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The Healing Of The Leper

We hear a great deal today about violence on television, in our streets, and at revolutionary hot-spots around the world. The miracle we now consider is a story Mark tells us about a man who, in his desperation, turned to violence. He was a leper shut off from God, shunned by his fellow humans, condemned to a life of utter loneliness. Between him and the rest of the world was a six-foot chasm of contaminated space across which he could not go. To all who passed by, he was required to cry out the warning, "Unclean! Unclean!"

Then one day something happened to this man. With daring determination, he defied the rules and regulations of the establishment. He broke through the walls of social and religious restrictions and went straight to Jesus. Undoubtedly there was a crowd of people around Jesus that day. When they saw the leper running toward them, they could not believe their eyes. Certainly he would stop before he crossed the forbidden barrier that separated him from clean people. But he didn't. He kept right on coming. Suddenly the crowd scattered in frightened confusion, pushing each other in an attempt to get out of his way. They were horrified, near panic, for even the shadow of a leper falling upon them would be defiling.

At the feet of Jesus, the leper knelt. As Carrington so aptly describes the man's actions, "The leper burst in without apology; he remembers his genuflection but he forgets his manners."1 His action had been impulsive, reckless, and violent. But now he humbled himself before this man named Jesus and begged for his help. The crowd completely disappeared. The leper was alone, as he had always been. Yet he was not alone, for he was in the presence of a man who was bigger and more powerful than any crowd.

Why this leper rebelled and stormed with violence the walls of imprisonment destiny had placed around him, we can only speculate. It may have been that as a little boy he had heard the Scriptures read in the synagogue telling about Elisha, the man of God, who had cleansed Naaman the leper in the River Jordan. It was his hope that another Elisha would one day come along. It was this daily hope that gave him the courage to endure his humiliating state of existence. Then he heard people talking about a man named Jesus. Some may even have called him the "new Elisha," and the leper felt that his hope had been realized -- his one chance had come. So he dared everything -- threw caution to the wind and went directly to this man of many hopes.

To Be Like Other Men

This may have been the way it was. But of one thing we can be certain -- this leper came to Jesus because he wanted to be like other men. He was a man with a great ambition -- not ambition as we usually think of it -- being better than others, or getting ahead of others. He simply wanted to be equal with others. His desire was not to pull out ahead of the crowd, but to be a part of it. This is important because how many people do we meet each day with this same simple ambition? They are not the people who stand out in a crowd, but apart from it. We notice them, but for the wrong reasons. They have a handicap or a problem that makes them different. Our reaction is to pity them and make a special effort to help them. But our well-meaning actions are often accompanied by an attitude that is condescending and demeaning. In an attempt to help them, we only increase their hurt. They want to be like other people -- treated like other people. They do not want to be singled out, but included.

Not Physical Pain As Much As Mental Anguish

Many times the real pain of a person who suffers comes not from a disease or a handicap, but from the attitudes of those around him. Our thoughtless reactions to other's afflictions separate us from them. It is not intentional and in most cases not even noticed by us, but to the sensitive sufferer we convey in subtle ways our uneasiness and even fear of afflicted people.

In some cases it is a fear of contamination. We fear that we might catch what they have, so we are reluctant to shake hands with them or we avoid touching anything in the room. We stand back as far as we can when talking with them.

Then there is the element of suggestibility. Sick or handicapped people remind us that we, too, are vulnerable to accident and disease. They are a reminder of what might happen to us. We do not want to be around afflicted people because they depress us. We visit them only out of a sense of duty. The afflicted person can sense this and is deeply hurt by it.

In other cases, we are over-solicitous. This is particularly true for the person who is blind, crippled, or suffering from a heart ailment. We destroy their dignity by treating them as if they were helpless. A young man returned from the war with an empty sleeve instead of an arm. His friend, attempting to be comforting, said, "I'm so sorry to hear that your lost your arm." To which the young man immediately came back, "I didn't lose it. I gave it." A middle-aged man returned home from the hospital after suffering a heart attack. After several weeks of being catered to, he finally called his family together and spoke kindly to them, "Look, I am the same person who went to the hospital several weeks ago. My heart attack didn't change me, so please let me live the life God has given back to me as it was before."

So with our leper in this miracle story. He wanted to be like other men, treated like other men. He did not want to be different. He did not want to be singled out; he wanted to be included.

If You Will?

The first words of the leper as he approached Christ were, "If you want to." There is a condition here -- a big word, "If." But notice, as Mattheus Keulers points out, "The man doubted Jesus' willingness to heal him, since he was not worthy of healing. He did not doubt Christ's ability to heal him."2 The question of the leper is conditional, but not based on the doubt that Jesus could not heal him; rather, it is based on Christ's willingness to heal him.

It is also important that there is no note of demand here. The leper does not come to Christ assuming the mercy of God. He lays no claim on his own right or merit to be healed. He doesn't complain that life has been unfair to him. He gives no reasons why he should be healed. He does not point out how others have it better than he. Nor does he ask the familiar question, "Why did God let this happen to me?" He does not even confess his past sins or his faith and belief in Christ which should have its rewards. He simply looks at Christ and at Christ alone. If there is any hope, it is not in himself but in this man called Jesus.

"If you want to," the leper cries out. It is as if he is saying, "Don't let my faith or lack of it be the decisive factor in my being made clean. Just let your grace and your mercy be the only factor considered." This is the prelude to the gospel. This is where it all begins. This is the attitude that must be present in us if we are to have true faith in God. This is a declaration of dependence that should be the model for us all. "If you will!" This places the responsibility for redemption where it should be, not on people but on God alone. The important factor of any faith, if it is to be truly Christian faith, is that it is not what we think or what we do but what God thinks and does. The vital decision is God's decision to choose and help us. The one "giant step for mankind" in the realm of faith is not our step toward God, but his movement toward us. Our belief and love of God is only a response made possible because he first loved and believed in us. The leper cries out, "If you will!"

Asking The Impossible

We have pointed out above that when the leper said to Jesus, "If you will," he implied that Jesus can cure him if he only will. This is a tremendous assumption that demands separate attention. William Lane in his work on Mark calls to our attention, "In all the Old Testament only twice is it recorded that God healed a leper (Numbers 12:l0ff; 2 Kings 5:1ff), and the rabbis affirmed that it was as difficult to heal the leper as to raise the dead."3

Even as late as the Middle Ages, the disease was considered so final and terminal that when a man became a leper, the priest would put on his stole, take the man into the church, and read the burial service over him. So the leper confronted Jesus with a radical request when he spoke the words, "If you will." And this should assure us that no request is too radical to bring to our Lord. He expects us to ask the impossible, for with him all things are possible.

I Do Want To

Then notice the quick and certain reaction of Christ to the leper's plea. Christ says, "I do want to." What greater words in all of Scripture? God says to desperate people seeking help, "I do want to." This is the gospel. This is the glorious, almost unbelievable good news. God wants -- is eager -- to help us. Despite our unworthiness, God wants to help us. The whole ministry and message of Christ -- his life -- his death -- his resurrection -- are but verses to this one great hallelujah chorus repeated again and again at every great event of his life. God wants to help you.

A little boy and his father, on a hike, came to the top of a high hill where they sat down for a rest. It was a beautiful sight. They could see in all directions the beauties of God's creation. As they sat there, they talked of many things. Then the little boy asked his father, "How big is God's love?" The father thought for a while and then he answered, "Well, if you look to the North as far as you can see, and then to the East, South, and West, looking as hard as you can, God's love is bigger than all that."

The little boy stood up and looked for a long time in every direction. Then he turned to his father. "If that is true, Father, then we must be standing right in the center of God's love." That is where the leper stood and that is where we stand when we are in Christ -- right in the center of God's love. And he says to us, "I am willing! I want to help you in any way I can!" That truly is good news -- glorious good news. That is the gospel.

I Can

Then, if that is not enough, a still more glorious word is added, "I can!" Not only does God want to help us, but he can help us. After Jesus says to the leper, "I do want to," he follows these words with the command, "Be clean!" It is one thing to acknowledge God's willingness. But God gives so much more. He gives us the historic record of his deeds -- determined, dared, and done for us. Every event of the Bible is a promise to us that his power is for us -- not against us. As Jesus pronounces the leper clean, he promises us that God's love is ours.

Jesus Touches Him

Michelangelo has given us a powerful image of the creative action of God painted into the plaster that covers the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He shows us the energetic finger of the Father God stretching forth to touch the limp hand of humanity. It seems that any moment the spark of life will jump the gap between God and people and Adam will be made alive. So in our text God's courageous and creative hand reaches forth to give life. Jesus touches the leper. This was not our Lord's general practice. In most cases he healed with the word only. Gestures and rituals used by most healers of the first century were avoided by Jesus. It was as if he did not want to be identified with the workers of magical cures. But in this case he touched the man. Our Lord did this because he was sensitive to what this particular man really needed. The leper's problem was that he was untouchable. How better could Jesus meet the need for acceptance than with a touch?

Father Joseph Damien went as a missionary to Molokai where lepers were literally abandoned by humanity. They lived in horrible squalor and filth. For sixteen years Father Damien lived among them. He built them a church, provided decent housing with gardens of flowers and vegetables. He brought them a new understanding of what it meant to be human, but somehow he could not get through to them the message of Christ as their Savior. Time after time he would proclaim the message, "Christ suffered and died for you lepers," but with little or no results.

Then one day he was having tea with some of the leaders of the community. Boiling hot water was accidentally spilled on his bare foot and he failed to notice it. His leper friends knew at once that he had developed leprosy because lack of sensation in the extremities of the body is one of the first signs of this dread disease.

Father Damien records in his diary that this was the decisive turning point in his work. For when he next stepped into the pulpit he began his sermon, "My fellow lepers, Christ has died for us." From that moment on, the lepers of the island responded and surrendered to Christ as their Savior. Identification with them was the bridge of communication that enabled Father Damien to touch these lepers with the message of the gospel.

So Christ identified with the leper in our miracle story by touching him and by this act the lines of communication were opened.

The Guilty Saved

Wallace is concerned with the element of guilt involved with leprosy. "The leper was condemned to his lot by the word and decree of God's priests acting in God's name. And leprosy had come to be regarded as a special sign of God's disp1easure."4 Or as David Redding refers to it, "the dirty sign of God's damnation."5 Undoubtedly in this day where religion played so vital a role in the daily lives of people, the worst consequence to the leper must have been that he was cut off and separated from God.

Now it is true that lepers could attend the synagogue, but they had to enter before everyone else and be the last to leave. And they were confined while in the synagogue to a little isolated chamber, ten feet high and six feet wide. There is little doubt that lepers must have suffered an unbelievable sense of moral uncleanness. It is therefore easy to understand why many preachers have seen in this miracle story a sign that Jesus can heal our moral uncleanness and sinfulness. As Jesus cured the leper, so he forgives us.

Wallace sees in Jesus' touch of the leper a symbol of how God touches us today with the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Jesus unites himself to us through the sacraments, and by them opens up lines of communication. Wallace writes, "The sacraments tell us that he became flesh of our leprous flesh, in order that we might become flesh of his glorious and perfect heavenly body."6

If Christianity seems irrelevant to our needs it may be that we are not allowing Christ to touch us. When we separate ourselves from the church and fail to continually participate in the sacraments, or hear the word, or share in the fellowship of believers, we are pushing ourselves farther and farther away from touching distance with our Lord.

The gospel, however, reveals to us a God who will not take "No!" for an answer. Though we constantly move out of touch with him, he never loses touch with us. On the cross he stretches forth his hands to reach as far as we in our sinful rebellion attempt to run away from him. Therefore, relax and let our Lord touch us -- let him embrace us. Then we will know what it means to stand in the very center of God's love.

Justification By Faith

Alan Richardson, approaching this miracle story in the light of the common biblical assumption that disease is evidence of sinfulness, comes to an interesting conclusion. He suggests that, when Jesus stretched forth his hand and touched the leper, he took upon himself the burden of the leper's defilement. Christ became a "sin-bearer" for the leper and freed him so that he could now fulfill the law of cleanness. The leper was clean because Christ had taken upon himself both the sin which caused the leprosy and the guilt which resulted from it. What the leper could not do for himself Christ did for him.

Richardson then draws the conclusion, "The whole Pauline doctrine of justification by faith is expounded in this short pericope, which carries us to the very heart of the Gospel message of forgiveness."7 The miracle story thereby becomes a symbolic demonstration of God's forgiveness in action. In the biblical-religious sense, the leper was not just being "healed" -- he was "saved."

Nineham also comes to this conclusion as he writes, "The general meaning of the story is to emphasize the surprising nature of salvation now accessible to men."8 Van der Loos adds, "The Gospel writers saw this event as a revelation of Jesus' salutary power, as a functon of his Messianic Kingship."9

The Leper And The Law

By the act of touching the leper, Christ identified himself with the leper. Actually Christ had to break the same conventions and rules that the leper had broken in coming to him. Christ matched the daring and the violence of the leper. He met him on his own ground of rebellion. Together they defied the law. Not because the law was wrong, but because it was ineffective. Jesus did what the law could not do. The law, as important as it was in the faith of the Jewish people, could not cure or cleanse the leper. The law could do only two things: It could declare the leper clean once he was cured, and it could protect the community from contamination. Nineham writes, "The law could do nothing for the leper; it could only protect the rest of the community against him."10

That was all the law could do. Paul recognized this limitation of the law. He saw the law not as redemptive but as regulative. In a sinful world the law could provide order until the power of the gospel could be released, but the law could not cure or make clean. The miracle of the cleansing of the leper serves as a sign that in Christ something new was happening. It illustrates the surprising nature of our salvation that is now accessible to us in Jesus the Christ. Jesus was setting us free from the law not by the destruction of the law but by creating new persons. The law was not changed -- the law remained the same -- but humanity had been changed and made clean and new. So we are free from the law not because Christ did away with the law; rather we are free from the law because Christ makes us new persons. As a butterfly is transformed from a worm groveling in the dirt, so we are lifted from the confining rut of the law and given a new form of existence. The old earthly habitation is still beneath us, but we are free to rise above it in the new world of the spirit. On the surface it may appear that, by touching the leper, Jesus is breaking the law, but in reality he is breaking through the law to create a new way of life for us.

In the annals of Switzerland, Arnold van Winkelried is honored in song and story as Switzerland's most famous hero. At the Battle of Sempach the Swiss army faced the Austrian knights. The Austrians stood as a solid wall of flesh and steel against the Swiss. Again and again the Swiss attempted to break through the Austrian ranks, but to no avail. Finally Winkelried cried out to his companions, "Follow me. I'll make a bridge for you to victory." He threw himself upon the spears of the enemy, gathered as many of them as he could into his arms, buried their points in his own body, and, pulling the knights forward and downward, fell himself, pierced through and through. But his massive body formed a human bridge through the Austrian ranks and the Swiss army literally marched across the body of their fallen hero to certain victory.

So the law stood before us a barrier -- an impossible barrier that we could not get over, around, or under. Then Christ came and placed his body upon a cross, took the guilt of our sins into his own body, and thus formed a bridge through the law that we might enter into the Kingdom as clean and renewed children of God.

Jesus Sends The Leper Back

Our Lord's relationship to the law is further clarified as we see him sending the leper back to the very institution which both he and the leper had defied. But he sends the leper back a new man. It is as if our Lord is saying to him, "Go to the priest and discover for yourself what I have done for you. You are clean. You are a new man. Now the law will not condemn you but only affirm that you are clean before all people."

So with us. In Christ we do not fear the law. We rejoice in it as the will of God. For it is no longer a series of demands that we must do, but an obedient way of living that we can do because we are new persons in Jesus Christ.

Snort Of An Impatient Horse?

At this point in our miracle story, there is a sticky phrase that scholars are not quite sure how to handle. Mark says, "Then Jesus spoke harshly with him and sent him away at once"(v. 43). The verb could be translated "sternly warned" or "charge." Hendriksen, with many other scholars, points out that the verb comes "from the idea of the snorting of an impatient horse, or simply in general from the idea of making a noise in anger."11 The problem is that the story begins with Christ showing compassion on the leper, then suddenly the note of anger is struck.

Lowrie expresses the majority opinion that Jesus is not here speaking to the leper but to the leper's condition, or more to the point, to "the evil one who had revealed itself in the horrible affliction of the man." Or as Lowrie expresses it, "At the monstrous tragedy of human life, at the hideous evil that can reduce a man to such a plight."12

A young prince sheltered all his life from the real world one day saw a decrepit old man, a dead body, and a putrefying corpse. That was enough to affect the conversion of Gautama Buddah and begin a religion that was to conquer most of Asia. Certainly, then, it should not be surprising to see our Lord repelled by suffering and strike out against the evil which causes it.

The important homiletical value of this section of the miracle story is, as Schweitzer says, "Pity is not the reason for the healing. The reason is to be found in a far more comprehensive campaign which is waged against every ungodly thing and in which the special authority of Jesus is revealed."13 Jesus believed that in his healing miracles he was engaged in a proper conflict with sin, death, and the Devil. Christ should not be pictured here romantically as the great physician with his little black bag filled with miraculous remedies for all ills; rather, it is necessary that we see him as the wrathful warrior challenging the forces of evil that hold his people captive. Compassion? Yes, a compassion not of simple pity but a burning compassion that issues forth in an aggressive anger against the evil one.

Incriminating Evidence

Another phrase which causes problems is the little phrase "a testimony to them." Does "them" refer to the people or to the priests? If it means the people, then it could be a simple statement that the people should again admit the leper back into the community. Or it could mean that Jesus was demonstrating to the people that he does not disregard the law.

If "them" refers to the priests, then Jesus could have wanted the priests to "see that he had not come to break the laws and regulations"14 or it could mean our Lord's desire to reveal to the priests that he was truly the Messiah whose work it was to heal lepers.

Van der Loos holds to the interpretation that this statement of Jesus is spoken in testimony against the priests. It is "incriminating evidence against them." What Jesus meant was, "It will be damning evidence against the priests if they establish that a healing has taken place and accept the cleansing sacrifice but do not recognize the person and power of the healer."15 And does it not follow that many are condemned who accept a miracle and fail to acknowledge the healer? In all the miracle stories, the greatest miracle is Christ himself. The basic issue is rarely the factuality of the miracle event, but the Christology of the one who witnesses or hears the miracle story. The acid test is not the question, "Do you believe in miracles?" but, "What do you think of Christ?" If you truly believe that Christ is the Son of God, then miracles should not come as a surprise or as a problem, but as the natural, expected consequences of the personhood of Christ. As Theodore Parker Ferris has said, "Unusual people do unusual things."

Christ Is Hindered, Not Helped

The text ends on a note of irony. Jesus instructs the leper to tell no one about what had happened to him that day, but to go directly to the priest. However, the leper was so excited about his newly-found life that he could not contain himself. He rushed forth and told everyone he met what this man Jesus had done for him. And Mark says, "He talked so much that Jesus could not show himself publicly in the town." The irony of the situation is that the position of the healer and the healed are exchanged. As the leper was once an outcast isolated from society, now Jesus becomes an outcast unable to show himself before people. The leper undoubtedly thought that he was doing the right thing. After all, Jesus had done a great and marvelous work and he wanted to tell others about it. But he was doing what he thought was right and not what Christ had instructed him to do. The results were harmful to the cause of Christ. Lane reminds us, "This incident serves to terminate the preaching tour of the Galilean villages."16 How true it is that our Lord continues to suffer because of our foolish and reckless actions.

No Easy Thing

So our study of this miracle began on a note of violent disobedience that was right and ended on a note of violent disobedience that was wrong. A man defied convention and religious restrictions and violently broke into the presence of Jesus seeking to be made clean. That was the right thing to do, for Jesus healed him and made a new man of him. But then the leper violated the advice of Christ to be silent about his cure, and the results were harmful rather than helpful to the cause of Christ. That was the wrong thing to do. So our miracle story shows that encountering Christ and following him is not easy. There are moments that call for courage and daring. There are other moments that call for caution and obedience. Christ takes a whip and drives the moneychangers from the temple, but he also takes a towel, and gets down on his knees and washes the disciples' feet. The important thing, therefore, about following Christ is to realize at the beginning that there is no simple pattern or consistent style of life that we are to mechanically or legalistically follow to the letter. Rather, the important thing is that we are to live in Christ close to his Word and sacraments and remain keenly sensitive to the daily directives of his Holy Spirit. Faith is an exciting adventure. Sometimes we are challenged to daring and violent actions. At other times we are called to cautious actions and obedience. Sometimes we are to take the whip and stand up to all corners; at other times we are to take the towel and kneel down to everyone. But of one thing we can be certain -- following Christ will never be dull.

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1. Philip Carrington, According to Mark (London: Cambridge University Press, 1960), p. 54.

2. Keulers quoted in Van der Loos, The Miracles of Jesus (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1968), p. 483.

3. William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974), p. 89.

4. Ronald S. Wallace, The Gospel Miracles (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1960), p. 16.

5. David Redding, The Miracles of Christ (Westwood, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1974), p. 75.

6. Wallace, op., cit., p. 19.

7. Alan Richardson, The Miracle Stories of the Gospels (London: SCM Press Ltd., 1959), p. 61.

8. D. E. Nineham, The Gospel of St. Mark, The Pelican Gospel Commentaries (New York: The Seabury Press, 1936), p. 86.

9. Van der Loos, op. cit., p. 494.

10. Nineham, op. cit., p. 86.

11. William Hendriksen, Expositon of the Gospel According to Mark, New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1975), p. 80.

12. Walter Lowrie, Jesus According to St. Mark (London: Longmans, Green and Company), p. 91.

13. Edward Schweizer, The Good News According to Mark (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1970), p. 58.

14. Van der Loos, op. cit., p. 487.

15. Van der Loos, op. cit., p. 89.

16. Lane, op. cit., p. 89.