I used to have a 2000 Chevy
Malibu. I am pretty sure that according
to the biblical definition it was unclean.
I lived in fear that anyone who got into it would themselves become…unclean. What was wrong with the car? Well first of all, it was a used car that
came with a wide array of odours through which it bouquetted with the changing
of temperatures. These odours were
initially well masked by the new car smell deodorant that used car dealers
have. There are times when I got in it
and I could smell body odour. Whose it
was, I do not know. At other times it
was this musty, yucky, been too wet before smell. At other times it smelled as if something had
decomposed in it. At other times it
smelled like a smokers’ convention. And smells
weren't all, there was an orange patch on the right-hand front corner of the
driver’s
seat of my own doing. It was Cheeto
residue or Chit and chip grease. Finally,
there was the dust and, well, we all know what dust is made of –
meteor debris, pollen, human dander, and disintegrated human mucous
solids. Anyone who braved sitting in my
car inevitably would carry away some of its foulness with them. They therefore encumbered upon themselves its
uncleanness.
Well, back in Jesus’ day
people with leprosy were looked upon with much the same disdain as my wife did
that car (actually it was worse and my sense of humour belittles their
circumstance). Lepers were called
unclean and as such they were banished from town to live in leper colonies and
had to beg by the side of the road.
People were afraid to touch them for it was believed that not only could
the leprosy be passed on, but also the uncleanness. You see, being unclean meant more than simply
being dirty. Leprosy was one of those
things that people considered to be a curse from God because of some terrible
hidden sin. It was an outward expression
of an inward diseased spiritual condition.
It was believed that the inward spiritual condition of a leper was so
diseased they were not even allowed in the temple to worship God.
Today, we no longer regard lepers as
unclean. Yet, the notion of uncleanness
still pervades. We all have people in
our lives we’d just as soon not be around.
We know people we just don’t want to keep company with and to our
shame the reason can simply be any sort of personality quirk or life condition
we want to single out and turn our noses up at.
Other times we treat people as if they are unclean because they are
difficult people or because they are full of hate and anger or never have
anything good to say and we just don’t want to be dragged down into that. Sometimes it is because the person has hurt
us or we have hurt them and we don’t want to mend the relationship. We can at times treat ourselves as if we are
unclean by making ourselves believe that we’re not good enough. There’s something in our past that we’ve
done or was done to us that makes us feel unacceptably different from others
and even unacceptable to God. That’s
what it is to be ashamed of ourselves.
But, all of that is not a satisfactory
definition of what it is to be unclean.
I’m
going to dig out an archaic word that I don’t really like because for most people it
is misunderstood and wrongly used to label people. The word is sin. Sin is humanity’s condition of hopelessly being and doing
other than what we were created to be and do.
God created humanity in God’s own triune image to be a loving
community of people who bring order to the creation and voice its praise to its
maker. We were created to enjoy God and
worship God and enjoy life. Instead, we
bring disorder and abuse to God’s good creation and instead of finding
rest in letting God be God we toil and strive at being our own gods. When it happens that we become aware of our
own sinfulness, our uncleanness, we feel ashamed and the result of that is that
we hide from others and from God and all the while live in denial of our
uncleanness. And so, we try to find
whatever means we can to keep from feeling the shame and the guilt whether its
burying ourselves in self-destructive behaviours or perfectionism or blaming or
approval seeking. And it gets worse, we
inevitably pass our uncleanness on to others for, you see, uncleanness is
relational in nature. People hurt us and
we hurt others and the uncleanness (brokenness, shame, guilt) gets passed
along. We are all unclean.
But, let’s take a good look at how Jesus dealt with
our uncleanness because it’s really moving. The leper in our gospel reading is a prime
example. The first thing to note is that
Jesus was moved with compassion for him.
The leper came before him kneeling humbly yet confident and begged to be
made clean. The leper was tired of being
put to shame and of being ashamed of himself.
He wanted his life back. He
wanted to be able to be part of community again and be able to go to the temple
to worship. So, he came to Jesus and
said, “If
it is your desire, you can make me clean.”
Jesus looked at this man who was a revolting mess, his flesh was rotting
on his body and the stench would have been overwhelming, and instead of being
moved to disgust Jesus was deeply moved with compassion. Instead of saying, “Get away from me. You’re disgusting.” Jesus touched him – touched the leper and
took the leper's uncleanness unto himself.
Jesus the incarnate Son of God became unclean for this man. He shared in the lepers uncleanness. Then jesus said, “It is my desire. I want
you to be clean. Be clean.” Immediately, the leprosy left him and he was
clean.
This is the way Jesus deals with us in
our uncleanness. He has compassion for
us. He touches us with the hand of the
Holy Spirit, touches us to take our uncleanness onto himself, and in turn fills
us with his cleanness, fills us with knowing the steadfast love and faithfulness of
God the Father just as he himself knows it.
When Jesus touches us he touches us with his very self, the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t say to us, “Get away from me, you
worthless disgusting sinners. You ought
to be ashamed of yourselves and you deserve what you have gotten.” He doesn’t say that. “He says, “I really, really, really want you to be
clean. Become clean.” God really, really, really wants us to know
how very much he loves us and makes it so we can. That's why
Paul writes: "God shows his love for us in that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8). He didn't say, "stop sinning so that the
benefits of Jesus death can apply to you."
God doesn't make us clean ourselves up before he'll have anything to do
with us. In fact, there is no way we can
do that. Cleanness is a gift that comes
with the gift of the Holy Spirit. For us
even to be aware of our uncleanness the Holy Spirit must be working in us. Otherwise, we are lost in sin and just plain
unaware of it.
Sometimes people become aware of their
uncleanness and don't know where to turn.
They don't come to church because most of Western indeed North American
Christianity has been giving the impression we have to get ourselves right with
God before even coming to church.
The Church has been overly concerned with
morality in a way that has made those who are in the crisis of uncleanness feel
even more unclean. That's pretty much the same thing the priests, scribes, and Pharisees
made lepers feel in Bible times and not just lepers. That's the way most common people were
feeling and since they could not go to the "god-ordained" for God's
forgiveness, they were flocking to John the Baptist out in the wilderness for
he truly spoke and acted for God.
People today are doing by flocking to the health care profession for ant-depressants and spending
time in the self-help section of bookstores where they find a huge section of
self-help books on how to accept yourself and be the you you’ve
always wanted to be. That’s not
what it is to be clean. Being the me I’ve
always wanted to be usually means I leave a wake of hurting people behind me as
I selfishly pursue my passions and go about being true to mine own heart. True self-acceptance comes from knowing God's
acceptance. Being clean comes from God touching us with the fellowship of
unconditional love that God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit God and that
touch makes us new and then compels us to become those who create deeply
compassionate fellowship with others that reflects the unconditional love of
the inner life of the Trinity.
This touch happened for all of
humanity in, through, and as Jesus Christ and in that touch God the Son took
humanity’s
uncleanness into himself and took it into the Communion of the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit and there it perished. When
Jesus died on the cross uncleanness died with him. This touch that began for all humanity when
God the Son became the human person Jesus God extends to each of us through the
gift of the Holy Spirit so that God’s presence in us puts to death our
uncleanness and makes us clean. It is
not God’s
nature to be angry and disgusted or revolted with us because of our
uncleanness. It is rather God’s
deepest desire to make us clean and just as Jesus touched the leper and
commanded him to be clean and it became so, so it is that God touches us each
and commands us to be clean and it becomes so.
Winding down, since we are clean we
are those who spread cleanness rather than uncleanness. Our goal is that when people come around us a
bit of Jesus rubs off on them. To do
this we must ground ourselves in prayer and strive to pray continually. In the Greek the same word is used for
begging as for praying. Prayer begins
with being mindful of God’s presence continually with you. If you have to, imagine that Jesus is sitting
in the chair next to you or standing next to you. Sooner or later a door will open and you’ll
just know he’s there. Spend time
reciting the Lord’s Prayer or some other verse over and over to yourself. Take time to pray for the people you
know. Say a silent inward prayer for
everyone you come across throughout the day.
Occupy your minds as much as possible in prayer and you will experience
cleanness welling up in you along with some other things like joy, contentment,
compassion, patience,…the good stuff.
Another way to spread the cleanness is
to show hospitality and be gracious and complimentary to everyone you
meet. Welcome people into the joy of
your lives with uplifted faces and kind words.
There are other things we can do as well, speaking the truth in love for
one, showing patience, listening. We
need to keep in mind that most everybody to varying extents feels unclean and
that drives them in the way they are to do the things they do. It changes people tremendously if we strive
to help them feel clean. In the name of
Jesus Christ be clean and spread the cleanness.
Amen.
