Daily Lesson for March 12, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Mark 1:

Jesus said to the leper, "44See 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."

"Say nothing to anyone." What an odd thing to tell someone who has just been cleansed of a debilitating, socially isolating disease. A leper cleansed, made new in the flesh, given a new lease on life. But tell no one?

What is interesting is that it is usually the demons whom Jesus tells not to say anything. The demons who see and recognize him as the Son of God so he silences them. He silences them because he knows their testimony does more damage than it does good. He will not accept testimony from demons. So it begs the question, does the leper now cleansed on the surface of his skin, still have deeper demons which must be addressed?

I have many friends in all stages of recovery, some of which are actually my spiritual role models and teachers and others of which are just starting out. One of the things I notice about the ones who have made it a good ways down the road to recovery is that they all went through a stage - years sometimes - of learning to listen and not talk. They learned to be disciples first before they became my or anyone else's teachers. They learned to speak wisely into my life and others, but they learned it through the silence of listening. Before they went out and started sharing their story, they first learned to tell no one. They had to finding freedom from their inner demons before they became apostles.

Not very long ago I am driving in the car with a friend - I'll call him Mike- who is in the first weeks of sobriety from drugs and alcohol. His recovery has been rocky starting out and there's no way to know if he will stay on the path. I wish he were quieter, like my friends further along; but he is sober today I think and, as Jesus says, today is sufficient enough. 

"The other night," Mike says as I am about to drop him off out front of his house, "I went out on to my back porch to smoke a cigarette and looked up into the sky and asked Jesus what he wants me to do for him and he told me loud and clear in his own voice."

I hear this and though I am driving nevertheless I feel my eyes roll deep back into the cerebral cortex of my brain. I have heard this before. Another kid two-weeks sober who in his continued narcism thinks God has called him to be the next Billy Graham. And like the Apostle Paul, Jesus thinks Mike is so special and his assignment so important that he actually speaks to him in an audible voice. Spare me.

"Oh, what did Jesus tell you be wants you to do for him?" I ask groaningly.

"Jesus told me all he wants me to do for him is to just stay clean."

I look over at my friend, stunned and for the first time hopeful for him. "Mike, I say, "that really was Jesus' voice talking."

Mike looks back at me.  "I know, he says.