Readings for the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, February 14, 2021
Leviticus 13.1-2, 45-46 | Psalm 32 | 1 Corinthians 10.31—11.1 | Mark 1.40-45
In the ancient world, leprosy was the worst disease one could contract. It made one ritually unclean so that the leper had to live apart from their family and the community. Leprosy was a living death. It meant a form of isolation in some ways similar to what those who test positive for Covid-19 must endure during the current pandemic. However, the isolation imposed on lepers was permanent.
The man suffering from leprosy in Sunday’s Gospel was desperate. He came to Jesus, knelt before him and begged for healing. The man may have heard that Jesus was healing other people of lesser diseases and hoped against hope that Jesus could heal him too.
Jesus does heal the man, but first he touches him, making himself ritually unclean. The man is healed, not through Jesus’ touch, but through his word: “I do choose. Be made clean!” Why then does Jesus touch the man, knowing that he too will become unclean? We answer that question by noticing the description prior to Jesus touching the man. Jesus was “moved with pity.”
Another translation says Jesus was “deeply moved with compassion.” He reacted from his gut to the man’s plight. Jesus’ reaction was not that of a dispassionate physician, a problem-solver who would strive simply to do the right thing. Jesus became involved in the man’s life and lost any concern for what violating the rules of ritual purity would mean for himself. However, instead of becoming unclean himself, Jesus does what only God could do – he passes his purity onto the leper so the man could not only share in the life of the community, but also in the life of God.
Earlier in this chapter of Mark’s Gospel, we learned that the people were awestruck by Jesus because he taught with authority rather than interpreting the Torah. His oneness with God enabled him to teach with such authority. In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus’ solidarity again breaks the mould. But in this instance, he is completely at one with a suffering human. The leper’s suffering becomes Jesus’ suffering.
Together, these events show that Jesus was more than a bridge between the divine and the human; he unites these two realms so they are one. The Son of God does not merely “deign” to lower himself to our level, he becomes more human than any human person.
In Mark’s Gospel, there is no “theology” of divinization – of God becoming human so that we might become divine. Mark shows how Jesus, through his actions, enabled people to share in divine life.
Jesus sent the man to the priest so he could be declared clean. The man, however, was not to tell of his healing to anyone. Who could keep such a secret? But because the man declares openly that Jesus had healed him of leprosy, Jesus is now believed to be unclean, and he goes into hiding.
What Jesus did was more than a miracle; it was the uniting of the human and the divine in an everlasting unity. This was the transformation of the cosmos, a new creation. Humanity could never again be as it was prior to Jesus’ coming.
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