Mark 1:39 [And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.] 40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" 42 Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43 After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44 saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." 45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
A couple of text notes before I really dig in… technically verse 39 was part of last week’s reading, but I’ve included it here as a way of sorta getting a running start at this week’s reading. Also, I’ve used the NRSV version instead of the one or two others I tend to prefer. There’s a couple of reasons for this, but the primary reason has to do with cleansing vs healing. Whatever leprosy was in the 1st century, it was not Hansen’s disease (that which we today call leprosy). It was some sort of skin ailment. To say that it may need “healing” is true, but more to the point what it really needs is CLEANSING. Being a leper meant being UNCLEAN, in the ritual sense. This is one of the hardest things for 21st century people to get our minds wrapped around. UNCLEAN. Coming into contact with a corpse made one unclean. Yet, death happened…and sometimes you did become unclean. Ok, now you have to go through the proscribed acts to become ritually clean again. Only thing is, as a leper, you were like a WALKING CORPSE. People who touched you became ritually unclean—at last for a time, until they could be purified again. If they became leprous, they remained unclean indefinitely. It was widely felt that only God could cure a leper. Well, as I say, since this is a reading about a ‘cleansing,’ I appreciate the way the NRSV holds that out.
So, what’s going on here?
Well, in a typically dense Markan sense, a LOT of things are going on. First, Mark is continuing to lay the groundwork for what it means that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the identity he gives Jesus within the first few verses of the gospel, but what does it mean? It could mean almost anything; maybe it’s a nominal title; something very honorific, but that in the end has no ground-level significance. But, no! Mark then goes on to show just the opposite. If all we had was the 1st chapter of Mark, at the very least we’d be able to say that being the son of God means (a) authority over demons and the spirit world; (b) authority over illness; and now (c) authority over matters of ritual purity.
Ok, cool. What else? Well, in the story the leper is a bigtime rule breaker. He came to Jesus. This is NOT the way it’s supposed to work. Lepers are to avoid contact with others. They’re even to yell out “unclean” so as to warn others to keep their distance. This leper does none of that. Why? Mark doesn’t really say, but given the word that is spreading all over about Jesus, what could be said is that this leper, by faith, recognizes that Jesus is unique. This is consistent with Mark. Earlier, the demon recognizes Jesus for who he is. Now this leper does. Only God can cure leprosy; the leper appeals to Jesus for cleansing; ergo the leper is confessing up front that he considers Jesus to be at the very least a broker of divine power.
At this point, Jesus has 2 choices: cleanse the leper or not. But in reality it’s more like 4 choices: cleanse or don’t cleanse; touch or don’t touch. And of course he opts for maximum effect: cleansing by touching.
What I like about this story…
The world is full of untouchables….lepers, to one degree or another. Even nice suburban Chicagoites would be considered UNWELCOME, base, crass, and uncouth in certain high society enclaves. That someone higher up the food chain may consider me to be untouchable, dirty, leprous….is usually no big deal. I can most often find someone further down the foodchain to think that way about. In so doing, it seems to strangely make me feel ok. But it’s possible to get so low on that foodchain that there’s no one lower. An untouchable at that point is considered to be untouchable by EVERYONE. His situation is hopeless.
Until Jesus arrives. He came to cleanse the dirty… and not just the little bit dirty, but the dirtiest of the dirty. And not only that, he came to do so in a very hands-on way. How often do we see on tv or whatever, the rich hoity-toity types who show their “concern” for this or that charity—not by rolling up their sleeves and lending a hand, but rather by keeping a nice safe distance and mailing in a check or something. Not Jesus. He touches the untouchable.
And that means 2 things for us…
1. It means that when everyone else has deserted us (maybe even through our own fault), Jesus won’t. It is impossible to become so untouchable that Jesus will hold his nose & look the other way. But perhaps even more important, it also means
2. We have a Savior who does things with & for people who maybe we, ourselves, wish would remain excluded. Have you ever been embarrassed because a friend stopped to help a homeless bum or gave money to a pan-handler, or something like that? In that regard, Jesus is VERY EMBARASSING. He’s always consorting with the wrong sorts. He’s always showing up late at gala events because he stopped to mingle with the wrong sorts.
And here’s the point…it’s not that he calls us to learn to be ok with his quirks; it’s not that he calls us to learn to deal with the fact that he’s just the eccentric son of God, what can ya do about it. Nope. It’s actually much worse than that. He calls us to be like him. He calls us to touch the untouchable. He calls the Church to be the “new humanity,” the place where none of those things like “clean or unclean” matter. He calls us to admit that from a sin perspective, we’re all “lepers” in the eyes of God. But he likewise calls us to embrace and believe that in the cross, cleansing for all has been achieved.
It’s interesting that 1John 1:9 even puts it that way: If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
cheers
TM
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