Chapter # 1 Paragraph # 10 Study # 2
April 23, 2019
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: Mark's presentation of Jesus' compassion is a foundational reality of "The Gospel".
Introduction: That Mark presented Jesus' response to the leper as "rooted in compassion" is both a strong encouragement to us to bring our needs to Him, as well as a problematic reality when He refuses to handle our "needs" according to our grasp of His "compassion".
It seems clear from the text in its context that Mark is deliberately attempting to link The Gospel of Jesus Christ to the divine attribute of "compassion". However, it also seems clear from the realities of daily history that there must be some other considerations involved besides the pitiable condition of one who seeks relief from Him. The skeptic's query is almost always, "If Jesus is so "compassionate", why does He/God appear to do nothing in the face of a significant enormity of "suffering"? And, especially, why does He often not do what we consider the "compassionate" thing?
So, we have a legitimate reason for looking in interest at this record to see if we can find at least a few hints to the answers.
- I. Mark's Main "Action" Verb is Qualified By Two Attending Realities.
- A. The "Main Verb" in the sentence is "compound": He both "touched" and "said".
- B. But, before Mark records that He did either of those two things, he tells us that Jesus had an underlying "attitude" and that He took a "particular action".
- 1. The underlying attitude: compassion.
- a. The word is derived from the Greek word for a person's intestines.
- b. The word is obviously used in a metaphorical way that links a person's mental perceptions to his physiological reactions, particularly an unsettling in the gut.
- c. Thus, at the root, the word signals a mental perception of some pitiable condition that causes a sensation in the gut that pushes for some kind of action seeking a solution.
- d. This compels us to think about what Jesus "perceived".
- 1) First, we are told that the leper "knew" that Jesus was John's foretold "Mighty One" because he said, "You can make me clean".
- 2) But we are also told that the leper did not "know" whether This Mighty One was sufficiently affected by His perceptions of the pitiable state of a leper so as to take action.
- 3) And, later, Mark recorded a kind of "opposite" reality in the text and context of 9:22.
- a) In that record, a distraught father, whose "faith" had already been somewhat shattered by the disciples' failure in a matter where they should have succeeded, expresses a confidence in Jesus' "compassion" but without a confidence in His "ability".
- b) By this contrast between our current record and that which is to come, we see that there are two factors that must be held together: "ability" and "willingness to act".
- i. But, for these two to be held together, we need to realize that there are, perhaps many times, extenuating circumstances.
- ii. In Matthew 18 there is a record of such extenuating circumstances: a man who was shown compassion, but did not let it guide him into the same attitude, finds himself the recipient of a revoked compassion with the declaration that God is highly likely to copy the actions of the "uncompassionate".
- iii. And in John 9:2 as well as 11:4 (not to mention the Father's refusal of Jesus' desperate request in the Garden) we are told of some extenuating circumstances that do not deny God's compassion, but do put it in the mix of multiple attributes and an over-riding consideration of another divine objective.
- 4) Thus we are forced to accept the reality that if God is not going to show compassion, we need to exercise "faith" in the face of His refusal because of another example in Acts 1:18.
- 2. The particular action: stretching forth His hand.
- a. Leper's were "unclean" and anyone who touched one became "unclean" also: Leviticus 22:4.
- b. Thus, Jesus' "touch" is a clear demonstration of His willingness to be made unclean so that the leper could be made clean [this is the heart of the Gospel].
- c. The actual "stretching forth of His hand" is a literal action with a metaphorical significance behind it: Jesus was going to meet the pitiable situation with a solution.
- C. Jesus' main actions.
- 1. He "touched" him with a cleansing touch.
- 2. He "said", "I am willing; be cleansed".
- II. The Outcome.
- A. "Willingness" is cemented into the theology of the record because the leprosy "went away from him".
- B. "Ability" is cemented into the theology of the record because "he was cleansed".
