A Day in the Life of Jesus. (Mark 1: 35-45)

Introduction.

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to follow around in the footsteps of Jesus? Now, that question is more than just passing curiosity, because the bible actually tells us we are to be like Christ. And if we are to do what he did, then wouldn’t it have been helpful to spent time with him. So that we could do what we saw him do, and thereby be a little more Christ like. Well, we can’t do that, can we. But what we can do is the next best thing, as we journey together through this part of Mark chapter 1, because contained within these 10 or so verses is an account of a single day in the life of Jesus. The passage begins with what Jesus did in the morning.

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

(Mark 1: 35)

So very early in the morning, in fact the KJV actually “long before daylight”. I am led to believe the sun generally rises before 6.00am in the middle east, so this is a few hours before even sunrise. Let me tell you why this is significant. You may remember in the preceding verses we looked at in the previous chapter that Jesus had spent all day and into the evening ministering to people. On that previous day, he had begun early by teaching in the Synagogue. Then in the evening he went to Peter’s house and finding Peter’s mother-in-law sick, he healed her. Then the public got wind of this, and a large crowd gather outside Peter’s house, and they crowd around the door, and he spent all evening and into the night ministering to people.

Ministering to people particularly those in emotional need, I would imagine is exhausting. Jesus had spent a lot of energy the day before, and yet the next day he gets up well before daylight, and he gets up to pray. Some people work hard all day, (that’s true), but the vast majority of people relax after work, or watch TV in the evening, and then kid themselves they didn’t have time to pray. But Jesus worked hard all day and into the evening, and he still got up before sunrise to pray.

Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

(Mark 1: 36-37)

Clearly Jesus’s pattern for prayer was to find a solitary place somewhere quiet that he could not be easily found, in order that he would not be distracted. This suggests that maybe we all need time alone with God. We need time when we get to be alone with the lord, and it seems the pattern for Jesus was early in the morning. What better way to start the day than spending time with him in prayer, or in his word. So, Jesus began his day, with the Lord.

The text then told us, the disciples sought him out and said to him “everyone is looking for you”. The people have heard you healed somebody, and the crowds are gathering. Let’s not waste the opportunity the disciples must have thought. They say to Jesus, let’s go back to Capernaum, and Jesus replies.

Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

(Mark 1: 38)

So, there is this huge crowd, they have already witnessed amazing healings and Jesus says, no, we are not going back, we are moving on. We are going on to other towns and villages, because I primarily came to preach a message, and that’s the whole reason I here. Rather than stay in Capernaum and do more healing Jesus puts a priority on going out and preaching to new people. 

So he travelled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.

(Mark 1: 39)

 So, although he carries on healing it seems to me that he puts a priority on preaching a message the priority is on delivering the message. Which tells me , Jesus never let popular acclaim change his message or the priority he gave to it. I think I can guess what some of you are thinking. I am not a preacher, I am not an evangelist, I’m not in the ministry in that out front way.

You know that’s not exactly true. The truth is the scripture says we are all in the ministry. That’s doesn’t mean we should all get a pulpit, but it does mean we should all take seriously the mission of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. Some may criticize you for doing that., but you’ll be in good company. William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army, and at one point in his life he was being bitterly attacked in the press by other religious leaders. One of his sons showed him the newspapers and William Booth replied.

“50 years from now, it will matter very little that these people mistreated us, but it will matter a great deal how we do the work of God today”[i].

(Quoted in the Salvation Army, Caring Magazine)

Let me ask you the same question, 10 years from now, or 50 years from now will it matter that you were criticised by some people or is it better that you did the work of the Lord. Will it matter that people sneer at you on social media, or will it be more important that lives were redeemed and destructive lives were radically restored? When you stand before the Lord what then will you think then your priorities should have been.

If we really want to be like Jesus, then like him, we too should also be looking to save those that are lost. That’s what Jesus did, that’s what we should do and we should do it because in the final analysis we are all called to do it, to minister God’s grace, which by nature means we are all in the ministry. Thar’s what did Jesus do, he prayed, and he preached and he did something else. There is one more thing he did, and I would like to point it out.

A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

(Mark 1: 40)

He healed people, and by doing so he showed God’s compassion, for the sick and the downhearted. The important point in recognising that Jesus healed people, is that in doing so Jesus demonstrated the compassion of God. Should we be surprised that the God who created the whole universe, that spoke the whole created order into being. Should we be surprised that he can break into time and tweak that creation by healing someone. Not at all, but we should be surprised that the same God who created the whole universe has compassion for a single person even the lowliest and least important of people in that society at that time. The man with leprosy didn’t doubt that Jesus could do miracle, he said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 

I would like to suggest that statement reflects the down-hearted state of the man with leprosy and the low self-esteem he held himself in, his attitude towards himself. Let me explain, leprosy was a hideous societal curse as well as a catastrophic disease. It was a devastating disease with profound social consequences. According to the Mosaic law people with leprosy were required to live apart from everyone else, and if they came near people they had to announce, “I am a leper” Imagine having leprosy and what that meant in terms of isolating you from other people. Total social isolation, but on top of the Mosaic law laid down some basic rules about ensuring the spread of the disease was kept to a minimum. Then the Rabbi’s then came along and on top of that put some further restrictions upon the person with leprosy, even a chance encounter between a person with leprosy lead to all sorts of problems. A person with leprosy could not enter your property, if they did everything in the house, not just the people but all the possessions of the household were pronounced unclean. So, someone with leprosy as they travelled around experienced profound social exclusion. Can you imagine being isolated like that, nNo one wanted to have anything to do with you. This man with leprosy came to Jesus and he says, “if you are willing” he came and framed his request in this humble way, because in his experience most where not willing. So, he asks, “if you are willing” please heal me. And the bible says Jesus moved with compassion (KJV).

Jesus was moved with compassion, reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.

(Mark 1: 41-42)

Don’t miss this important point, it says he, reached out his hand and touched the man”. Imagine not been able to even talk to someone, imagine having to scream “unclean” everywhere you go or anytime you even come near somebody. No one would have ever put an arm around this man, or even shaken hands with him. 

He felt like a nobody, and Jesus of all things was not only willing to heal the man, but he also didn’t just speak healing, he reached out his hand and he touched him. Jesus doesn’t just talk about God, he doesn’t just preach but God he also practices compassion, the love of God. Then a very unusual thing then happens.

 Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning:  “See that you don’t tell this to anyone…. Don’t tell anyone, does that strike you as strange…. Then he says this, But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

(Mark 1: 43-44)

Don’t tell anybody else he says, just show yourself the priests. This is very important, because Jesus is saying go and show yourself to the Priests and make the proper offering. If the man had actually done this in reality, what do you think the priest would have done. It was the job of the priest, to be watchful and recognise the Messiah when he comes. The priests also knew that only twice in the history of the Old Testament had God healed a person with leprosy. s a matter of fact, the Rabbi’s wrote in the Mishna that it was a greater miracle to cleanse someone from leprosy than it was to raise the dead. So what Jesus is doing is sending this fella with a clear message to the priests announcing that the Messiah is here. Did the man do as he was told?

Not even close.

 Instead, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.

(Mark 1: 45)

The very thing that it appeared Jesus didn’t want to happen, happens. I find this text particularly interesting, because Jesus says, don’t tell, and the man disobeyed, and he tells everybody. Yet, Jesus says to us today, Go tell, and we also disobey, but we disobey by not telling people. Ironic or what. The real point of this latter part of this passage is Jesus was compassionate.  This passage covers a day in the life of Jesus. Jesus began by praying, he then did some preaching, then he practiced compassion. So, if you too want to be like Jesus, then prayer, and as you get opportunities throughout the day, talk to people about the Lord, but most important of all, practice compassion.

How do we practice compassion, in these days? Open your eyes, then and open your ears, and look at what is going on all around us.

Practicing compassion often means just listening and recognising when someone has a need. Virtually everybody we ever meet in life needs compassion. Maybe it needs nothing more than a friendly face, or a single word. Maybe it’s saying nothing but just listening.

In this example it was a man with leprosy, the Lord healed him out of compassion, and it radically changed his life. Maybe we can forgive this guy for going telling everybody, because his life had been so radically changed by his healing to an extent most of us can’t even imagine. Leprosy in that time was more than a disease it was a curse. With a disease you’ve got a physical problem, with a curse you had a spiritual problem, but with leprosy, you had both. We too, just by doing a simple thing like offering basic human compassion, or even listening to someone, we can also radically change somebody’s life. 

Jesus having compassion on him and cured the man’s radically changed his life on both the physical, and the spiritual and the social level. I want to reach a conclusion, by suggesting that compassion can change people, that compassion is a ministry of God, just as much as prayer and preaching. We beloved need to pray, we need to preach, to speak out about Jesus but we also need to show compassion to be like Christ and we particularly need to show compassion because of the effect it has on people. People need to see the Lord through what we do and sometimes when the words in isolation doesn’t seem to reach them, then the gospel combined with compassion will. Let illustrates this.

In Lincoln Nebraska there was a Rabbi who over the course of 3 years was hounded by a man named Larry Trapp. Larry was a self-proclaimed Nazi and an prominent member of the local Klu Klux Clan. For years he directed a tirade of hated filled mailing and even phone calls towards the Rabbi. Trapp whole purpose in life was to spew out hate filled slurs against the rabbi though his frequent phone calls to the Rabbi himself and his family and to his local radio station. Hate directed not only to the Rabbi and Jews in general, but anyone else who was not of the white race. At first the Rabbi was so afraid that he locked the doors of his house and worried about how this was going to affect the safety of his family. Then one day he found out that Larry was in fact a war veteran and a double amputee. So, the Rabbi began to pick up the phone calls from Larry and simply said that there was  another way to look and live a life free of hatred of other human beings. 

And that he would like to help him.  Later on one of his many phone calls Larry shouted down the phone and said this “why do you keep harassing me, why are you persecuting me”. The Rabbi just said he would like to help him, and he offered to start by taking him to the grocery store once a week. Trapp was stunned, disarmed by the compassion he was offered by this man to whom he had only shown hatred too and He started thinking.

Later he would admit when he actually spoke to the Rabbi he heard something he hadn’t experienced for almost as long as he could remember, compassion. Slowly the bitterness receded until one night years later in the midst of an emotional crisis he phoned the rabbi and said he wanted to escape from the feelings of hate he was living with, but he didn’t know how. The Rabbi said he would make a deal with him, in return for throwing out all Klu Klux Clan and Nazi paraphernalia they would as a whole family, commit to love him and care for him for the rest of his life. That day Trapp resigned from the Klu Klux Klan giving up his role as the Nebraska state recruiter and dumped the leaflets and the raciest materials in the trash, and here is what he later said.

“That family showed me so much love for so long in the end I could not help but love them back”

One final example.

Have any of you ever heard of the Westborough Baptist church.

The most hateful church in America. (Expand Louis Theroux documentaries) It has 30 members mostly 80-year-old Fred Phelps and his extended family. Huge media presence, and a massive internet presence and a hate filled website and blog).

Inspired by the example of Larry Trapp a Messianic Jewish family began posting on the churches internet site and blogs for years and years saying that if any of the Phelps church family wished to leave, they would give them a home. Three years ago, one of Fred Phelps granddaughters a girl of 18 left the church and lived with that family, Just recently another of their grand-children upon turning 18 also left and now live with another family. Those are radical examples of how compassion changes people.

But we all need to be like Jesus, we all need to pray, we all need to preach, to speak about Jesus, but we also need to practice compassion. Because that’s what Jesus did to reach people with the love and forgiveness of God and that is what we need to do also.

[i] Salvation Army Caring Magazine Article, Retrieved July 202 from caringmagazine.org