We saw how John the Baptist was able to open his life and
ministry so that his words were, as the Rev. Laurie Brock says, became the “Gospel
preached from our own wounds, our own deaths and resurrection, from our mind
and heart, from the Word that has become flesh in our bodies and souls and
given us life.” (Jan. 11) Nathaniel learned that God looks beyond our
appearances and our doubts and calls us by name-and invites us to do the same.
The fishermen, Andrew, Peter, James, and John discovered that Jesus, the
charismatic leader, doesn’t demand superior education or exact following of
laws in order to become followers. When we Follow, we will be lead in an
amazing Dance.
The past couple of weeks we’ve looked at two healing
miracles. The casting out of the ‘unclean’ spirit gave the man new life and the
people of Capernaum insight into the Scriptures come to life. Last week, we saw
that Jesus himself paused in his ministry to take time to go to a deserted
place. It can be in those desolate and seemingly forsake places that God can
really meet us. That’s an inspiring thought as we head into Lent.
Today we look at a third healing miracle. It is the story of
a leper who Jesus touches and heals. In the Old Testament story for this
Sunday, we hear about another leper. Naaman, commander of the army of the king
of Syria comes to the prophet Elisha in Israel because he has leprosy. He makes
this journey on the suggestion of the young Hebrew slave girl who serves his
wife. After Elisha tells Naaman to wash in the Jordan, he gets angry saying “I
thought that he would surely come out…and call on the name of the Lord his
God.” However, when he does bathe in the Jordan, he is healed.
In the 2 stories we see two different responses to a leper.
Elisha doesn’t even come out to greet his distinguished visitor. He “sent a
messenger to him…” (2 Kings 5:10). Jesus on the other hand is confronted by a
leper who kneels and begs, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” (Mark 1:40)
Jesus is “moved with pity” and TOUCHES the man. “I do choose. Be made clean.”
To us it may not seem like such a big deal that Jesus
touches someone. However, in the first century, no one touched a leper. They
were exiled to ghettos beyond the city walls or left to roam the countryside
fending for themself as best they could until they died. Anyone who remembers
the movie Ben Hur will remember Judah
Ben Hur (Charlton Heston) seeking out his mother and sister in the Valley of
the Lepers and carrying his sister out of the depths of the caves to go in
search of Christ so she can be healed. The response of people in Jerusalem when
they throw stones at the trio was the norm where lepers, and anyone connected
to them, were concerned. 
Jesus, however, “stretched out his hand and touched [the
leper]”. The human contact itself can be healing to someone who feels ‘beyond
the pale’ or outside the accepted societal norms. When Ben Hur tries to pick up
his sister she cringes away from him, but he scoops her up anyway. Sometimes we
feel bad about ourselves and may even consider ourselves ‘untouchable’ because
of something we have done. God doesn’t hesitate, he draws us close and calls us
“Beloved”, no matter what.
Jesus tells the healed man to “say nothing to anyone; but go, show
yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a
testimony to them.” (Mark 1:44) In the
Book of Leviticus there were procedures to be followed when one was healed of
leprosy. This is what Jesus was ordering the newly healed man to do. Instead, “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.”
Mark 1:45
I wonder if I would have done
the ‘lawful’ thing and gone to the priests or if I would have been so filled
with joy and astonishment that I would have run around telling everyone in
sight about the wonderful thing that had been done to me.
What about you? Has God done
something dramatic and marvelous in your life? Has God met you in the places
where you feel ‘outcast’ and called you “Beloved”?Do you take every opportunity
to talk about it, or do you just go about your daily tasks as if it was nothing
spectacular?
Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, when
we remember the we ‘are but dust and to dust’ we shall return. Next week we’ll
start a new series exploring some of the symbols of Lent and Easter in this
series that will take us beyond “Lent in a Bag”, a Lent discipline first on the web in 2013.
