Reflection -- Compassion and Anger

We have been working our way through the first chapter of Mark.  It is a remarkable chapter.  With spare words it tells story after story to give us insight into who Jesus is and the nature of his ministry.  We hear about Jesus’ baptism and the voice from heaven that says “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  Mark tells us how angels waited on Jesus during the temptation in the wilderness.  He tells us about the calling of the first disciples, who dropped everything to follow Jesus.  He tells us stories about people rescued from demons; demons who know what many of the religious folk have not yet understood: “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”  He tells us how Jesus healed many and also how Jesus fortified himself with prayer before doing God’s work.

It is necessary to look behind the scenes a little to understand this last story in the chapter about the healing of a leper.  Doing that gives some insight into what Mark wants us to know about Jesus and his mission and why that mission brought such radical good news.  I believe that Mark wants us to know that it is radical Good News because of how it corrects a profound misunderstanding of the nature of God.

Today, “leprosy” is the name for Hansen’s disease.  It was a more generic term for the ancients.  It referred to a variety of problems affecting fabrics and houses (such as mildew and molds) as well as people (various skin diseases).  Leviticus 13 and 14 treat the subject at some length.  The ancients thought of this “leprosy” as something that polluted the person or thing it touched and caused them, in turn, to be a source of pollution for others.  Fabrics affected were to be burned.  Building materials affected were to be taken outside the community and thrown away.  If all else failed, houses affected were to be completely torn down.

In effect people afflicted with leprosy were also thrown away.  They were declared unclean.  They were forced to wear torn clothing and leave their hair unkempt.  They were required to cry out “unclean, unclean” as a warning when others approached.  They were forced out of the community.  (Leviticus 13:45-46; Number 12:15; 2 Kings 7:3-4.)  And worse they were led to believe that their affliction was God’s punishment for their wrongdoing.  (Numbers 12:10-15; 2 Kings 5:27, 15:5; 2 Chronicles 26:20-21.)  The leper was the outcast of outcasts.

Is it any wonder that a leper would be a person with little or no self respect?  In this light, we can easily understand the hesitant statement of the leper who came to see Jesus.  “If you choose, you can make me clean.”  He knew full well that “decent” folk would shun him, and perhaps not heal him even if they could.  After all, was his sickness not God’s punishment?  Certainly, none of them would have touched him.

But Jesus did!  Jesus was filled with compassion.  He not only touched him, he healed him. In that act he showed God’s real nature.  Can you see what extraordinarily good news it was (and is!) to people taught that God is a god of vengeance and hate who afflicts people with disease to learn instead that God is love and that God desires wholeness for God’s people?

Some ancient manuscripts of Mark’s gospel read that Jesus was moved not with pity, but with anger.  Such a reaction would be in character.  Later we will see Jesus angry on a number of occasions when he sees social and religious structures that dishonor God and God’s people.  He was angry at the moneychangers in the temple who dishonored God’s house.  He was angry with the religious leaders of the day who had turned God’s message of love into a rigid, technical system of rules that oppressed people rather than freed them.  (See Matthew 23 for an example.)  It is not difficult at all to imagine Jesus angry at a system that piled additional misery on the sick by blaming the victim; a system that slandered God by painting God as the author of such disease and misery.

And what of us?  Have we bought into the image of God as a god of vengeance and destruction; an image behind so much evil in the world?  How do we treat the outcasts of our own society?  How do we treat those who are different?  Do we secretly still blame the sick and afflicted for their own misery?  Do we still self righteously think that we are somehow better than they are?  Are we more moved by judgment than by compassion?  Or do we acknowledge that but for the grace of God it might be me and reach out to touch the afflicted one with God’s love and healing?

revclay

_______________________________

Mark 1:40-45

A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.”  Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”

Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.  After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 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.” 

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.

[NRSV]