Lepers---Addicts---Jesus

DWELL.  Mark 1, continued

A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.

REFLECT

You cannot read the gospels without bumping into undesirables.  These are people we would rather avoid, if possible.  You may be thinking of those people right now.  They may have a different skin color than you do, or tattoos on their skin.  They may have marks on their skin from drug use.   They may live in dirty apartments in a part of town you will not travel.  They may be members of your own family.  They may have a chronic illness or addictions we cannot heal.  They may be schizophrenic or bipolar.  There are people around you that you naturally avoid because you are afraid of them.    

IN our story, Jesus encounters a leper.  Leprosy is a skin disease, considered contagious enough to require isolation from the general population.  People with the illness were sentenced to a life in a colony with other lepers.  The conditions were inhumane.  And sometimes, people were sentenced to this life with a misdiagnosis.  Nevertheless, the process of lawful return to general society required proper examination and evaluation by experts.  If the examiner, a priest, found you to be clean of the disease, you were expected to dutifully thank God and fulfill Jewish law by making proper temple sacrifice.  It was possible to be restored to community,unless you were found unclean by the priest.  This system of public health was also a system of social control.  Keep the undesirables out of the general population, so the rest of us do not get infected.  So we lock up the young black men and the poor white heroine addicts.  We still institutionalize the undesirables when we can.

But Jesus was moved with pity by an undesirable leper.  To be moved with pity is to feel pain in the gut for someone else.  Jesus identified with this man's suffering so much that he felt pain. 

This man knew that someone with authority in the broader community had to recognize him and declare him clean (healthy enough to return to the community as a full member again).  He needed a compassionate priest.  But he would accept the word of a rabbi known to heal sick people.  Jesus sends him off to regain his life in the world.  Follow the rules, but don't wait any longer.  Jesus gives this man a key to reentry.  And like an infectious disease, Jesus' work begins to spread rapidly. Because the leprous man is clean and free.  Because neither Jesus nor anyone else could quarantine him, silence him, keep him out of the public. God had touched him and he had to infect others with this news.  Jesus becomes ground zero in a new infection that threatens to change the DNA of every human being touched by him.  It is the DNA of inclusion and compassion and healing.  It is the DNA of mercy and hope and faith. Jesus gives the leper access to God and God's family in a way that the religious leaders of the day refused to offer. Its easier to maintain the status quo.  Lepers stay lepers. But Jesus sees deeper than the skin.  Jesus sees a person in pain, a beloved child of God.  Like himself.  

 When we recognize what is undesirable about ourselves and we let Jesus close to us, we experience a sense of restoration.  And it spreads when we bring the cleansing power of compassionate connection to others, especially those who are considered undesirable.  

Who are the cast offs, the outcasts, the marginalized in your community?  Who is labeled unworthy of compassion and love?  Who is disposable?  What hoops does the system make people on the bottom of the pyramid jump through to gain access to health and community?  

I suspect heroine addicts and those battling mental illness are high on the list of undesirable cast offs in our society.  I also suspect that Jesus suffers with them.  I have met many families isolated by the poverty that threatens them and prevents them from accessing the things they need to live complete lives.  Following Jesus means to go to these neighbors with compassion, pain in our hearts and in our guts, in order to reconcile with them.  To be disciples of Jesus means to meet the "undesirables" and offer them healing and hope through compassionate engagement.  We offer people access to a life with God and God's family, a life of full inclusion and hope for the future.  We walk in the same authority as Jesus did and we say to those who have been denied access, "Come inside.  There's room here for you, too."    

PRAY 

  Lord, help me to acknowledge my own "leprosy" and seek you out for healing.  Help me to have compassion for those who have been marginalized and exiled from a healthy community life. Amen.