Make Me Clean

This past week I was at an event that took place at Walt Disney World in Florida. The company I worked for sent us to a team building and recognition event from Sunday to Wednesday. I really appreciated the time to go with others in the company. My wife was able to join me on Wednesday and we had our own mini-vacation together through Saturday.

The team building and training was facilitated by the Disney Institute. There was a discussion on the perception or stereotype of what people expect when they come to Disney World. Some of the stereotypes are positive and some are negative. One of the positive stereotypes is that Disney World is clean. This is not just a perception but a reality if you have had an opportunity to visit Disney. According to the man facilitating our session, every night the parks are power washed. I imagine its some sort of machine that drives down the various roads and pathways spraying high volume wash. Also about a 1/4 of the parks get steam cleaned each night. So not only is dirt cleaned away, but bacteria is also killed.

The week before we left there was a heightened concern about the swine flu. Spray sanitizers were provided in our welcoming kit. I am not aware of anyone deciding not to take the trip but trusted that they would be safe from this disease. We all want to be clean and safe from disease. If we aren't clean or if we are sick we want to be made clean and well.

Lets look at the story of the man who has leprosy in Luke 5:12- 16.
^{Luke 5:12}While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."
 ¹³Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him.
 ¹⁴Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."
 ¹⁵Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. ¹⁶But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
  This wasn't ordinary case of leprosy, the man was covered with leprosy.  This is a very advanced case. This would be a man in desperation.   Someone who had leprosy was considered unclean.  The determination of whether someone had leprosy and was unclean was decided by the priest according to the law found in the book of Leviticus.


 ^{Lev 13:1} And the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: ² “When a man has on the skin of his body a swelling, a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes on the skin of his body like a leprous sore, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests. ³ The priest shall examine the sore on the skin of the body; and if the hair on the sore has turned white, and the sore appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous sore. Then the priest shall examine him, and pronounce him unclean. 

The man comes to Jesus for healing but he asks will you make me clean.  As we can see from Lev. the idea of being unclean has a practical and a spiritual aspect to it.  This man wants to be made spiritually clean, as well as healed of the decease.  To be unclean was to be separated from the rest of the people. You would not participate in the fellowship of the followers of God.  It would appear that he believes that Jesus not only has the power to heal him, but to be made clean, to restore him to the community.    Jesus does heal him and then says go to the priest for examination according to the law.

^{Lev 13:45} “Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ ⁴⁶ He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Jesus had already been healing folks and many had come to be healed, but the healing of the leper was so dramatic and visual.  People could see that he was clearly a leper and the examination by the priests would have confirmed the miracle.   The crowds were now flocking to hear Jesus.  To understand the good news, to be healed and made clean.

Can you truly be clean with power washer, disinfectants and Purell?  These things will clean the surface but they won't clean the sin and dirt in our lives.  We can look and feel well physically, but if we are unclean spiritually we are sick.  People came to hear Jesus.  To hear the good news.  To be made spiritually clean.

Will you ask Our Savior "Make Me Clean"?

He Has Risen

While many are thinking of the Easter celebration, I think its important to realize that the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus is not a Holy Day like we would find in the Old Testament where God directed the Israelites to set aside certain days.  Instead these annual events Christmas and Easter were established as traditions by the church.

Sometimes traditions can help us to remember certain events and sometimes the tradition itself takes on its own life.  We add practices to the tradition based on our culture and history.  These practices expand and soon we are eating Cadbury chocolate, buying cute bunnies for the kids, wearing pretty dresses, meeting for sunrise service, church breakfast and decorating with Easter lilies.

Don't worry I am not going to jump out with a condemnation of these practices.  When the kids were home we had egg hunts in the back yard and our church has a sunrise service and breakfast. As a matter of fact I delivered the sunrise service message this morning that had a similar theme to this blog.

We need to step back from the traditions and realize there is something real going on here.  Jesus truly  did rise from the dead.  This is the difference between Christianity and religion. We have a truly risen and living Savior.  Lets look at a couple of verses from the very first Easter.

Mk 16:1When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus' body. 2Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb  

So what is happening?  The woman were on there way to fulfill a tradition.  They could not attend to Jesus properly on Friday night because of the beginning of the Sabbath.  So they had to wait for the first day of the week.   They were not expecting to see Jesus alive.  Though they had spent several years with Jesus they fully did not grasp His nature as the Son of God.  Especially after seeing Him endure an agonizing death on the cross.  They probably felt that surely if Jesus was the Son of God, He would have stopped the suffering and stepped down from the cross alive.


After the resurrection Jesus made clear to His disciples the fulfillment of prophecy that a sacrifice is required for sin.  But at the time the woman were not thinking of that.

They did not expect to meet the risen savior.  Here is another part of the story recorded in Matthew.


 ^{Mt 1:5}The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. ⁷Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you."
 ⁸So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. ⁹Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. ¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

The angel proclaims He (Jesus) has risen from the dead.   This is not a myth, a fair tale, a legend or a story told to create a moral message.  Jesus truly did rise from the dead.  This is a historical fact with more evidence than the assassination of Julius Caesar.

My prayer is that you are not distracted by Easter as a religious thing, a Holy day, some story told as a moral to give hope.  My prayer is that your heart and eyes are open to the real story about God's Son who was sacrificed on the cross for you and then rose from the dead.  Your savior is truly risen.

Changing Careers

Well its spring time in Maine, which means it's in the mid-20s when I head out to work, and might be in the 50s during the day.  Though we had one day last week reach 60 at home, but it was still 46 in Portland where I work.  Plenty of rain and snow melt.  Though we are not experiencing the same flood conditions as North Dakota we are getting to that time when the rivers and streams are running fast, deep and wide.  Not exactly a time to run out with you fishing pole and expect to get any fish. At least if your as poor a fisherman as myself.

Well the last time I posted I included a passage about a fishing expedition.    We are going to take a little time to look at some of the verses that really change the direction of the story.  

Jesus was preparing to speak to the crowds and there were fishermen near by washing thier nets.  In order to create room for the crowds Jesus borrowed one of the boats and pushed off from shore a little bit and began to teach. 


^{Luke 5:4} When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
⁵ But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” ⁶ And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. ⁷ So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”
⁹ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” ¹¹ So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him.

So you can picture the scene.  Since the fishermen are washing the nets that means they were done.  They were tired and they had caught nothing.  You can imagine how they felt.   Their was certainly doubt about success given their experience during the night when fishing was optimal.  But because of their respect for Jesus they would obey in blind trust.

As the story goes (this is not a fish story about the one that got away) they caught more fish then the two boats could hold.  This was both a miracle and a gift.  It wasn't just a trivial show of Jesus authority over creation, but met the real needs of the fishermen.  Simon recognized two things this was an incredible gift to him and his family.  Also that Jesus was truly sent from God.  This gift came from God.  So what is Simon's reaction.  "I am a sinful man, O Lord!".   


According to his culture and ours you need to lead a saintly life to be worthy of God's favor.  You need to be like the religious leaders for God to bring you blessings.  This is what the religious leaders taught then and now.  With this teaching many had reached the point of giving up, saying I can't be worthy of God.  I can't have God in my life because I deserve punishment.  Maybe if I don't think about God any more or pretend He really doesn't exist I can go on living the way I am.  But now Simon doesn't have the choice of pretending God is not real.  So Simon reacts and says "Depart from me".   He cannot grasp the idea of God's forgiveness.


Jesus in a few words gets to the heart of the matter.  "Do not be afraid".  Do not be afraid of God's mercy, do not be afraid that you cannot earn forgiveness, do not be afraid because of the sin that seperates you from God.  Jesus is saying trust me.

An incredible miracle now happens to equal the miracle of the fish.  Simon's life is changed.  He gives his fears to Jesus and places His trust in Him.  What is past is past, you are forgiven if you follow me. "They forsook all and followed Him".   Not only has Simon left all behind to follow Jesus but he is also changing careers.  He will now work for Jesus telling others the good news.  When others hear this good news and follow Jesus then Simon will now be a catcher of men.