Year B

Mark 1:40-45

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Healed to Win the Race

We have come to the last Sunday in the Epiphany season that began January 6 with the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus and ends today with another “aha” Epiphany moment, the healing of a leper. By the close of chapter 1, Mark has established Jesus’ identity as the “Son of God,” as one who preaches, teaches with authority, and heals all sorts, even the demon possessed. It should be no surprise then that the religious authorities are already beginning to question WHO has the power and authority to heal and to forgive sin. There is no doubt in their minds that the answer is clearly not Jesus; a theme that will continue to grow as we begin the walk with Jesus next week to the cross in the season of Lent.

Today, this first chapter of Mark closes with a story unlike any of the previous stories in Mark, such as the story we heard last Sunday of Jesus’ healing of Peter’s mother-in-law because this little story today has some rather unique features. Echoes of Naaman from the OT reading 2 Kings today, may ring in our ears when we hear about the unnamed leper who comes to Jesus seeking to be healed. But, these echoes cease, when Jesus not only listens to the leper but touches him. By touching the leper, Jesus risked his own health and ensures that he would become ritually unclean. Yet, moved by compassion for this man, Jesus touches the untouchable, violating Jewish law making himself an untouchable, ritually unclean.

Modern medical historians have reached a consensus that the leprosy mentioned in the bible may or may not be the Hansen’s disease now known as leprosy. The leprosy in the bible is a broad term including many different skin ailments, such as eczema and psoriasis. Some of the skin conditions in the OT described in the purity laws in Leviticus cannot even be identified by modern science. These conditions caused great discomfort, but were not life threatening. In the OT and NT people with skin diseases were considered unclean and were required to isolate themselves. This “uncleanness” totally isolated the one afflicted from all of society. People avoided the leper, fearing for their lives if it should contaminate them.

Leviticus chapter 13 & 14 contains extensive instructions about diagnosing the various skin aliments and treatments, and about the requirements for the person to be declared clean and returned to community life. We hear about one of these requirements in the story today of Naaman, a powerful, arrogant general in the service of the Aramean army—an enemy of Israel, who had contracted a skin condition that the writer of 2 Kings called leprosy. An Israelite slave girl tells him to consult the prophet Elisha. Naaman eventually reluctantly follows Elisha’s advice to submerge himself in the Jordan River and is healed when he does.

This submerging into water to be cleansed is exactly what happens to each one of us in baptism. Whether it’s a few handfuls of water or we are submerged in water, we come up cleansed, healed, touched by God, and ready for our mission in the world as servants of Christ. This cleansing is what Paul is referring to in the NT passage from 1 Corinthians today. Today’s reading is a continuation of last Sunday’s text which is an extended argument Paul is making on behalf of his apostleship and his insistence that he does not claim the benefits to which he is entitled. He is declaring his commitment to a life that is true to his baptism, and the gospel, and his aspirations of sharing “in its blessing.”

To share in the blessings of the gospel Paul says, is to be made clean. The Christian life and its blessings demand discipline and practice, much like a runner must do to become competent. Running the race to win is a process of centering lives more and more on God’s grace. We don’t run aimlessly or beat the air, because we have a clear and definite goal: to grow up into Christ. In a life with Christ we are made clean. The leper today wants to be clean, and Jesus declares he is clean after touching him. The leper is willing to take some risk in order to find healing. Unlike Naaman, he has no reservations about admitting his illness and he entrusts his well-being to Jesus.

Both Jesus and the leper seem to violate the ritual purity laws of the OT. The leper came to Jesus, even though he should have warned Jesus to stay away. Yet, he had nothing to lose by begging Jesus for healing and Jesus let him draw near, and the touch of Christ healed. There are many ways in which Christ can touch our lives besides through baptism, through prayer, by reading the scriptures, in worship or in private devotions; and always the result is a genuine blessing. Christ can touch our self-centeredness, leading us to think of others and respond to their needs. That same touch or influence in our lives can strengthen our resolve to resist the temptations that assail us and strengthen us to live instead as one of God’s, loving people.

Christ’s touch can help us meet life bravely; freeing us from fear and anxiety about what tomorrow might bring, and even fear of death…two very difficult fears to overcome. To be made clean by the touch of Jesus does not require that we be a certain kind of person or always do the right thing, because our Lord reaches out and touches all who seek to be clean, and even now he continues to offer us his healing touch. Wanting to acknowledge the lepers faith, he was healed. It was an amazing miracle, revealing Christ’s power as the Son of God. Before sending the man off, Jesus sternly charges him-as he so often does in Mark’s healing miracles-to tell no one and in keeping with the purity laws as Moses commanded, to show himself to the priest.

But overcome with joy, the man can’t keep the secret, and tells everyone he sees. And because of the man’s persistent witnessing, Jesus is overwhelmed by people coming to him for healing, so much so that he can’t even go into the towns and has to stay out in the countryside where people come to him. By our own faithful witnessing for Christ we can help build God’s kingdom. The challenge before each one of us is for us to tell others about the wondrous works of God in our lives. I know Christ has touched each one of our lives and we should be so overjoyed that we can’t keep the good news to ourselves and just maybe the result will be a rush of people who want to hear more and to know the healing touch of Christ. Therefore, let us “Run the race in such a way that we may win it”.