Mark 1:40-45

Read the passage: The Message   or   The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).

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It is now believed that the disease we call leprosy was rare or non-existent in Palestine at the time of Jesus. However, since that was the translation adopted in the King James Version, that is still widely used even in modern translations.

The exact nature of the disease does not really concern us, because whatever the illness, a person with this disease was outcast from the community, forced to wear torn clothes, let their hair hang loose and uncared for, and warn approaching people by crying out, "Unclean! Unclean!" Any person healed of the disease also needed to be declared by a priest to be free of the ban of social isolation - that is, to be declared "Clean." Thus, in the New Testament, "healing" is often a two-step process: recovery from the physical illness or symptoms; then, being declared "clean" and accepted back into the community. (See Leviticus 13 and 14)

It is difficult for me to know how much I am reading back into the text my modern concern for the importance of the self - the importance of personal, willing, participation - voluntary consent - but I find it extra-ordinary that so many of the healing stories involve a conversation about naming one's desires / one's willingness. The leper does not simply ask / beg, "Please heal me." Rather, there is an affirmation of Jesus' authority / power that is conditional on his willingness:

If you choose, you can make me clean.

The verb translated as "you can make me clean," and "be made clean," also means "declare to be clean."

"Moved with pity" - other manuscripts have, "Moved with anger."

When Jesus reaches out his hand and touches the leper, he violates the social ban imposed on the leper - Jesus touches an "Untouchable."

Note the two steps: the leprosy leaves the man, and secondly, he is made clean. All that remains now is for the priest to declare the man clean so that he can be formally restored to his community. This is what Jesus tells him to go and do.

The fact that Jesus tells him to say nothing to anyone is in keeping with his honourable behaviour as a Holy Man of God. (See my previous note for an explanation about this modesty.)

This text is rich with possibilities for reflecting on social isolation and the touching willingness that heals and restores community.

David Ewart,
www.davidewart.ca