From 'Unclean' to 'Clean'

The story of Jesus touching/healing a leper.

Mark 1:40-45         Rev. Todd B. Freeman

Bethany Presbyterian Church, Dallas           February 12, 2006

Jesus was a rule breaker! This may come as quite a surprise to many of the typical WWJD “What Would Jesus Do” folks. But it’s true. Numerous stories throughout the gospels reveal that Jesus regularly violated political, religious, social, and ritual norms and boundaries. Today’s Gospel Lesson from Mark 1, where Jesus actually touches, heals and restores a leper to wholeness, is a classic and dramatic example.

Most healing stories in the New Testament focus not so much on the disease itself, but on the person and power of Jesus. An important exception to this general state of affairs, however, involves the disease of leprosy. In the ancient world, leprosy was not only a severe medical condition, but also a disease that came with a particular theological understanding. Leprosy, which referred to any number of skin ailments, was one of the greatest violations of the ritual purity laws. Therefore, it carried severe social and spiritual consequences.

Now for those of you who really want to get into the gory details of what the ancient Israelites thought about leprosy, I’d like to direct you to chapters 13 and 14 (two full chapters!) of our favorite book of the Bible, Leviticus. Leviticus, as you may recall, is a book in the Torah dedicated to the Purity Code. It delineated what was religiously ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’. In other words, who’s ‘in’ and who’s ‘out’. Here’s a little sample from chapter 13:

When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests... After the priest has examined him he shall pronounce him ceremonially unclean.

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 live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Leprosy was the ultimate ‘scarlet letter’. And as today’s story indicates, the reference is not only for the need of a medical, physical healing, but also to spiritual healing and the healing/restoration of social relationships. For persons who were declared ‘unclean’ were banished from the community. They were isolated from family and friends. Very significantly, they were also excluded from public worship. Lepers were among the greatest outcasts.

I want us to take note that in Mark’s story, the leper does not ask to be ‘cured’ (a medical request), but to be ‘made clean’ (a spiritual and social request). To be declared ‘clean’ meant that the sufferer could once again live and worship with others. Social and religious acceptability, the restoration of one’s spiritual and social status, seems to be more important to the person who suffered from leprosy than physical healing itself.

Perhaps something similar is true for most of us today. While the physical healing of an illness is always important to us, so is the sense that we aren’t considered to be social and religious outcasts.

It is also significant to note that Jesus actually touches the person who suffered from leprosy who came to him to be made clean. I want to make a side comment at this point. I have intentionally distinguished between saying “the leper” and “the person who suffered from leprosy.” The former designation categorically describes someone’s identity. The latter recognized the personhood of the one afflicted with a disease. For instance, there is a negative judgment attached to describing someone as “that alcoholic” than as “that person who suffers from alcohol abuse.” Let us be care to recognize the personhood of all people, especially those who suffer.

Getting back to our story, the law was clear that if Jesus were to touch an unclean person he himself would become ritually unclean as a result. To be ‘unclean’ carried with it the understanding of being contagious. In an ironic plot twist, however, we learn that it is not ‘the leper’ who is contagious, but Jesus. The person who suffered from leprosy does not transmit his uncleanness to Jesus, but rather Jesus transmits his wholeness and holiness to this person in need, and makes him clean – physically, spiritually, and socially.

In this story, being touched by Jesus – by God – means that ‘the leper’s’ isolation and humanity is restored. Being touched by God restores our isolation and humanity as well! If the Gospels teach us anything about Jesus, it is that he regarded human need as more important than following rituals and regulations.

Jesus did not minister long distance, safe from all that plagued the lives of those he would help. Jesus’ ministry brought him in contact with sinners and outcasts and those in need. By association, our own ministry should do the same.

Jesus’ work of lifting others up placed him among the fallen. His words of encouragement were given in the presence of those without hope. His ability to heal put him with the diseased. That model of ministry, a ministry of presence, has direct implications for all Christians and especially the role of the church. It’s one thing (however necessary) to send money or even supplies to organizations that help the needy. It’s quite another thing, however, to directly face and touch those in need.

How often do we come into direct contact with those whom society labels as untouchable, undesirable and unacceptable; those who have been ostracized, stigmatized, and cast out to the very fringes of society? The following question begs to be asked: Who are you and I afraid to touch? Do we not all have our own boundary issues; things outside our comfort zone; people whom we think will somehow contaminate us? But are we not called, as Jesus demonstrated, to touch the untouchable and those who are forgotten or denied or considered outcasts in our own communities?

Who are today’s “lepers”:

• The homeless persons who regularly knock on our church door?
• The street hustlers behind the Kroger just down the street here in Oak Lawn?
• The crack addicts outside our very homes (certainly mine)?
• The persons suffering from mentally illness, whom are more numerous than we know?

What about all those who carry debilitating social stigmas – which in our society still includes those affected by teenage pregnancy, those with HIV/AIDS, those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender, those who are unmarried or without children, those who work for minimum wage, those without an education, those without proper paperwork?

What about those who don’t believe traditionally held theological beliefs, like the literal physical resurrection of Jesus for example, or the birth narratives, or the miracle stories, or the doctrine of the sacrificial and substitutionary atonement of Jesus, etc., etc., etc.?

Does it not seem that all those mentioned above are included in the particular ministry that we are called to here at Bethany Presbyterian Church?!?

[Share the story of my feeling like ‘a leper’ after I was recently denied access to preach in a neutral pulpit in southern California when the pastor (formerly fromo Grace Presbytery) learned that I’m a pastor of a ‘More Light Presbyterian’ congregation.]

Following Jesus would have us go to anyone who is excluded or forgotten or outcast (and yes, that includes or has included many of us) and make them feel included and remembered. Following Jesus would have us remove societal- and self-imposed boundaries that act to separate anyone from God and each other. For God works outside the boundaries and boxes that organized religion continues to try to force God into. Or as one biblical commentator writes, “God continues to color outside the lines.” God reaches out to touch the untouchable, and so should we.

In the kingdom of God there are to be no outsiders. God intends for all persons to be brought into the family and circle of community. No one should be made to ‘live outside the camp.’

I pray that Bethany will continue to increase its compassion for those whom others label as ‘unclean,’ unacceptable and untouchable, seeking to accept them as already included in God’s gracious embrace and care. Kathy Galloway writes the following on this issue of touch:

We know in our daily lives that it is often touch, the hand on the shoulder, the hug of a friend, the cuddle of a child, that lets us know that we are loved. Touch, often more than words, is a way of giving physical expression to our prayers and concern for each other.

Perhaps you know someone who needs to be reached out to and touched. Perhaps it may be a stranger that you encounter this week. Perhaps you are that person who needs to make yourself available to be reached out to and touched by another.

Let us, like Jesus, touch the untouchable. Let us, through God’s power and grace, help transform the ‘unclean’ to the clean’.

Amen.