Sermon response: I am the leper.

By Jacob Fuller“Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!”Those words cut through the auditorium, and I felt a lump in my throat.Pastor Jim, during his third sermon in The Good King series, had already hit on Jesus’ intellectual authority, which was fascinating.  Imagine hearing the words of scripture spoken aloud by the author, like attending a book reading with a Q&A follow-up, only Jesus is the author, and the topic is the ultimate purpose of all of life. That's a beautiful picture.Pastor Jim had hit on Jesus’ pure power, too. His is a power that even demons obey. Demons obey, and yet I rebel everyday.He also spoke of a fame we, unfortunately, spread more often than the true Gospel when we talk about Jesus. People hear of Christ’s good works and often ask “What can Jesus do for me?” as a response, propelling His fame in a way not intended.All of these points stirred something in my heart, mostly conviction, and then those words pierced the air.“Unclean! Unclean! Unclean!”I had never related to the leper in this particular story before. I’ve never had a skin disease nor been exiled to the outside of town. To me, the story always centered on its physical reality. But, as Pastor Jim began to break down the social and spiritual reality of uncleanliness, I began to see myself as the leper.I have felt that I had to hide my uncleanliness; that I had to dress myself up to at least look clean for fear of being — metaphorically — thrown outside the city walls.I have walked in openness and still felt the need to shout my impurity, as if it defines who I am or implies that everyone should know about it before they can interact with me.I have felt the touch of Jesus and heard his voice say to me, “I will, be clean.” And as Pastor Jim continued to preach, my heart and eyes welled up as I remembered Jesus’ furious compassion, His deep love and His healing touch for me.I am also the city that cast the leper out. My heart broke for those who, in my self-righteousness, I have made feel the need to define themselves by their uncleanliness.I have compassion and a desire to bring light into darkness that is familiar to me. I have been believing, however, that unfamiliar darkness is impenetrable.Promiscuity, homosexuality, divorce: I have immense compassion on those living in this kind of darkness.With rage, vanity and passivity (all of which are present in my heart, too) I seem to believe that Jesus, who has all authority in heaven and on earth, and is so powerful even the demons obey, has no power over those particular areas of darkness.Being called clean by Jesus does not make me better than anyone. It does not mean I can gawk at uncleanliness in others. My status before Christ should not be bent into a display of self-righteousness, as if to say to others: “Look how clean I am. Don’t come dirty me up.”I have been on the receiving end of that type of self-righteousness and am horrified how easy it is to switch to that mindset. It’s easy to feel like you deserve or earned the right to be called clean.“You are the unclean!” Pastor Jim said, compounding the conviction in my heart.

“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”John 1:5-6

Then I was moved to repent and worship. Jesus has made me clean, and is making me clean, and will make me clean. He loves those who He has not yet made clean. Who am I to judge?I too deemed myself unworthy. Yet Jesus didn’t care about my judgment. He shined his light on me. He pushed back the darkness in my heart. He continues that work in me. I have the freedom and responsibility to reflect that life-altering light into the dark, unclean world so that others may look into our Savior’s eyes and hear those words that seem so impossible:“I will, be clean.”Jacob Fuller is a member of the Monticello City Group and wrote this in response to the on-going The Good King sermon series at The Paradox. Read other sermon responses here.