Sunday Sermon: What Does Love Mean?

Pastor Mark Wiesenborn
St. Matthew Lutheran Church, Houston, Texas
Feb 7, 2021

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our sermon message is taken from the Gospel lesson, where we are invited to witness God’s love through a miracle of mercy: “A leper comes to Jesus, imploring him, and kneeling says to him, ‘If you will, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, he stretches out his hand and touches him.”

GOSPEL LESSON – Mark 1:40-45 [ESV]
40 A leper came to Jesus, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” 42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once, 44 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.” 45 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.

Dear friends in Christ, since we are just one week away from Valentine’s Day I wanted to share a thought-provoking question. A team of researchers asked a group of 4- to 8-year-old children: “What does love mean?” The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

• Elaine (age 5) “Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.”
• Karl (age 5) “Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.”
• Chrissy (age 6) “Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”
• Karen (age 7) “When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.” (what an image!)
•  Danny (age 7) “Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.”
• Noelle (age 7) “Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it every day.”

Love is a many splendored thing! Poems and songs are written for the sake of sharing someone’s deep love; kingdoms have been divided, and wars have been fought at least in part for the sake of love. Surveys have identified many reasons that people “fall in love”: physical attractiveness; bonding through compatible personalities and shared goals; sense of humor; the hope of emotional and financial security; friendship and affection and a romantic nature; and also respect and trust.

The Bible teaches: “We love others because God first loved us.” [1st John 4:19]

Christian wedding vows express this with mutual promises to love, honor, and cherish one another…for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer…in sickness and in health…until death parts us, according to God’s holy will. Since Jesus is described in all four Gospels as well as in Revelation as the “bridegroom” of the Church, let’s take some time today to consider three qualities of God’s love for us. It is UNCONDITIONAL. It is SACRIFICIAL. And it is STEADFAST.

Today’s Gospel reading is all about Jesus, who shows the astonishing mercy and love of God to someone whom many of us might cross a street to avoid. A man with leprosy comes to Jesus saying, “If you WILL, you CAN make me clean.” Now, where did he get an idea like that? That’s an easy one. Just before this, Mark has told us that after Jesus had healed Peter’s mother-in-law of her fever: “the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons…” [Mark 1:32-34]

Lepers were the ultimate ‘untouchables.’ If a leper touched you, you became unclean whether you caught the disease or not. If you touched a leper, the same thing. If you touched something a leper had touched, same thing. In any case, you would almost certainly get kicked out of the congregation too.

But this man comes to Jesus. Interestingly, the Gospels record several accounts of lepers coming to Jesus. There are those ten with leprosy who come to Jesus, which Luke tells us about. [Luke 17:12-19] They must have believed He wouldn’t turn them away. They must have turned to Him as their only hope. Jesus has mercy and TEN are healed; yet only ONE returns to give thanks.

Today another man comes alone. “If you WILL, you CAN make me clean,” he implores Jesus. He has no doubt that Jesus has the ability to help him – more specifically, the Greek word dunamis (which later was applied to describe the instantaneous power unleashed with the invention of dynamite). It’s an acknowledgement that Jesus has the awesome power to perform miracles. The only question is whether He is willing. “Will he heal me?” “Does He desire to heal me?” We share his fear and sorrow: “I know that He cared about the crowds lined up at the door. I believe that Jesus cares about the whole world. But does He care about ME? Does He care enough to help ME?” Luther always said that the hardest part of the Gospel to believe was that little word, ‘you,’ as in ‘I forgive YOU all your sins’. Not too hard to believe that Jesus has taken away the sins of the world. Sometimes it’s very hard to believe that He has taken away ‘MY’ sins. 

 Do you remember the acronym “W.W.J.D.” What would Jesus do? All eyes are on Jesus, which is just the way it should be. This is not about this man making a decision for Jesus. It’s all about what decision Jesus will make for this man. Mark writes, “Moved with pity, he stretches out his hand and touches him and says to him, ‘I will, be clean.’

There’s that word that keeps popping up whenever we fix our eyes on Jesus: “And he touches him.” Some of the spectators might want to scream out: ‘No, Jesus, don’t touch HIM. He’s a leper! You healed so many others just by the word from your mouth. You healed the official’s son and the Centurion’s servant from clear across town. For goodness sake, don’t touch this man. You will become unclean! You will be kicked out of the congregation! (You might even end up being taken outside the city walls and your flesh will get torn up by whips and thorns… nails, and spears.) Please, Jesus, don’t touch this man.” 

What a blessing for us to see and realize then, that God’s love is UNCONDITIONAL.

We don’t need any surveys to discover reasons why people “fall out of love.” Physical attraction fades, or shifts to another person with inappropriate thoughts, flirting words, and unfaithful actions. SIN sneaks into our livesthrough stress over worldly resources like money and time; constant demands on our priorities and energy; loss of self-esteem, boredom and loneliness; and fear of growing older or weaker with unfulfilled hopes and dreams. Respect diminishes, and trust is lost. 

What a blessing it is to gaze upon the empty cross and the open tomb and know that God’s love is SACRIFICIAL.

I think that most sermons you may have ever heard on this text all make about the same move at this point and begin to talk about this man’s leprosy in spiritual terms. Supposedly, the man’s leprosy signifies the man’s sin – and Jesus deals with this man’s sin, and He deals with your sin and my sin too. And I suppose that there’s nothing too terribly wrong with that because after all, it is absolutely true. 

But Jesus doesn’t make that move here and so maybe we shouldn’t either. He doesn’t say to this man with leprosy, “Don’t you know that I’m not here because of your physical problems? I’m here to deal with your spiritual problems. I’m here to take away your sins, to renew your spirit, and to cleanse your heart. Don’t you know that flesh and blood do not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t bother me with fleshly, physical things.” 

What we do read is this, “He touches him and says, ‘I will; be clean.’ And immediately the leprosy leaves him, and he is made clean.” His leprous, unclean flesh is made clean – who knows, maybe soft and wrinkle free, smooth as a baby’s bottom. In that sense it is almost as though his SIN has been nullified, reversed, taken away, no trace of any decay or damage accumulated throughout his lifetime. 

The point here is that Jesus restores this man’s flesh, his physical body. Sometimes I am afraid that we over-spiritualize the work of God in Jesus Christ. Somehow we’ve picked up this notion that the body really doesn’t matter to God. Everything is spiritual and the only thing that matters to God are spiritual matters.  

Maybe this at least partly explains why we use our bodies as carelessly and adulterously as we do. We think that God cares nothing for the flesh, only for the spirit, so we can do “whatever we will” with our body and still actually believe this has nothing to do with our spiritual relationship with Jesus.

But Jesus is the Word made flesh, dwelling among us. He is not only the spiritual and eternal Word dwelling among us – but also the Word wrapped in a vulnerable and perishable body, and He is very much interested in this man’s skin and muscle tissue, tendons and ligaments.

What Jesus does for this man is a miracle, a genuine miracle, no doubt about it. But there were many lepers in Israel, yet on that day Jesus just touched this man and just made this man clean. Jesus said, “There were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” [Luke 4:27] Why just one? Why not all? The answer: what Jesus did for this man, is an example. It’s a sign. Signs are things that point to something beyond themselves. It’s an example of what Jesus wills to do for ALL men, women and children – for every nation and tribe and language and people. [Revelation 14:6-7]

Our problem is that we tend see no further than the sign. We think that the sign is the destination. We fail to see what all these signs and miracles are pointing to. If all your witnessing does is to point people to signs and wonders, it’s probably better to say nothing to anyone, because you’ve missed the whole point. Jesus tells this man to say nothing to anyone because He knows they will chase Him down for another sign… which, of course, is exactly what they do. What Jesus does for this man is not a call to come and have Him do a miracle for you. It is a call to put all your hope and trust in Jesus, who will make all things new again!

What a blessing it is to hear stories about the life and teaching of Jesus, and by faith to realize that God’s love is STEADFAST. He has promised to never leave you nor forsake you! That is why I hope to encourage you next week on Valentine’s Day and continuing throughout all seasons, to remember the UNCONDITIONAL love of God; to make every effort to demonstrate it with others in SACRIFICIAL ways; and together as the family of the Christian Church to remain STEADFAST in our faith! Paul says, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

What does love mean?

• Rebecca (age 8) “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.”
•  Billy (age 4) “When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.”
• Terri (age 4) “Love is what makes you smile when you’re tired.”
• Bobby (age 7) “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” (Wow!)
• Nikka (age 6) “If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.” (we need a few million more kids like her in this world)
• Mary Ann (age 4) “Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.”
• Jessica (age 8) “You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.”
  

And the final one: A four-year-old child whose next-door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman’s yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said: ‘Nothing, I just helped him cry.’

When there is nothing left but God, that’s when you find out that God’s love is all you truly need!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Amen.