Special thanks to Dallon Adamson who created the image for this blog post. Great job sweetie!
I sat next to him on a bus, traveling through South Korea, as we just finished a meeting with leaders from all over the world.
I won’t say his name. Let me change that: I can’t share his name. He is one of the hidden ones, living in a country where his faith endangers those closest to him, yet his commitment to the Gospel is as strong as ever.
“In America, I have experienced something unique,” he said. “It seems like when Christians do something for God, and with God, they want the world to know about it. So, people tweet it, post it on Facebook, and draw attention to who they are and what God is doing. That is not so where I live.”
His interpretation and understanding of the culture I am a part of intrigued me. I asked him to explain further.
“Where I live, it is dangerous to believe the Gospel. Sometimes you can get more done when you are not known,” my friend said. He then shared the story from Mark 1:40-45:
“And a leper came to him, imploring him, and kneeling said to him, “If you will, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.And Jesus sternly charged him and sent him away at once,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.” 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.”
I remember studying this story a few years ago. Here is someone who has leprosy, a disease which causes parts of the human body to rot and die. I have been in parts of the world where the loneliness of leprosy is as heartbreaking as the disease itself. The leper asked Jesus to make him clean. This is significant because he didn’t ask to be healed. The leper is asking Jesus, a rabbi, to make it possible for him to receive the necessary clearance to re-enter society again. I wonder if the leper had a family? I wonder how long it had been since the leper was in proximity to someone? What we do know is this: asking to be clean is an indicator that the internal loneliness was much more painful than the external symptoms of the disease. This is significant.
After Jesus healed him, the man, a former leper, was instructed to go to the priest. Jesus was stern in his instruction-the Scripture says so. This keeps with the ceremonial law in the Old Testament. A leper, who was believed to no longer be leprous, had to receive a pardon of cleanliness from a priest after a period of time before returning to society. The leper did not obey. His disobedience is significant for a few reasons:
- He broke what was, at that time, Old Testament law which provided for a time period for cleansing and restoration. Jesus did not ask the man to break Scripture. This is true today as God will never, I repeat never, ask you or I to violate His Word.
- The leper would have gone to a priest for validation. The priesthood who would, in part, betray Jesus and hand him over, would have access to a validated miracle. I wonder how this would have impacted who participated in the betrayal of Jesus?
- Jesus changed his itinerary after the man told everyone. The eight days it took to validate cleanliness from leprosy were lost (Lev. 14:10). The eight days Jesus would have invested in the villages did not occur. I wonder whose lives were not impacted because Jesus’ itinerary had to change?
One simple decision to make “public” something that should have been “hidden” had a profoundly negative impact.
I want to remind us all how amazing it is to partner with God in the unseen things, the hidden ways, and the unknown, seemingly insignificant deeds. Sometimes we can bring honor to God more when things are not known.
I give you permission to serve God courageously even if that means to serve God, at times, discreetly.