Sermon Notes: Mark 1:40-45

Published March 15, 2026

Mark 1:40-45

Today we get to see Jesus in a facet of his glory that is easy to overlook, ignore, or use other parts of the Bible to convince ourselves that our version of Jesus is just right.

God said to make no images of gods. He knew the god’s tactics of coopting good and making bad. So, what do humans do? We read about Jesus, filter out what makes us uncomfortable or what we can’t explain, and make a Temu Jesus that is made in our image.

Jesus stands on his own self-revelation because he is the Eternal Creator, Second Person of the Trinity, Son of God.

Let me read something from an old Scottish pastor named James Stewart preaching on the mystery of Jesus human and divine personality.

“He was the meekest and lowliest of all the sons of men, yet he spoke of coming on the clouds of heaven with the glory of God. He was so austere that evil spirits and demons cried out in terror at his coming, yet he was so genial and winsome and approachable that the children loved to play with him, and the little ones nestled in his arms. No one was half so compassionate to sinners, yet no one ever spoke such red-hot scorching words about sin. A bruised reed he would not break, his whole life was love, yet on one occasion he demanded of the Pharisees how they ever expected to escape the damnation of hell...He was a servant of all, washing the disciples feet, yet masterfully he strode into the temple, and the hucksters and moneychangers fell over one another to get away from...the fire they saw blazing in His eyes. He saved others, yet at the last himself he did not save. There is nothing in history like the union of contrasts which confronts us in the gospels. The mystery of Jesus is the mystery of divine personality.”[1]

Jesus defies our trying to make him one thing or another. He is God.

Joshua meets the Eternal Son of God in Joshua 5:13-15 and asks if he is for Israel or their adversaries. The LORD Jesus replies, Joshua 5:14 (ESV) “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.”

Joshua bows to worship, and he is not stopped. In fact, he is told to take off his sandals because he is on holy ground, like Moses at the burning bush. Why? It’s the same Jesus bearing the voice and authority and holiness of Yahweh.

So, let’s see Jesus as John Mark presents him today, and let’s let the text say what it says.

Read it: Mark 1:40-45.

What do we need to see?

1. The leper exercises bold faith. V. 40

Here is one of our themes. Faith.

There are those with faith and the faithless. The faithful are outsiders socially, and this is another example of one who the insiders of the day didn’t consider should be on the inside, but by his actions he proves he’s part of the faithful.

How does the leper exercise bold faith? He approaches Jesus in violation of the law, and he implores Jesus for help as he kneels before Jesus.

The law was clear that a leper was to keep their distance from others. See Leviticus chapters 13-14.

Lepers were supposed to give warning of their condition so others could avoid them. They did this by wearing torn clothes, keeping their hair all messy, and covering their lower face with their hand and calling out “unclean”.

This leper ignores the law and approaches Jesus rather than trying to give Jesus a warning to stay away, and he implores Jesus for help rather than warning Jesus about his condition.

Lepers were victims of far more than the disease itself. This awful disease robbed them of their health, and the sentence imposed on them as a consequence robbed them of their reputation, their job, daily routine habits, their family and fellowship.[2]

In desperation, this man with leprosy comes to Jesus in bold faith.

I have two questions to help us see this leper’s bold faith: How does the leper get to bypass the law, and it be ok? How does the leper speak to and approach Jesus?

1.1 How does the leper get to bypass the law, and it be ok?

Listen to an account Matthew tells that helps us answer this question: Matthew 12:1-8 (ESV) 1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” 3 He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him to eat nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the Law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are guiltless? 6 I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. 7 And if you had known what this means, I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”

The law’s purpose was not a checklist of tasks to earn God’s favor, but the law was to serve as our teacher to lead us to faith in Jesus (Galatians 3:24) where we receive mercy rather than a demand to earn anything. So, when Jesus came and the kingdom began to break into creation, the law doesn’t go away. The law is being fulfilled in the life of Jesus as he is present. The law will be fulfilled upon his death and resurrection.

Jesus didn’t give the law to keep the leper from coming to him. Jesus gave a law to show leper and non-leper alike they both need to be saved by faith by coming to him.

The leper gets to bypass the law because the Creator and Lawgiver is there to fulfill the law, and this leper believes enough to see past the mere keeping of the law for the eyes and sensitivities of others to the heart of the law of faith, and he comes to Jesus.

That’s some bold faith.

1.2 How does the leper speak to and approach Jesus in faith?

This leper speaks by imploring Jesus. The world “implored” is a compound word “parakaleo”. It means to speak alongside. Literally this word tells about the internal posture of the leper’s request, and the posture is an invitation for Jesus to come to his side. This imploring speaks to the tone of the leper’s verbal appeal. His tone itself is a humble tone. The imploring sits alongside the actual words. Make sense?

He, in his whole demeanor, is asking Jesus to come near to him. He has been alone and avoided so long, and he in faith shows in his inner posture he desires Jesus to come near to him.

What does the leper say to Jesus in this imploring inner posture and tone?

He makes a true statement. It’s almost like a confessional declaration. The leper doesn’t ask a question. He says: “If you will, you can make me clean.” He speaks a truth. If Jesus determines to heal him, he can. If you want to, you can make me clean.

Mark says the man use the word “will”. “Will” is in the subjunctive mood (the mood of possibility) paired with the first word of his sentence (eav) as Mark records it, indicates that the leper understands the possibility of his being made clean lies completely and only in Jesus’ will to do it.

He knows there is no other way. It’s Jesus or bust. And if Jesus wills it, Jesus can make him clean. And it is this deeply held belief that drives him to his demeanor and his actual choice of words.

His situation and his faith have crafted his sentence and inner posture.

This leper is locked in on Jesus.

His bold faith is expressed in his imploring posture and grammar. This lets us all know he’s all in on Jesus and nothing else.

Also, in his imploring Jesus, the leper kneels.

He got down on his knees, stemming from his inner posture, and with his words declares that if Jesus determines it, he can make the leprosy go away.

This man’s faith reflects that he has a bead on the heart of God, and he knew God had come near, so he acted like it.

Great faith.

Listen to the Scriptures that I imagine the Spirit was graciously bringing to his mind as the Son of God came within range of him to exercise his faith in person:

Psalm 51:17 (ESV) 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Isaiah 57:15 (ESV) 15 For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Psalms 34:18 (ESV) 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

He doesn’t come blaming or shaking his fist. He comes imploring Jesus. Kneeling before Jesus. Great faith.

How does Jesus respond?

2. Jesus intensely and lovingly sets right what the curse broke. V. 41-42

Jesus, the Son of God, has shown us already that he is on the Father’s mission to crush the head of the Serpent by his preaching of the powerful good news of his kingdom, of which he is the King.

Jesus does this by preaching God’s word, healing, and casting out unclean spirits.

So, Jesus responds to this leper, and the ESV translates Mark’s words of Jesus’ response as “moved with pity”. That is a terrible translation on the part of the ESV. It unnecessarily obscures Jesus’ glory.

“Moved with pity” is one word, “orgiztheis” from “orgizo”.

The CSB translates “orgiztheis” as “compassion”. That’s a bit better.

Neither ESV or CSB translates Mark’s inspired choice of words literally, and they probably do so in an attempt to help people not misunderstand Jesus’ response to the leper, because if we don’t dig a little it will come off as irritation at the man.

“Orgiztheis” means to be provoked to anger. Jesus’ response is a deeply seated and holy anger.

It is very clear Jesus is not angry at the leper. Jesus heals him, and not in exasperation at the leper. Jesus said, “I will; be clean.” Jesus desires to heal the man just like the man believed he was able to do.

What John Mark is capturing here for us to see is a holistic and complex and loving response of the Eternal Son of God to what the curse has done to his image-bearers. Because God is love, as John the apostle says he is, when what he loves is wrecked by the curse, his holy and right emotive response is a deep anger that his absolutely pure and appropriate.

Jesus applies his anger to the loving response of setting right what the curse of sin has wrecked.

John Mark shows us some theological glory here. Jesus is not to be relegated to something we create to assuage our sensibilities.

God’s response to what the curse of sin has done is anger, and it is a holy anger. Yet, that anger is not vomited out on the leper who is suffering.

Jesus’ holy anger gets translated into a powerful act of love in the form of healing that sets things right for the leper.

3. Jesus sends the leper away with stern mission. V. 43-44

These are the parts of Jesus that usually don’t make it into the Great American Family Christmas feel good movie. You know what I mean? Jesus cuddled up by a fire in a Nordic winter scene wearing a sweater with a cup of hot chocolate and inviting us to sit by him while he tells bedtime stories about how pacifist love will make the commie stop being a commie. You know what I mean?

Jesus is Creator God, not a hippie pacifist, and he’s not an unnecessary warmonger. He’s God. He’s on his own side, and our task is to get on his side in all things.

Jesus is on the mission, and our salvation and his glory is at stake. Jesus faces a murderous foe who has been seeking to crack the code of who the Skull Crusher will be through murderous dictators like Herod who killed all the boys two years old and under because team Lion was on the move and the Lion of the tribe of Judah was coming, and team Serpent Dragon was trying to stop the seed of the woman from coming.

Jesus is not messing around.

Let me translate this verse in my default literal habit of translation without smoothing anything out for sensibilities: “And he roared (snorted) at him and cast him out immediately...”

We see John Mark’s theme of immediately here that the ESV translates as “at once” and should give us a clue to Jesus’ intent.

Jesus is not being a jerk. Jesus has been moved to a loving act of healing coming from a deep anger at the curse of sin. Remember, he’s on a mission to go to the cross to pay for sin as the seed of the woman.

“Immediately” signals to us that there is a first principle here. Not hurry. Not exasperation at the sick man.

Jesus roars at the leper to keep quiet about the healing and to go and obey the law as a proof to the religious leaders. These are the leaders who will align with the Serpent whom Jesus is keeping in the dark about the plan so they don’t impeded it any more than they already are because that’s their nature.

Jesus recognizes that the conflict is ramping up, and he’s not messing around. So, he takes the tone of mission with the newly healed man because there is a time to bear down and get after the mission.

Jesus does not do this in anger at the man. Jesus does this in intensity that reflects the gravity of the situation.

The best way to see this is how CS Lewis portrays Aslan in one encounter in “Prince Caspian”.

C.S. Lewis portrays Aslan's interaction with the doubting dwarf Trumpkin in a way that makes me think of this encounter. Trumpkin has been living under Telmarine rule and didn’t really believe Aslan to be more than a legend. Aslan engages Trumpkin with a commanding authority and power.

Aslan addresses the dwarf with a booming voice of a roar, lashing his tail as he calls out: "And now, where is this little Dwarf, this famous swordsman and archer, who doesn’t believe in lions? Come here, Son of Earth, come HERE!" Trumpkin is shook.

Aslan then pounces on Trumpkin and is gentle with him in the pouncing. Aslan then asks simply, "Son of Earth, shall we be friends?" Trumpkin, humbled, stammers his agreement.

Aslan displays overwhelming and loving strength that transforms Trumpkin's skepticism to belief without harm or making him believe something he didn’t really believe.

I think this is what Jesus is doing with this leper who is no skeptic but now in the fight, and I’m inclined to think Lewis gets his inspiration for such in his writing from Jesus’ encounter with this leper.

I tend to think this may be where our leper friend is converted. It’s not he healing. It’s the encounter with the Holy God of creation in his holiness that fuels what we see next.

What is that?

4. The leper goes and preaches and spread the news. V. 45

John Mark tells us that the leper goes out and begins to “kerussein” (from “kerusso”) about the situation and began to “advertise” the news.

Mark chooses two words here that are very important: “kerusso”, which means to preach. The firs is the New Testament’s word for how we are to speak about the good news, and the second word is a super long word that means to “advertise”.

This healed man goes to preaching about Jesus, and advertising by virtue of his healed skin what Jesus has done.

Mark does not tell us if this is good or bad. Jesus told him to be quiet but told him to go to the public place and obey the law. This is a booger of a situation. Jesus sort of puts him in a bind, and I don’t have an explanation for that.

We are sort of left with the feeling that it’s inevitable the word will get out and humans are going to have a hard time keeping such good news they can’t hide to themselves.

I mean, dude was a leper, and now he’s not. He met the King of the universe who had an edge to him.

That’s hard to hide. So, he just gets after preaching. He’s been made new, and he’s a walking billboard to Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.

The result of his preaching is that Jesus had to be a little more clandestine in his travel, because his fame and ministry began to grow.

Mark just presents this as a fact for us to sort of marvel at.

There is no rebuke from Jesus for how the leper responds.

He just preaches and shows what Jesus has done.

Application

What do we do with this text?

1. Faith is more than information that convinces us of facts with no acts.

This leper’s bold faith looked like a belief driven by Jesus’ proof of who he is that worked itself out in tone, words, and physical posture.

The leper’s belief led to action internally and externally.

His insides were changed and it was displayed in his outward actions.

Biblical faith always works from the inside out.

New heart leading to new actions.

2. Learn contrition as a display of bold faith like the leper that God honors.

The Bible presents us with a paradox of responses to the Lord.

There are invitations to come to him, and to come to him boldly.

Those invitations are experienced by those who come as God being a consuming fire and those he saves and invites to come to him experience a holy fear that doesn’t repel or act like the fear generated by real threats to our good, but a holy weight that sort of takes the creature low in a joyful trembling.

Listen to this: Revelation 4:9-11 (ESV) 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

What kind of people does God honor with his manifest presence?

Psalm 51:17 (ESV) 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 34:18 (ESV) 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

There is a gospel reality that all those who have believed the good news have the forever presence of Jesus with them by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

And there is the reality that how I appropriate faith and interact with my wife and how I exercise faith (see the seven churches of Revelation) changes the dynamic of how God chooses to work in and through us.

Contrition looks like not overplaying my comfort with God while not underplaying his invitation to come to him. It looks like these texts.

I believe the only way to do this is robust self-evaluation with a thick application of the good news.

Try to let the Spirit teach you this when you enter into your private time with him, and then somehow let that influence how you conduct yourself in corporate gathering.

3. If you have not believed this good news, believe today.

4. Come to Jesus with what you need in bold faith.

5. Let the Bible say what it says, strive to make sense of it in fellowship with the help of the Holy Spirit, and get comfortable having our view of God sanctified.

6. Pray

Appendix

1. Discipleship

Discipleship begins with knowing who one is a disciple of. So, Mark will show us Jesus and identify him for us. As the Father is with Jesus the Son, so the disciples are to be with Jesus.

The Father knows the Son, the Son knows the Father. The Father is near to the Son, and the Son is near to the Father. Jesus makes himself known to his disciples and is near to his disciples.

Jesus’ disciples struggle to get to know Jesus, but they stay near to him. As the Father also sends Jesus, Jesus sends his disciples. Jesus speaks his word to his disciples like the Father speaks to Jesus.

Simply, discipleship for John Mark is proximity to Jesus, and from that nearness knowing him, hearing him, and obeying him.

2. Faith

“For Mark, faith and discipleship have no meaning apart from following the Son of God. Faith is thus not a magical formula, but depends on repeated hearing of his word and participation in his mission.” - James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 17.

There are two groups: Those with great faith and those who are faithless.

There are those who show great faith who have no reason to show faith in Jesus. They are on the outside of Jesus’ circle and seem to have no advantage, yet they display great faith. These folks have an assurance of things hoped for and conviction about unseen things hoped for. They display their faith in their deep desire and effort to get to Jesus for help.

The faithless and those struggling with faith should have the advantage: his hometown, the religious insiders who are supposed to be the theological experts, and even his own disciples.

These folks struggle to take Jesus at his word.

This group is full skeptics, blasphemers, and those who are slow to believe.

3. Insiders and outsiders

The theme of insiders and outsiders distinguishes those who are enemies of God and those who are not.

Jesus will tell us that he teaches in parables because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven are for the insiders and the parables keep the outsiders from understanding.

That’s a little hard to swallow, but it is what Jesus says. This theme will uncover the bias of those who think they are insiders based on their status and are not. This theme puts the last first and first last.

The insiders are those who live by faith and begin to understand Jesus’ teaching.

The outsiders are the faithless.

The problem is that the faithless and outsiders of the kingdom of God are in power and are the ones who are believed to have the answers and should be insiders.

The outsiders are enemies of God.

The insiders are those who have been cast out due to the deceived nature of the faithless who think they are faithful.

That feels confusing, but it becomes clear as you walk through Mark’s gospel, and it should cause each one of us to take account of ourselves, to test ourselves, to make sure we are not a self-deceived and perceived insider who is actually an outsider because we are an elite and faithless hack.

4. Gentiles

The emphasis on Jesus working in the North parts of Israel among the Gentiles and close to Gentile territory and not in the southern Jewish-heavy portions shows us the Lord’s intent on reclaiming the nations and conquering the land and people taken captive by the forces of darkness.

The emphasis you will find in the prophets on the north is important, and it’s a theme for a whole Bible exposition not for a study through Mark alone. But Mark picks up on it because it is geographically significant in the prophets, and Jesus actually works from the north of Israel.

The point is that it is Gentile, unbeliever territory.

Jesus’ work in Israel was not for them to have him to themselves, but to redeem and invite them to mission with him to rescue the Gentiles taken captive by the Serpent Dragon to do his will.

5. Messianic secret

Mark is full of Jesus telling folks he heals to keep it quiet, and they usually don’t do it. He tells demons to keep quiet also.

Why would Jesus want folks and demons to keep quiet about what he will later tell us to go preach?

Paul said it in Ephesians 3, and we read it last week.

There is a mystery to God’s plan in Genesis 3 about who the Seed of the woman is and how the Seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent dragon.

Until the right time, God keeps the Skull Crusher’s identity shrouded in mystery to keep the enemy from impeding God’s work.

In fact, the Lord will successfully lure the seed of the serpent into his trap by his humble ministry and refusal of popularity. He will play them into putting him to death through is willingness to go to the cross and keep his identity on the down low not realizing that by his death he tramples over death, the curse, and crushes the Serpent’s noggin.

Listen to how Paul speaks about this mystery that God and his faithful are to understand has been revealed in the gospel in 1 Corinthians 2:6-8: 1 Corinthians 2:6-8 (ESV) 6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. 7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

We know the mystery now because it is the good news in its fullness from Genesis to Revelation.

This is why Jesus labored to keep his identity a secret. From Genesis 3, the enemies of the cross

have been trying to wreck God’s plan. The genealogies of the Old Testament are there to show us the teams, and the Serpent’s seed have been trying to destroy the woman’s seed since God’s declaration.

Jesus intends to keep things as shrouded as he can until the resurrection.

6. Focused journey

After Peter confesses Jesus is the Messiah (8:27ff), Jesus sets out with focus to the cross, and Mark captures Jesus’ journey very starkly. Jesus’ focused journey to the cross becomes his invitation to us to join in the focused journey of being with him on mission as the way of the cross.

7. Immediately

Mark uses the Greek word “euthus”, translated as “immediately”, in his account of Jesus’s work.

I believe that the entire New Testament uses this word about 51 times. John Mark uses “immediately” 41 of the 51 times, thus making John Mark the predominant user.

What is Mark communicating?

“Euthus” means “to make straight” regarding physical things.

“Euthus” is also used regarding immaterial things like the heart of a matter, and when applied to things like that it means “right” and “true”. Its synonyms are firm, unwavering, and ready.

The Greek word as Mark uses it is not so much about time. We hear “immediately” and think

being in a hurry. Jesus was not in a hurry.

Mark is telling us that Jesus was walking in the unwavering and always straight way of truth.

Jesus was deliberate about the mission.

Jesus’ way is deliberate not hurried.

[1] James Stewart, sermon “Mystery of divine personality”

[2] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 68–69.