The following sermon was delivered by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on February 14, 1982. The title is, He Will If He Can, and the scripture reference is Mark chapter 1, verses 40 through 45. Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Mark. 

I'm reading from the first chapter beginning at the 40th verse. A leper came to Jesus, beseeching 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 he 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 the people.

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 the country, and people came to him from every quarter. The Gospel of the Lord. We were talking just last week about Jesus' threefold ministry.

that he came in fact to do three things that are highly related to each other to preach the good news, to heal broken bodies and to cleanse and deliver those oppressed by the evil one. So we see him moving in a power from God's spirit exercising all three aspects of that ministry. We noted last week that in Capernaum the crowds had gathered in such large numbers that they were absolutely packed in around him in Peter's house.

We see in the next paragraph after this one this morning that when he comes back to Capernaum the crowds are even larger than that and the only way that a particular lame man can be brought to Jesus is by his friends climbing up onto the roof and tearing a hole in it and letting him down in the midst of the congregation. We'll hope that doesn't happen this morning. but you see what's taking place is that Jesus' reputation is spreading out and in fact going before him so that he as he says I must go to other towns and other villages and preach the good news his reputation is getting there before he does and people are gathering everywhere in tremendous numbers, hoping, expecting that he will exercise the power of God for healing and for other miracles.

Somewhere in the Galilee region, this incident took place. We're not told where. He's traveling about, and as he comes into a particular area, a leper runs up, kneels down in front of him, and begs for healing.

I want you to notice, first of all, what extraordinary boldness that leprous man was exercising. You see, from way, way back in the early part of the Old Testament, lepers were under the most stringent restrictions from any kind of social contact, from any kind of involvement with healthy folk. For instance, in Leviticus 13, and this passage would have parallels all throughout the Old Testament, in Leviticus 13 we read this the leper who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose why?

so that even from a distance you can recognize that this is somebody you don't want much to do with disreputable clothing wild head of hair and more than that he shall cover his upper lip go around like this hiding his face and saying unclean unclean so you not only see him coming but you hear him and in many cases they went around and rang a little bell if they had to be going through your area they would ring a bell they would go on the other side of the street they would avoid going through the village and it says he shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp leprosy of course was the most fearful of the diseases in those days. And it was thought that it was highly contagious. And so wherever a leper went, he wanted to give great distance between himself and anybody else.

He was commanded to. That was the law. And so I want you to see the boldness of this particular man.

We're given no name except he's a leper. And he took the risk of breaking all of those social restrictions, all of those mores, all of that kind of tradition, and breaking the law. And came running right up to Jesus and knelt down before him and begged for healing.

I'm impressed with that man. I'm impressed with his courage. I'm impressed with his boldness.

And yet, for all of that, I want to suggest to you this morning that what he actually said, the words that came out of his lips, represent a kind of a sub-Christian view of God. A sub-Christian view of God. What he said was, if you will, if you will, you can make me clean.

And Jesus' response is extremely strong. We don't really catch this in a translation. It's probably a shout.

It's a very forceful answer. I will. As if to say, how could you doubt it?

If you will, I will. Of course I will. Be clean.

And immediately he's clean. I say a sub-Christian view of God. Because you see, what he's really saying is, I know you've got the power.

I know you can do it, but I don't know if you want to. I don't know what your attitude is. I don't trust your will.

I can't entrust myself to your character. I know you've got the power. You can do whatever you want to, but I'm not sure what you want to do with it.

I hope you'll exercise that power on my behalf. And you see, that really is a pagan view. The pagan believes in the power of God or the gods, but doesn't know what in the world they're going to do next.

I know they can do whatever they want to do, but I can't trust their character. Whereas the Christian, you see, really has exactly the opposite view. I don't know if it ever struck you that way.

But the truly biblical perspective is, what I know, what I'm absolutely convinced of, is his character, his will. I'm not sure what the limitations might be that would prevent or hinder or restrain the exercise of that will do you understand what I'm saying? I was alluding to this on Friday evening and I wondered about repeating it and I finally decided I ought to God wills that all men be saved Jesus himself said so God is not willing that any should perish that's his will he wills that every single man, woman and child go to heaven and yet not all will why?

because God has accepted certain limitations to the exercise of his power he could force you to go to heaven it would hardly be heaven in that case in fact a great catholic theologian a generation ago said that hell is being naked in the presence of God unreconciled to him. Think about it. What kind of fellowship would it be if God forced you into his presence?

If you, like the devil himself, said, better to reign in hell than to be a servant in heaven. If that was your attitude, no thank you, I don't want any part of you, and God said, I'm sorry, you've got to come. God wills that you go to heaven.

And yet he limits himself. He won't force that on you. It would be a violation of you for him to force himself upon you.

Even on the human level, I think we have something of this. The mother who says to her little child, now don't take any cookies before dinner. That's her will.

But she leaves the cookie jar where little Jimmy could get to it if he wanted to. Because she wants something else even more than that he doesn't spoil his dinner. She wants him to begin to exercise his freedom of choice to begin to make responsible decisions as part of the maturity process.

And so her will is that he not spoil his dinner and yet she leaves him a degree of freedom where he might do so. She refuses to impose her will because she wants something even more. You follow what I'm saying?

This is absolutely consistent with the character of God. And if that pertains to salvation itself, I want to suggest to you that it also pertains in a very much more complicated way in the area of healing. God wills our health.

This was before us last week. It's before us today. It'll be before us next week.

It's on every page. It's in almost every paragraph of Mark's Gospel and generally through the whole New Testament. God wills our healing.

Dare to believe it. Dare to believe it. I wonder how many of you really do.

God wants our healing. He's on the side of health. And yet, He accepts certain limitations that He won't necessarily in every single circumstance give you your healing immediately.

We read that when Jesus went to His own hometown, He could do no mighty works. He wanted to. He wanted to bring healing to all the sick, and yet He couldn't. Why?

The verse goes on to say, because of their unbelief. That's one of the limitations. I don't know why.

Why did God limit Himself to doing certain things according to our faith? I don't know why. But He did.

And when Jesus got home, they didn't believe Him. And He Himself, God incarnate, could do no mighty works in that place because of their unbelief. There are other limitations as well.

we alluded to some of them last week unconfessed sin broken relationships grudges that we harbor in our hearts all sorts of limitations why God's will might not be released in our midst in a given circumstance do you see what I'm saying? the pagan says I know you can if you will I don't know if you will the Christian says I know what your will is I'm not sure if you can. Not because you're not powerful, but because you're a God who respects limits within your own universe.

The wonder of it is that Jesus heals so often in spite of the limits. This man is expressing a pagan attitude. And yet Jesus says, I will be healed.

and the man is healed. We fall off this balance. Folks fall off it on one side and other folks fall off it on the other side.

So many people are running around today saying, God wills your healing, therefore claim it, confess it, and that's all there is to it. That's not all there is to it. That's a very important part of the truth, but it's not the whole truth.

A lady came to Watchman Nee, the great leader of the church in China before the Communist Revolution. Great, great godly saint. And this lady came to him and she said, Mr. Nee, I'm going to the meeting tomorrow and I'm going to claim my healing.

And Watchman Nee said, Madam, you may claim anything you like, but unless Jesus Christ makes you whole, you will not be healed. It's his sovereign act of grace. God wills our healing that's the first half of the truth the other half of it is that God accepts certain limitations in the exercise of that power and we better distinguish between faith and presumption we cannot manipulate him we dare not try but the other falling off on the other side is how many Christians pray for healing and then end their prayer by saying nevertheless not my will but thine which is precisely what this man said I don't know what your will is I know what my will is I hope that I get healed but nevertheless not my will but thine we're saying I don't know what God's will is it might not be his will for me to be healed strange thing is they get up from their knees and go see the doctor if God's will is in doubt how dare you go to the doctor if it's not God's will for you to be well how dare you take any medicine do you follow what I'm saying I've made this comment too but I'm going to repeat myself you go through all of the gospel accounts I think you'll find 26 separate instances in which people ask Jesus to heal them and out of those 26 he said yes 30 times he took the initiative he didn't wait to be asked Jesus is for our healing he is for our healing dare to believe it dare to believe it this morning I'm interested that he didn't just say I will he reached out his hand and touched the man He didn't have to.

He could have just said it and that's that. But how like Jesus to reach out and touch this leper who probably for years has not felt the touch of a normal human being. And isn't it interesting that in fact the touch came first and then a moment later came the healing.

He touched him while he was still a leper. He touched you this morning. Whatever ugly thing you've done, maybe nobody else will touch you, but Jesus will.

If the leper was bold in coming to him, Jesus was equally bold in breaking all the taboos and touching this man in the midst of his sickness. You see something of the loving heart of our Lord at that point. And then this strange tag ending to the story.

He says, don't tell anybody about it. Don't tell anybody. Go back, see the priest, give him the guilt offering, give him the sacrifice that Moses commanded you as a gift for your healing.

Which is a subtle way of acknowledging that this is God who is acting. It's not just a magician. Jesus Christ is God come among us.

When he touched me, it was God touching me. When he said be healed, it was God who said it. But don't tell anybody.

I think I know why he said that I'm not sure but I think it was this that Jesus already saw what was happening the crowds gathering wherever he went people coming looking just for relief of physical pain suffering, illness and as important as that was and as close as that was to the heart of God there's something more important still Jesus came not only to make our bodies well but primarily to proclaim the good news of God's forgiveness and he didn't want continually to be distracted from the primary thing to the secondary thing to deal only on the level of physical need he wanted to be able to minister to folks on the level of their soul's salvation and yet how many folks today are interested in Jesus at the point that their body hurts. They're sick. Suddenly they need Jesus.

He's interested in making your body well. But there's something even more important. Are you interested in that more important thing?

That He came to save you for all eternity. To give you forever life with God. that's the infinitely greater pearl of great price let's bow our heads together Father God forgive us for questioning your character stir within us confidence to see you as you really are to see you as you revealed yourself in Jesus more desirous to bring healing to our bodies than we are to believe you for it most of the time give to us the gift of faith to lay hold of that power and yet Lord we would see something still more important and we would come to you for our soul's health this morning.

Thank you for loving us, for loving me enough to come and die for me. Lord, I would receive the gift of your life this morning for your great namesake. Amen.