We live in a world that canonizes celebrity. It no longer matters how much a person has accomplished or how much they have contributed to society. All you have to do to become famous in today’s world is to keep yourself in front of the media.
We have people, it’s often noted, who are famous simply for being famous. People like Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, for example. They became so famous that they starred in their own reality show “The Simple Life.” Before that, says one critic, Paris Hilton did pretty much nothing except be the heiress to the Hilton Hotel fortune. Also on the list are other names ripped from Hollywood’s gossip columns, such as Brandon Davis, Kim Kardashian, Jack and Kelly Osborne (Ozzy’s kids) and Kevin Federline Britney Spears’ ex for those of you don’t keep up with such matters. People who are famous simply for being famous. (1)
I suspect that most of us would have mixed feelings about being celebrities. Fred Allen once quipped that a celebrity is one who works to be known, then wears dark glasses so as not to be recognized. Well, most of us can relate. After all, who wants to live under a magnifying glass?
When the late Walt Disney was asked what he thought about being famous, he replied, “It feels fine when you get a choice reservation at a football game, but it’s never helped me make a good picture or command the obedience of my daughter. It doesn’t even seem to keep fleas off our dog, and if being a celebrity doesn’t give one an advantage over fleas, then I guess there can’t be much in it after all.” Disney was a sensible man who was able to put life into perspective, but I suppose celebrities serve their purpose. They make life more interesting for those who identify with them.
A few years ago there was a 310-pound defensive tackle for the Chicago Bears who suddenly became a national celebrity. He was known as William “The Refrigerator” Perry. You football fans remember Perry. In a four-week period, he did the unthinkable. He stepped out of his role as a lineman and ran the ball successfully for yardage. He even caught a pass for a touchdown. Then he ran for another touchdown. It was the first time a defensive tackle had ever, in the history of football, been given the ball to carry to make a touchdown. Sports fans were captivated by this extraordinary event which, for many people, put the fun back in football. Perry became a television star, appearing on the “Tonight” show, the “Today” show, and the nightly network news shows. There were as many as one hundred requests per day for endorsements, and an extra $750,000 in fees came his way.
Meanwhile his mother said, “I know he was good, but I don’t think he’s that good.” And his wife said, “This was great for a while, but now it’s ridiculous. It’s gotten out of hand.” [It’s hard to impress the women in your life.]
Perry himself said, “As fast as it comes, that’s how fast it goes.” He was right. (2) William “The Refrigerator” Perry is quickly being forgotten. But he had more than his fifteen minutes of fame. For a while, he was a genuine celebrity.
One thing Jesus did not want to be was a celebrity. You can see that in our lesson for today. A man with leprosy came to him. The man got down on his knees in front of Jesus and said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
It’s interesting. The NIV says that Jesus was “indignant” at this request. Other versions say he was “filled with compassion.” Perhaps he felt a little of both. He wanted the man with leprosy to be healed. Jesus wants everyone who is physically sick or emotionally sick, to be healed. He wants everyone who is hurting in any area of life to be released from that hurt. Maybe you’re hurting financially as you watch the equity in your house drop, or hurting emotionally as you watch your children turn their back on you. People hurt in a multitude of ways, and none of it is what Christ desires for his people. Believe that. Is it God’s will for anyone to have leprosy, or cancer, or heart problems, or whatever pain we may have? No, it is not God’s will for anyone to suffer. That’s why God gave us the gift of medical science. God wants us to live free from disease.
But Christ did not come into the world to be a medical doctor or a psychologist. There was no way for Christ, while he was confined in a physical body, to heal everyone who needed him. There were not enough hours in a day or a week or a lifetime. That does not mean that he was not willing. It was simply a practical impossibility. Besides, healing individuals was not his primary mission. He didn’t want people to suffer, but neither did he want to be lured away from his primary purpose. His primary mission was to establish the kingdom of God in our midst. His primary mission was to preach and to teach and to instruct his disciples so that they might carry on his work when he was gone.
But notice what happens in this encounter with the man with the disease of leprosy. The man says, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”
And Jesus reaches out his hand and touches the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
Immediately the leprosy left the man and he was cleansed. Now, notice what happens. Jesus sent him away at once with a strong warning: “See that you don’t tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”
So, what does the man do? He does the exact opposite of what Jesus asks him to do. “Instead,” Mark tells us, “he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news.” Now notice what follows, “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.”
Jesus could no longer enter a town openly! Here was his real mission to spread the good news of the coming kingdom, but his success as a healer stood in the way of what he was sent to do. Perhaps that is the reason that nine times in the Gospels particularly in the Gospel of Mark Jesus tells people to keep quiet about who he is or what he’s done for them.
For example, Jesus raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead one of the most amazing miracles in history. Then what does he do? Mark says he gave strict orders not to let anyone know about it (5:35-43).
He healed a man who could not speak or hear. Then he tells the man not to tell anyone. Think about that for a moment. Here is a man who had been deaf and mute, perhaps all his life, who is now able to hear and talk, and Jesus tells him not to tell anyone how it happened. That might be a little unrealistic.
But it wasn’t just the people he healed. In Matthew 16:20 we read, “Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.” And again, in Mark 9:9 following that spectacular event on the Mount of the Transfiguration we read, “As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”
The last thing Jesus wanted was to be a celebrity. Unfortunately, celebrity came to him. And in one sense, celebrity killed him. The more the authorities knew about him the more they feared him. He was a threat to all the powers that be. It would have been best for him if he had kept a low profile. Don’t rock the boat. Go with the flow. He had not come into the world to be a physician but to tell the world about God’s love.
Still, when he was confronted with someone who was hurting he could not help but heal. Why? Because he cared. He himself embodied the love of the Father . . . so when the man with leprosy said, “If you will, you can make me clean,” Jesus could not help but say, “I am willing.”
Writer James Hume tells about a friend of his in Washington who woke up one morning to find his left arm paralyzed. He couldn’t feel a thing in his left hand. He rushed to the office of a neurosurgeon in Bethesda who ministered to Presidents as well as Navy brass in a nearby hospital. He told the doctor about his arm. The doctor, in a heavy German accent, replied, “Do not fear. You haf come to the right place. See that certificate on the wall. I vas graduated from the University of Vienna. “
Humes’ friend said, “Doctor, my hand, I can’t feel a thing!”
“It is nothing,” said the doctor. “I am expert in the field. See that other certificate. I vas elected to the Royal Academy of Neurosurgeons.
“But, Doctor,” his friend asked, “did I have a stroke? I can’t feel . . .”
“Be patient,” the doctor interrupted. “You are in goot hands. See that other certificate. That’s for ven I addressed the Vorld Institute of . . .”
With that, Humes’ friend left and went to his neighborhood doctor, who told him, “Trevor, you just slept on your arm. If the feeling doesn’t come back by dinnertime, give me a call.”
Humes says the moral of this little story for him was this: “People don’t care how much you know unless they know how much you care!” The neurosurgeon his friend consulted mostly cared about displaying his accomplishments. His patients were secondary. The neighborhood physician cared about his patients. (3)
Jesus cared about people. Even if it gave him less time for preaching and teaching. Even if it ultimately cost him his life, he could not pass by someone who was hurting.
Jesus could not pass by people who were hurting, and they in turn could not help talking about the wonderful things he had done for them. And the more they talked, the more of their friends came to Jesus as well. And the less time he had for his ministry. We could say it was a “vicious” cycle, but it was anything but vicious. Jesus simply cared too much for his own good and people who encountered him were so touched by him they simply could not keep it to themselves even when he told them to be quiet.
We can understand, can’t we? If Christ has touched your life, how can you be quiet about it? When people have something important happen in their lives they want to share it. Besides, they were but following Christ’s example. He responded to them with love and healed them, and they wanted to pass the news of his power to their friends so that they could be healed, too. It was the caring thing to do.
Rev. Richard J. Fairchild tells about a 92-year-old woman whom he calls one of the most beautiful people he has ever met. Unfortunately, this elderly woman was not only advanced in years; she was a paraplegic. She was confined to a hospital’s extended care ward . . . and there she lived all her days splitting time between her bed and her wheel chair.
This dear lady had diabetes and several other problems and over the previous five years she had first one foot, then the other, then a leg, and then another, amputated so that she might be able to go on living. She had considerable pain, most days she was very uncomfortable and she had no family or close friends to come in and visit she had simply outlived most of them.
What this lady did during her days, however, was quite wonderful, Rev. Fairchild reports. When she was able, she wheeled her chair up and down the corridors of the extended care ward where she would pop in and visit all the other folks in the place. She learned their birthdays and sent them cards. She noticed when they seemed depressed and listened to them talk about their problems and gave their hand a squeeze and prayed with them if they were willing. She went to the recreation room and took part in the games often helping the staff help others. She was a light in a dark place full of joy and peace despite her own troubles and woes.
Rev. Fairchild writes, “I always prayed with her on my visits I would pray for her and she would pray for those around her and she would always give thanks to God at the end of each prayer for his goodness and his love for how He worked His will and helped her each day even in the days of pain.” (4)
Do you think this wonderful woman was doing those good works and spreading all that cheer to draw attention to herself? Not at all. People who continually seek to draw attention to themselves are the unhappiest people on earth. Haven’t you noticed that? No, her desire was to draw people’s attention to her Lord and Savior. Christ had touched her life and she wanted to share his love with others. She had a story to tell and she told it. That’s the way things ought to happen.
I wish we were more like the people Jesus healed, as well as this elderly woman. I wish we felt so much joy from what Jesus has done in our lives that we couldn’t help telling our story to others. But there’s one thing more to be said.
Jesus’ acts of healing validated the message he came to proclaim. Jesus came to proclaim a kingdom in which people would live in peace and love with God as their King. The response of the people to his acts of healing was inconvenient but ultimately it helped drive home what he was about people came to see that God loved them as individuals and that their needs and concerns mattered to God.
There was a tragic event that happened not too long ago in Chicago. A 15-year-old boy was shot by gang members while he was playing basketball. He lay bleeding to death in an alley just steps away from a hospital emergency room. The emergency room personnel refused to treat him, saying it was against hospital policy to go outside. They would have to call 911 instead. After waiting about 20 minutes, a frustrated police officer finally commandeered a wheelchair and brought the boy in himself, but it was too late and the boy died. (5)
Now, we don’t know all the facts of this case and we would not presume to pass judgment on the hospital personnel, but each of us knows what Jesus would have done. He would have given up his life if it were necessary in order to save this boy. Of course, he has already given up his life to save not only this boy, but each of us as well. His actions of healing, his actions of sacrificial love validate the kingdom he proclaimed. His message was not of a God who is remote from our needs and concerns. His message was of a God who has come near and is working in the hearts of those who are open to him to establish in this world a new way of living a new way of loving and helping and serving. As we seek to be his people may our lives also validate the message we proclaim that, in the words of that little chorus of the sixties, “the Lord of us love has come to us, we want to pass it on.”
1. http://www.glamorati.com/celebrity/2008/10-examples-of-people-who-are-famous-for-being-famous/
2. Gilbert Brim, Ambition (New York: Basic Books, 1992).
3, The Sir Winston Method (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc. , 1991), pp. 24-25.
4. http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/c-thansesn.php.
5. Rev. Jeren Rowell, http://www.nph.com/nphweb/html/pmol/pastissues/Lent%202009/webmay24.htm.