February 8, 2012

The gospel reading, Mark 1.40-45, tells of Jesus touching and healing a man with leprosy. It is important that the social stigma of the leprosy was a great burden to thsoe infected with the disease. In the Book of Leviticus, chapters 13-15, we read that those infected were banished from the community. They were not able to earn a living and condemned to a hard life. They were seen to be ritually impure as well as physically diseased. Hence they were cut off from the community and from the religious life of the people. Those infected often wore a bell around the neck as a warning sign.

The disease is contagious, and the isolation of those affected was practical. As with many diseases, however, the myths surrounding it were often exaggerated. In the modern world, leprosy still exists, particularly in parts of Africa and Asia. It is spread by repeated close contact with those infected. Leprosy is on the decline worldwide.

In reaching out and touching the leprous man Jesus is breaking the religious law of his time. He is making himself "religiously impure." This would be very offensive to many, especially to the religious leaders. He will break many of the religious laws of his day, especially in his association with those who were outcasts - tax collectors, prostitutes, women, Samaritans, and the poor.

It is interesting that the man with leprosy says to Jesus, "If you want to, you can heal me." I think the gospel writer wants to emphasize the intentional nature of Jesus' ministry. He replies, "I do want to." The healing of the leper, like the casting out of the demon from the man in the synagosue earlier in the chapter, are signs of the nearness of the kingdom of God. The barriers to God's love and forgiveness will be torn down. Jesus will offer a correction to the attitude of many of the religious leaders of his time. Jewish society in his time had become a closed society with strict rules about who might associate with whom. This way of thinking - a fear of the "other" - began after the Jews returned from their Babylonian exile in the mid 6th century BCE. The covenant made at the time of Abraham included a provision that the people of God were to be a blessing to others, especially those who are in need.