"If you wish, you can make me clean."
Mk 1:40-45
A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean."
Leprosy here does not refer only to what we call Hansen’s disease but to many kinds of disfiguring disease.
Lepers were driven away from the community. Even their families consider them already dead. They live outside of the town. They can not come near people. Some say they carry bells to warn people of their presence. If they attempt to come near, they would be driven away with a hail of stones.
This harsh treatment of lepers was due to the following reasons: 1) To prevent others from catching the disease; 2) the leper it was believed was being punished for his sins. The people of old interpreted physical misfortune like other misfor-tune as divine punishment; and 3) The Law of Moses commanded it.
Let’s examine further this last reason. Leviticus declared the leper as ritually unclean which means he can not mingle with others nor can he participate in pub-lic worship. His physical condition disqualifies him from physically manifesting the holiness of God’s chosen people. Furthermore, because he is ritually unclean, he also causes others who come in contact with him to be ritually unclean. This makes the behaviour of the priest and the Levite of the parable of the Good Samaritan understandable.
A corpse was unclean. If the priest and the Levite touched the victim and it turned out that he is dead, they would be ritually unclean, too and would be dis-qualified from serving at the Temple.
We have noted that lepers were not allowed to come near other people. Why did he dare approach Jesus? Was it because he was so desperate that he could not allow the opportunity to be healed to pass by? Or was it because of his faith in Jesus? He did not only believe in the power of Jesus to heal. He also believed in the compassion of Jesus. He believed that Jesus would not drive him away.
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean."
Moved with pity can also be translated as “feeling sorry for him”. Compassion is both a divine and a human quality.
The Parable of the Wicked Servant (Mt. 18: 23-35) speak of the compassion of the Father which we his children should imitate. Moses tells the people of Is-rael that Yahweh is a compassionate God: “Since the LORD, your God, is a compassionate God, he will not abandon and destroy you, nor forget the covenant which under oath he made with your fathers” (Dt 4:31).
But compassion is also a human quality. Without it, we become like animals. During World War II news of the Holocaust started to filter out. In the beginning the Allies could not believe it because it was something that no human being could possibly do. Systematically killing off people by the millions was cruel and inhuman.
Leprosy is not a beautiful sight. That Jesus touched him meant that the compassion of Jesus was more powerful than any feeling of revulsion that the sight of the man might have aroused in him. It also showed the attitude of Jesus towards the Mosaic Law. The leper was ritually unclean and according to the Mosaic Law you should not touch that leper. But Jesus touched the man all the same. It was not that Jesus despised the Mosaic Law. It was because Jesus understood the spirit behind the Mosaic Law (and any law for that matter). The motivation behind it was for the good of man. Jesus did say: “The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.” Thus, showing compassion to this man by touching him and curing him was more important than remaining ritually clean.
To touch and be touched is a human need. No man is an island. We need hu-man touch in order to feel connected. We need human touch in order to make con-tact and thus overcome the feeling of isolated.
A hug is a form of human touch. But it is more than just human touch. It is a natural expression of showing that you love and care. No wonder researchers say that we need 4 hugs a day for survival, 8 hugs a day for maintenance and 12 hugs a day for growth.
On the topic of hugging see – http://www.groundreport.com/Arts_and_Culture/It-only-Takes-a-Hug-to-Change-the-Lives-of-Others
He said to him, "See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them."
Jesus told the man who was cleansed of his leprosy to keep quiet about the incident. It was not because Jesus did want to be disturbed by people coming to him for a cure. What Jesus did not want was his healing ministry to take away the possibility of preaching. People will indeed come but they will not be disposed to listen to his message because all they want is to get their relative or themselves cured. Instead, if his healing is not advertised, he can carry out his preaching ministry unimpeded and at the same time have the opportunity to heal people of their sickness.
The man had to go to the priests because it is they who can certify that he is indeed cured and can, therefore, return to society and participate in public worship.
He is told to offer what Moses prescribed. Is it not but the proper thing to do that after having experienced the goodness of God, he should show his gratitude by offering a sacrifice?
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