6th Sunday after Pentecost, February 15, 2009 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for your gift of grace, revealed to us through the life, death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus the Christ. Through the power of your Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to receive your Word for our lives, that strengthened in faith, we might prove to be worthy disciples in our witness to your grace. This we ask in Christ’s holy name. Amen.
Our Gospel lesson for this morning provides us with a unique picture of the grace of God revealed to us through Jesus the Christ. Mark tells us that “a leper came to Jesus begging him, and kneeling before Jesus, said to him ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’”
Here, right from the start of this story, we are given an indication that this is a rare and unusual event. For in those days, there were very strict rules that person determined to have a skin disease such as leprosy, were required to follow. They were not permitted to be in the towns or cities, or to have any contact with “healthy” persons while traveling outside the city walls. In fact, lepers were required to shout out to those who came anywhere near them, that they were “unclean”.
But Mark tells us that this person with leprosy totally ignored the rules, and dared to approach Jesus, even kneel before him, begging Jesus to make him clean. Apparently this person had heard of the multitude of people that Jesus had healed in Capernaum. And given the situation of being isolated from society – even his own family – he felt that he had nothing to loose in approaching Jesus to beg to be made clean. He was desperate.
William H. Willimon, in his commentary on our text, shared the following story from his childhood. “A little girl in my second grade class got the dreaded disease of polio. Our teacher described to us the possible complications of her disease. She told us in some detail about the bad things that could happen to her body.
But our teacher also told us that, because of the polio, we could have no contact with her. We could write her a get-well card, but we could not visit her. And I remember thinking at that moment that the polio itself wouldn’t be all that terrible. I, as an eight-year-old, could put up with the physical pain and inconvenience, but the isolation, the shunning, the loneliness would be the worst.” End quote.
And how does Jesus respond to this desperate man’s plea? Mark tells us that “Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do chose. Be made clean!’ Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.”
According to our text, as it reads from the New Revised Standard Version,
this story seems like just another one of Jesus’ miraculous healings, a manifestation of his divine compassion for those in need. But have you ever noticed how changing a single word can really alter the meaning of a text?
According to several commentaries that I read on our lesson, the phrase “moved with pity” is not really the correct interpretation of the original Greek word that Mark used to describe the motivation for Jesus’ action in healing this leper. From the earliest manuscripts of Mark, the motivation for Jesus healing the leper reads, “Being angry, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him…”
I believe this really changes the dynamic of this story. To me, “Moved with pity…” is not the same as “Being angry…” I must admit that I like the idea of Jesus showing pity and compassion for the leper. It gives us a picture of Jesus that we all like to envision – a Jesus that could weep at the death of his friend Lazarus – a nice, kind and loving Jesus. But when Mark tells us that Jesus “being angry,” as he was when he overturned the money changers tables in the temple, gives us the insight that Jesus was truly human. For who among us, has not become angry.
But what was Jesus angry about? That is the key to understanding our lesson for this morning. At first we might think that he was angry at the leper, for violating the rules regarding his quarantine. How dare this man approach Jesus, and risk giving him that dreaded disease, giving him that same sentence to living in isolation?
But the commentaries that point out that our text should read that Jesus was angry, also point out that his being angry at the leper is highly unlikely. After all, Jesus could have ignored the leper’s request, and simply walked away from him. Furthermore, if Jesus was angry at this man bringing a dreaded disease to his feet, why would Jesus reach out and touch the man. After all, Mark tells us that he could, by a spoken word, cast out demons.
No, I don’t believe that Jesus’ anger was toward the leper. In fact, I think that he was moved by compassion for this man who had suffered exile from his family and friends, enduring isolation from his community, just because of his disease.
William H. Willimon points out in his commentary, that some might think that Jesus was angry because of the way that this leper approached Jesus. According to Willimon, the leper’s plea, “If you choose, you can make me clean,” could be considered to be another temptation of Jesus, understood, not in recognition of the leper’s faith, but as a test of Jesus’ identity. In other words, “If you are the Son of God, make me clean. Prove it!”
But Willimon concludes that Jesus doesn’t seem to be angry about that. To the leper’s request, “If you choose…” Jesus immediately responds, “I
do choose…” and makes the leper clean. If he was angry about the way the leper asked for healing, we might expect an “Oh, alright, I’ll do it,” rather than an “I choose…”
So what is Jesus angry about. Certainly not the leper. Certainly not in the way he phrased his desperate plead to Jesus to be made clean. Could it be that Jesus was angry about the fact that he had some foreknowledge that the leper, once healed of his disease, would not obey Jesus’ order to keep silent about the source of his healing? I doubt this also. For if Jesus would have foreseen this fact, and understood that by the leper’s witness he would be inundated by people seeking God’s grace, would he have healed him in the first place?
To me, the source of Jesus anger really stems from the fact that because of this person’s disease, he was so desperate that he risked breaking all the rules, fell at Jesus’ feet, and begged for compassion. I think Jesus was angry at the situation that required this leper to be isolated from his family and friends, his community and synagogue, and live in solitude. I think Jesus was angry, at the inherent evil that exists in our world, that causes such despair and isolation in people’s lives, especially those who are ill.
Perhaps the later translations of Mark’s Gospel got it right, in the sense that Jesus was humanly moved by pity and compassion for this person, who was forced to live in isolation. But I also believe that we need not rule out the fact that Jesus may have been angry at the situation. For to acknowledge his anger causes us to look deeply into our own reaction to those who are ill, or are in need of our compassion.
Do we anger Jesus, by failing to truly care for those around us? Do we pull back from those who need us the most, in their time of need, or do we risk our time and compassion, that Jesus revealed to us, to witness to his redeeming grace? These are the questions that our text puts before us today. And these questions challenge us, as baptized disciples of our Lord, to witness to God’s redeeming grace, even to those we would like to avoid. And they need not be ill with a contagious disease, they may just be persons we don’t like.
Of course, this is no easy task. To love as Christ loved us is impossible to do on our own. But we have not been left to our own human resources for the task to which we are called. We are constantly uplifted through the power of God’s Spirit, constantly called through the power of God’s Word, to live as Christ’s disciples. Just perhaps, that one little change in a word, from pity to anger, through the power of God’s Spirit, inspire each of us to become more eager to witness to the grace of God, which we have all received, to those around us.
Amen.
