassion – compassion to the needy, compassion to the unclean, compassion to those who need grace, who need Christ. We pray this in His name, amen.