Jesus Chooses
Epiphany 6 (B) for St. Francis’ Episcopal Church
February 12, 2012
Mark 1:40-45
The Rev. Jeri Gray-Reneberg
There is a tide of “unclean-ness” spreading throughout this
story in the gospel of Mark. In the book of Leviticus, people with
leprosy and other skin diseases were ordered to behave in this
way: “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn
clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall
cover his upper lip and cry out, "Unclean, unclean." He shall
remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He
shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.”
[Leviticus 13:45-46, NRSV]
When I read this passage, I am reminded of one of my favorite
movies, Ben Hur. When Judah Ben-Hur’s mother and sister
become ill with leprosy while in prison, they are thrown into a
lepers’ colony outside the city. They wear ragged clothing,
cover their mouths and feebly call out, “unclean,” whenever
anyone approaches them. They are aware that they are social
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outcasts, and attempt to protect others by warning them not to
come too close. Watching the movie, I always feel pity for them
and anger at their status as helpless victims of a situation
beyond their control.
Some commentators say that this emphasis on “cleanness,” or
“uncleanness,” is because of the understanding about illness of
the Jewish people of this time. Not understanding the cause or
the cure, these laws are a response to the “ick” factor. As in,
“Ooh, ick! Get away!”
So this story from the book of Mark is a strange one from the
beginning. The man with leprosy who confronts Jesus doesn’t
behave the way the purity code says he should behave. He
comes too close to Jesus, kneels and begs indirectly, saying, “If
you choose, you can make me clean.” Which may seem to be
obvious. Mark has already shown us that Jesus has the
capability to heal people. But making him “clean” means more
than just healing him. It means removing the stigma that places
him outside society and away from family and friends.
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Many early manuscripts of the book of Mark say that Jesus is
“moved with pity,” as we read in the New Revised Standard
Version. But a significant number of them, some of which are
the most trusted manuscripts, say that Jesus actually becomes
angry. The New Proclamation Commentary says, “What is
probably the most original Greek text says that (Jesus) was
moved with rage.” Rage! That’s a very strong word – and it’s
unusual to associate that word with Jesus. But there might be
two reasons Jesus might have been angry.
First, we might consider that Jesus was not only angry at this
disease and the waste of human potential, but also at the
systems and laws that place people in need far away. And he
shows that anger and disregards the system of purity by
touching the man directly, MAKING HIMSELF UNCLEAN IN THE
PROCESS. Jesus tells him to show himself to the priest and
offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded, so that he might be
restored to the community, and stand as proof that God shows
mercy to people who are on the margins of society.
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Secondly, Jesus might have been angry for a more elemental
reason – that illness means something more.
To try to understand people’s response to the “icky
uncleanness” of Jesus’ day, we can look at some similar
cultures that exist today. The Ndebele people of Zimbabwe treat
dying people and dead bodies as extremely dangerous. After
someone dies and is buried, they wash in a river. Then, after a
few months, they use a specially brewed beer to wash all hoes
and implements used to dig the grave. People of another
African tribal group, the Abaluyia people of western Kenya,
insist that everyone who comes into contact with a deathbed
must be shaved. The surviving family, the grave diggers, and
everyone who may have gotten the dying person’s breath in
their hair must completely shave their heads. [New
Proclamation Commentary]
In light of these extreme reactions to death and people who
appear to be dying, the other reason Jesus might have been
angry may seem more understandable. People with disfiguring
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skin diseases, aside from “looking icky,” were also a reminder
of the inevitability of death. In responding to the man’s faith,
expressed in the words, “If you choose, you can make me
clean,” Jesus knows he is confronting the forces of death. Even
before his own death. And death was not created by God; it isn’t
what God wishes for human beings. It is something to be
banished by the one who has the power to do that.
But when we look in the mirror, most of us don’t see our own
death written on our face. Our tendency may be to say to
ourselves, “Well, yes, but I really don’t need healing right now as
much as some other people do. I’m really a pretty healthy
person. No skin diseases HERE! No physical or mental health
issues here! When I ask Jesus to heal my real-life illnesses, or
to forgive my sins and make me whole again, he doesn’t have as
much to do as he would if I were REALLY needy.” When we
compare ourselves with others, we can fall into this trap.
Because the truth is… we are all needy. We all need to be made
“clean” and completely healed. With the apostle Paul, we cry,
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“Who will save me from this body of death?” And we know
there’s only one answer. Jesus Christ, our healer. Our Savior.
There is an old saying, “Beauty is only skin deep.” And we
know that there are many physically beautiful people who,
inside, are anything but beautiful. But did you know that there is
really a way to see what lies under that skin-deep beauty?
It’s called ultraviolet photography. And it takes a picture of the
damage the sun has done to the deeper layers of the skin, the
layers we can’t see with our own eyes.
Take a look at this picture. It’s a photograph of a young woman
– maybe in her teens or twenties. She doesn’t have any skin
defects to speak of. She might look a little like you, or like your
sister, or daughter, or granddaughter, or niece.
But that beauty is only skin deep. Take a look at this photo, of
the same young woman. This is an ultraviolet photograph. It
shows the deeper layers of skin, and how, at even this young
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age, her skin is already damaged by too much sun – the sun we
crave and allow to shine on our skin whenever we can. The sun
on our skin makes Vitamin D, which we can’t live without!
But this photo is a little bit shocking, isn’t it? We don’t often
think about the damage the sun has done to our skin – but it’s
one of the results of living! Most people have some skin
damage at a fairly young age. Only with a photo like this do we
have to face it. This young woman is already “unclean”! Just
being human is, to some extent, to be “unclean.”
But here’s the good news: the same Jesus who made people
clean, who cast out demons and unclean spirits, and even let
them touch him, also makes us clean, along with others we
might consider “unclean.” Jesus touched people with leprosy
and various illnesses and became “unclean” in the eyes of the
Jewish priests who obeyed the purity laws. That meant that he
would spend most of his remaining time out in the country and
in places where people in desperate need could come to him.
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So there are two ways to look at the clean/unclean issue. Just
because we may be young and beautiful, it doesn’t mean that we
don’t need Jesus, and his cleansing, healing action in our lives.
We are never too young, or too innocent, to need Jesus. That is
why we baptize babies. Infant baptism is never about “making a
statement of belief” and waiting until you are mature enough, or
conscious enough of sin to “make a commitment” yourself. We
believe that the Spirit is the actor in baptism, acting to claim us,
and enabling adults to make promises that will bear fruit for their
young children sometime in the distant future. We have faith
that it will be so.
And, on the other hand, although we are sick, and ugly, or when
we have lived a long time and show on the surface of our skin
the real damage the sun has done, we are not unclean, because
Jesus has made us clean. To paraphrase Romans 8, “Neither
the sun, nor environmental pollutants, nor toxic human
relationships can separate us from the cleansing, healing action
that is ours in Christ Jesus.”
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That is the action that we remember, that we claim every day.
We don’t have to fear our own lack of purity; our own ugliness,
which may or may not stare back at us in the mirror, in the cold
light of day. Like the man with leprosy, we can be close to our
Lord and say, once and every day, “If you choose, you can make
me clean.” And, knowing ourselves to be made clean and
restored to community, we take the task of helping to reconcile
the world very seriously. Someone has said, “The Church isn’t a
museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners.” I would amend
that to say, if the Church is a hospital for sinners, it must be like
a M.A.S.H., a “MOBILE Army Surgical Hospital.” “Mobile” is the
operative word. We respond – we move to where the people are:
others who have been called unworthy or unclean. We care for
them out there; we welcome them in here.
“If you choose, you can make me clean.” With the leper, we say
it to Jesus. But he has already chosen – he has made the choice
for US, and for the whole WORLD. He has chosen to restore us,
that, through him, we might help to restore the world.
Amen.
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