‘A man with leprosy came to him and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured. 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.” (Mk.1:40-44).
Mark starts the gospel by saying ‘The beginning’ in the beginning of the gospel and also talks of God’s reign. The reign of God is visualized as a present reality and a future hope. It values persons over systems, rejects systems that de-humanize people; values like solidarity with victims are given prime importance. The healing of the leper is one of the embodiments of the values in the reign of God.
Let us look into the text more clearly. During those days a leper was considered unclean and had to stay outside the settlement. We see Jesus’ attitude towards the leper is not a mere willingness to heal the leper, it is more than that. The pitiful situation of the leper that was caused largely by the society elicited a movement in Jesus. Compassion and love are the backbone of this redeeming act. It is not a mere physical act but something that originated in the inward being of Jesus. Compassion is the nature of Jesus.
According to Jewish law, someone who came into contact with a person having leprosy was also called unclean. By touching the leper and healing him, Jesus was breaking barriers because he did not subscribe to the notion embodied in the law. The suffering experienced by Jewish lepers was primarily social and religious rather than physical. In other words, we can say, in addition to the physical ravages of the disease, his/her cultic impurity was geographically described in the Leviticus.
The leper was socially ostracized from every day of life. By touching and healing the leper, Jesus is restoring the leper into the community and affirming the life of the leper by negating his own life. Here, Jesus is sharing his humanity and welcoming him into a new humanity. Jesus is giving a new dimension to this aspect by emphasizing the purity of heart, not outward purity.
Jesus is getting angry two times in this passage, once in vs. 43 where Jesus is giving stern warning to the leper. And also in vs. 41 while it reads ‘pity’ in the NRSV, some manuscripts read ‘anger’. We see in Jesus the moral anger that led him to cross barriers. By responding to the need of the leper, Jesus heals this illness of the society. Jesus challenges the attitude of the community toward lepers.
The reign of God invites us to become channels of this transformation, transformation of lives of people will lead to the transformation of human relations, thus to transform the unjust structures in our society. Every society has goals that hold legitimate objectives for all. But sometimes, these goals are integrated in a kind of hierarchical view of life involving varying degrees of sentiment and significance.
When these structures start to regulate and control the modes of reaching out for these goals, there the system falls into institutionalized norms. When the institutionalized norms start to shape the prevailing practices, we find that it many a time dehumanizes people. Through sharing his humanity, Jesus has put forward a model to follow, a model of sharing our lives with others. As a church, what will be our response? It poses a challenge and a choice before us. I believe, when we stretch out our hands with faith to the needs of the people and identify with those whose identity is nullified by the community, there lays the miracle.
Author: Mr. Sujin Mathew is preparing for ordained ministry in the Mar Thoma Church
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