Don't Tell Anyone

Here is my message from Sunday. The text was Mark 1:40-2:12:

In 1901 William Wrede, who was a German New Testament scholar, published a book which came to be known in English as The Messianic Secret. Although there was initial rejection of his theory, it later became prominent in Markan scholarship. What Wrede was trying to wrestle with in Mark was two problems: The first is that Jesus never claims that he is the messiah and the second is that Jesus has this strange habit in Mark of telling people not to tell others who he is, or what he is doing. Jesus does this with the disciples, with those he heals and others and with demons he encounters. And so what Wrede argued was that Mark created this story of Jesus hiding his identity by asking people to keep quiet about it in order to overcome the tension in the early church between their belief that Jesus was the messiah against Jesus never claiming he was the Messiah. And so he postulated the idea of the Messianic secret that Jesus knew he was the Messiah but didn’t say so in order to be able to do his work, and that the disciples knew it all along but didn’t say it until after the resurrection because Jesus told them not to. Now I think Wrede is correct about one thing, and that is that Mark probably made up Jesus telling everyone not to say anything, and before you freak out about that I’ll explain why in a moment, but he is wrong about the reason, and there is no messianic secret. And although Wrede’s theory has largely fallen out of favor, if you read commentaries you will still find people tying themselves into knots to try and explain why Jesus is trying to keep everything secret, and in my opinion not only don’t their ideas make any sense, they are missing the most obvious thing, and that’s about what Mark is trying to teach us about discipleship and the cost of discipleship and what proper discipleship looks like.

And so last week as we began this series on Mark, and we looked at the beginning verses I commented on the fact that we get an early example of the cost of discipleship demonstrated for us in John the Baptist. That Jesus’ ministry begins when John is arrested and that he will then later be executed by the state as well, just as Jesus does. And so we already can see what discipleship means before we even get into the story of Jesus. And then when Jesus does begin his ministry he too has a call to repentance, just as John did, although he does not yet talk about forgiveness, that comes in the passage we heard today, but he also says that the Kingdom of God has come near. And I said that Jesus will then begin to show what that Kingdom looks like, or what God’s will is for the world, and that begins with healing. Because the first healing story in today’s passage of the healing of the leper, which ends the first chapter, is actually the third healing story to take place in Mark. The first healing takes place in a synagogue where Jesus heals a man who we are told has an unclean spirit, that is he is possessed, but the demon knows who Jesus is, calling him “the Holy One of God.” and Jesus silences him and casts it out. They then make their way to the home of Simon Peter, where Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law, before he goes to a deserted place, remembering the importance of wilderness, which will come back in a moment, before then moving into the region of Galilee to preach and cast out demons, which is where he encounters the man with leprosy.

But before we get there, the other piece that happens is that he calls out the first disciples, which is actually the first thing that Jesus does. In passing by the Sea of Galilee, he calls to Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, and then to James and his brother John to come follow, and they immediately drop their nets and follow. At least at this point they are the models of discipleship and following, although later they won’t be, because, although we haven’t seen it yet, Mark sets the disciples up as foils for what true discipleship doesn’t look like and I think he does that for several reasons. The first is that we have to remember that Mark is not writing a biography or a history, he’s writing theology and about making a particular point. And the second reason he can do this is because we know that the disciples in fact are examples of proper discipleship. We know what happens to them, or at least the early church did, that they became evangelists in proclaiming the good news and that most go on to pay the ultimate cost of discipleship in being martyred for the faith, so they can become foils here to make a point. But for the moment, what’s even more important is the fact that the disciples are being called into community. They are being called into relationship. And that is not just with Jesus or with God but with each other. They are called out in pairs to start and into a larger group, and so as we think about healing and wholeness and forgiveness we know that has to take place and involve relationship. And that is so apparent in the healing of the man with leprosy.

As we talked about when we looked at another healing story of a man, or men, with leprosy in Luke a few weeks ago, the illness being described here is not what we know of now as leprosy, or Hansen’s disease, but instead encapsulated a wide range of skin issues. But the outcome of these various diseases was exactly the same, as found in the 13th chapter of Leviticus, a declaration of being unclean and social ostracism, usually including having to live outside of towns so that you not only didn’t make others potentially sick but more importantly so that you didn’t make them unclean. And so last week I emphasized the importance of wilderness and that with John salvation was being found in the wilderness, and that’s often where we too encounter God, whether that wilderness is literal or metaphorical, and so where do we really find ourselves here? Even though it’s not named, it’s really the wilderness, the in-between of places. And the man comes to Jesus, kneels before him, a sign of worship, and says “if you choose, you can make me clean.” The fact that a leper, not living in a town, not only has heard about Jesus and what he is doing, but believes that he can heal him tells us that word about Jesus is already spreading rapidly around the area, which will become crucial. But what happens next is a little unclear. The NRSV that we heard this morning says that Jesus had pity for the man. But other translations, and manuscript traditions, say that Jesus was angry or indignant. It’s not clear if he was angry at the man, who has interrupted him in his travels, or if he is angry at the situation in which the man finds himself.

There are certainly strong arguments to be made in favor of the anger issue, including that two other times in Mark we are told that Jesus is angry, but his response to the man also strongly indicates an act of compassion. Because not only does he say that he chooses to heal the man, but proclaims him clean, which by chapter 14 of Leviticus can only be done by priests. But more importantly, Jesus reaches out his hand and touches the man. What is one of the things that you are not supposed to do with a leper? Touch them. And yet that is Jesus’ action. That simple act should stand out in big bold blinking letters as an act of compassion and love. While we have no idea when this man was last touched, it has probably been a very long time. As I said when we talked about acts of kindness, funny how these keep connecting somehow, we are social animals and physical contact and touch is incredibly important. As it is here, because not only is Jesus restoring this man to community, to family and friends, rescuing him from his wilderness or offering him salvation in it, but he begins that with the simplest gesture of touching the man who no one else will touch? That too is the role of the church, the role of discipleship, and when we think of those we can’t or won’t touch, victims of HIV/AIDS immediately come to mind, especially in the early years of the disease, but I think we can easily broaden it out, thinking of homeless people that we may turn away from at stop lights or in the park. Or others who exist outside of societal standards of what we say is acceptable or normal, that recognizing humanity, showing compassion, offering love and healing, and knowing that we can be healed without being cured, is part of what the Kingdom of God looks like. As I’ve said before, I think that what Jesus offers to us, gives to us, in helping us to overcome sin and brokenness, that is a huge part of forgiveness, as we hear in the second story, is that of healing and wholeness. And so we see can clearly see that in this healing story, and I think, referencing another commentator, when we hear these healing stories the right question is not “did this really happen,” but why is this important and what are we to learn from it? What does it teach us about who God is and what God wills for us and for the world?

But then Jesus does something strange, which becomes a part of that messianic secret thing, and he tells the man not to tell anyone what has just happened. But, instead, what does the man do? Of course he does what you would really expect him to do; he goes out and tells everyone. What the Greek text says is that he begins to preach freely. I mean if you had an illness that excluded you from everyone else, and you were miraculously healed wouldn’t you tell everyone? Besides for the fact that it would be a little hard to keep it to himself. I mean when he showed back up at home do you think people aren’t going to notice? And if he said, as so many of you who work at the labs say when asked what you do, “well I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you” that probably wouldn’t go over so well. Of course he is going to tell everyone about what Jesus has done for him, and as it turns out I think that’s a huge part of Mark’s message is that what we do as disciples is to tell people about how we too have been changed, how we too have been healed, how we too have been transformed because of Jesus Christ. When we have the good news we can’t keep it in, we have to tell the world. That’s the very point, and so remember that as we move through Mark. And while some commentators will chastise the man for not doing when Jesus told him, there is not any really evidence of chastisement in the text, other than that Jesus could no longer anonymously enter into towns, but that doesn’t start with this man because he had already heard himself of the power that Jesus had and went to him for healing.

Which then brings us to the second healing, which takes place back in a town, and while it says that Jesus was “at home” we don’t really know what that means, the Greek isn’t clear, and most scholars think that he is back at Peter’s house, and the house is packed, so much so that four people are trying to bring a man who is paralyzed to be healed and they can’t get into the house. And so what do they do? They raise the roof, and not like whoop whoop raise the roof, instead the Greek literally says they unroofed the roof, which is sort of a fun phrase, and then adds that they dug a hole in the roof and lowered the man down into the crowd on his mat. Can you imagine that happening? And what seems weird, or at least weirder, is that Mark doesn’t record anyone freaking out about this, especially Peter, if it was his house. And then rather than offering the man healing, Jesus instead first announces that the man’s sins are forgiven. And he says this not because of the man’s faith, but because of the faith of his friends who have brought him. People being healed because of their faith is a common motif, but here it is the friend’s faith that brings this. We’re not going to dig into that in detail at the moment, but remember that reality for when we talk about the parable of the sower in two weeks.

Now it turns out this is not just a simple healing story, but it’s also a story of conflict between Jesus and religious authorities. In chapter one of Mark we had three healing stories bunched together, and then there are four conflict stories bunched together after, and this story which is both that bridges them together. That’s one of Mark’s literary techniques. But the scribes get upset because he is giving forgiveness for sins, although how this is different from John’s call to repentance and a baptism of forgiveness is not clear. And while we might not think that we make a connection between sin and illness, the reality is we still do, although it is not at all clear that that is what Jesus is doing here. That is he is not saying that he is paralyzed because of sin, but that the true healing he needs is forgiveness, we don’t know any backstory here. And then when the arguing is done and to make his point, Jesus asks which is easier to forgive someone or telling them to walk, and so to prove that he has the man get up and walk out, and we are told that all are amazed, although it’s not quite clear if the all includes the scribes or not, but another proof of whom Jesus is and about the good news. And, again, while we don’t know anything about the man, I can guess that both his physical or spiritual healing also returns him to community. And we can also guess that what happens in the house also begins to spread, that the man and his friends tell what Christ has done for them.

And so what about us? are we willing to tell the good news, or do we listen to those who tell us not to? Or worse that we think others wouldn’t be interested, or that religion is a personal thing, or maybe we’re even too scared. And yet we talk about a good restaurant, or a good movie or television show, or whatever it might be, but the thing that should be the most important to us we hold back. We too have been offered forgiveness and healing and wholeness, we have been offered grace and transformation and restoration, we have been given redemption and mercy and love, adopted as sons and daughters, and when we accept that, when we know that reality, then we have to offer the good news. That is what Mark is setting up for us. Do you think that the man with leprosy could honestly keep quiet about what happened to him? Do you think that the paralytic and his friends could keep quiet? And let’s recognize that the friends already weren’t quiet because they brought the man to Jesus to be healed, to be forgiven. They knew what Jesus could do for him and so they brought him to Christ, that too is evangelism, the euangelion, the proclamation of the good news. If we have received the good news, if we know the good news then they only thing we can do is to offer the good news. When we have been transformed and forgiven and healed and made whole through Christ, then we too have to be bearers of the good news, to go forth to friend and foe alike to be the good news. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.