We have been continuing our intergenerational class at Pasadena Presbyterian Church, Spiritually Hungry, Institutionally Suspicious: Young Adults in Our Culture and Church. In our meeting on Sunday, our class title was Transgressional Healing: Spiritual Practices of Social Transformation in Our Ministry. Here is the lecture portion of our class together. It is based on Mark 1:40-45, the story of Jesus healing the unnamed leper.Mark 1:40-45
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean
This story is outrageous. It really is. More than outrageous, it's scandalous. This is how Jesus chooses to begin his ministry in Galilee? Strange.
You know, when Mark starts his Gospel, he hits the ground running. There’s no birth story here. It’s almost like there’s no time for it. Mark starts out full speed ahead. And so much happens in the first chapter. Sometime pick up the beginning of Mark, and check it out for yourself. It's almost like Mark is capturing little snapshots and piecing them together for us in flashes, like some trailer for an action film. He strings these small stories together with words that become characteristic for him. This story – “and” -- This story – “and” – This story. “And, and, and.” “Immediately” this. “Immediately” that. Mark uses the word “Immediately” over and over.
The Gospel of Mark starts out this way: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Then we’re off. John the Baptist appears in the wilderness, baptizing. Three verses about John baptizing Jesus. Immediately the Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness. Two verses about his temptation there. Jesus calls his first disciples. And Jesus stuns a synagogue of people when he casts out an unclean spirit from a man. “What is this?” they say. “A new teaching – with authority! And immediately, Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law from her fever right after they leave the synagogue. And the whole city gathers around her door, asking Jesus to heal people of their diseases. And he goes on a preaching tour, doing the same type of work all around Galilee.
All of that happens in one chapter! What’s going on here? Mark starts out building Jesus up in this amazing way. “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” A baptism. Healing. New authority! A city at a door! Jesus reputation is building. . . and then, WHAT?!?
Jesus has an encounter with a leper?
Mark, this is really where you want to throw this story in? Right here? Just when you were building up Jesus in every way? Really? Outrageous.
Now granted, Mark didn’t put chapter numbers in his gospel. The early church eventually did that. But Mark puts this story right at the beginning – right after a huge string of stories that give Jesus an immense amount of credibility. And then, there's story -- this scandalous story.
As we heard, a leper approaches Jesus and falls on his knees begging. If you think about it, that's scandalous in itself. A leper was someone who could have had a variety of skin diseases that were considered to be unclean by Levitical law. According to the law, people with leprous diseases were supposed to wear torn clothes, keep their hair disheveled, cover their upper lips and cry out everywhere, “Unclean. Unclean.” Can you imagine having to announce your own condition everywhere – to be seen and known only through this label? Lepers were supposed to live alone, and they were supposed to stay outside the camp or city.
So what gave this leper the audacity to approach Jesus? Who did he think he was? Or maybe a better question is, “Who did he think Jesus was?
“If you choose, you can make me clean.” That was his statement.
Here was this sad outsider – an outcast – on his knees, kneeling and begging. He must have been trembling there, terrified. He had approached Jesus when he was supposed to remain as far as possible from him. And this was more than a simple break of the rules. He could defile Jesus! He was unclean, and at any point, if he contacted Jesus, he would make Jesus unclean too. He could damage him. He could ruin an entire preaching tour.
But this person with leprosy had audacity because he had faith. He must have known that there was something different about Jesus. “If you choose, you can make me clean.”
And Jesus was different. He was moved with compassion. The word used in the Greek text says that his compassion was bodily. He was gut-wrenched about this. And maybe he was angry about it too. Why did this man have to be constantly overlooked, to live with continual stigma, to be isolated from his family – from the entire community – when he too was a Child of God?
Then Jesus does the outrageous. He does what is utterly scandalous. Willingly, he chooses to touch this man – this man! with leprosy! “I do choose. Be made clean!” Jesus has broken the social custom of his day. He’s obliterated it. He’s touched the one who was labeled – stigmatized – to be untouchable. Wow.
And there’s that word of Mark’s again: “Immediately,” the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. But things hadn’t returned to back to some simple state. In one touch, Jesus and this man with leprosy have exchanged places. The healed man goes into the open – into the city, where he has been forbidden, with new life and newfound freedom. And because he spreads the word about his new life, Jesus can no longer enter a town openly. He stays out in the desert places, and because of the word of this leper, people come to Jesus from every corner to join him there. Jesus is on the outside now, among desperate people. In one willful touch, Jesus has chosen to become a leper.
Who is this Jesus? This One who goes against the social norms – even the law at times! – if it will restore people to true worth and dignity? Who is this Jesus that Mark portrays – this One who goes on to do so many scandalous things in this gospel – telling a paralyzed man that his sins have been forgiven, no matter the rage of the scribes who witness it? This one that heals on the Sabbath – who time and time again, puts human need first? Who is this one who continues to be touched by the unclean – a woman who has been bleeding for twelve years, longing to only touch his garment and be healed? Or a dead twelve year old girl – whose corpse was ritually unclean, but who Jesus willingly touched? Who is this Jesus who eats with tax collectors and sinners? This Jesus who chooses common fishermen to follow him – who chooses 1st century women to be disciples? Who is this Jesus who says, “Let the children come to me?” Who is this one who is constantly, willfully choosing to break social custom to serve human need and dignity first? Jesus is one who transgresses what is expected. Jesus, who did not sin toward God, was constantly sinning against what society told him was the norm. Jesus is a healer. Jesus is a transgressive healer.
What would it take for us to do the same? What would we risk to become the healers we're called to be? If we follow Jesus, we're called to be transgressive healers too. What might we have to risk to follow? Who might we be called to touch? How might we be called to enter their conditions as people who want to accompany the lives of those who are suffering? And how will those people change us? What will we learn from them?
Who are the lepers of our modern day culture? Who is being told day-in and day-out that they belong on the outside? Immigrants? Undocumented workers? People who are gay? People who don’t know where their next meal is coming from? People with a skin-color that society defines as unacceptable? People with terminal illnesses? People with mental illnesses? People with stigmatizing disabilities? Children who are abused and neglected? Young people in the foster care system? Or what about people who are belittled for their religion? What about Muslims who are dishonored in every e-mail that derides our president in fear that he might be one of them? And no matter how untrue these e-mails may be, aren’t they also sending a message that the worst person someone can be is a Muslim? Who are the lepers of our modern day culture?
You are ministers, and Jesus Christ, the transgressive healer, dwells in you. You are the Body of Christ – the hands and feet of the One who heals. And as that Body, who will you dare to touch, and how will you be touched in the process? What social norms will you willfully choose to break? How can Pasadena Presbyterian Church throw open its doors – fling them wide open – for people who have never been welcomed before?
-Renee Roederer and the Spiritually Hungry, Institutionally Suspicious Class
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