by Fr. Tommy Lane
Quarantine! The man with the skin disease who came to Jesus in our Gospel today had to live in quarantine outside the town (Mark 1:40-45). We heard the quarantine rules for people with skin diseases in our first reading today (Lev 13). The last verse said they were to live apart, outside the camp (Lev 13:46). That was when they were wandering in the desert but at the time of Jesus they had to live outside their town in a cave or whatever they could find. They were cut off from their family. Whenever they were near others, as we heard in our first reading, they had to warn people by crying out, “unclean, unclean.” (Lev 13:45) Later in Mark (14:3), and in Matthew (Matt 26:6), Jesus accepted a dinner invitation in the house of someone called Simon the Leper. That must mean that he had been a leper in the past, possibly even cured by Jesus, but the nickname “leper” stuck with him. If he were still a leper, he could not have hosted a dinner for Jesus and others.
Somehow, the man in the Gospel today heard about Jesus being in his local town and approached him. Jesus was his last hope, because, in effect, he lost his family and community when he contracted that disease. We see Jesus’ reaction to him: Jesus was “moved with pity.” (Mark 1:41) Mark wrote his Gospel in Greek, and in his Greek this reaction of Jesus, “moved with pity,” is extraordinarily strong. It means your inner organs are moving with compassion. Jesus was so moved when he saw the sick man, that he was all churned up inside, so to speak.
The next thing is shocking. Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him (Mark 1:41). Jesus did not have to touch him. Jesus could have cured him by his word. But Jesus wanted to show his compassion in this way. However, anyone with skin disease was regarded as ritually unclean according to the Jewish thinking. Ritually unclean meant you could not worship in the temple for a specified time, and you had to bathe in running water at the end of that time. Someone with skin disease would be ritually unclean as long as he had the disease. That is why, when the man met Jesus, he did not ask Jesus to heal him but said, “If you wish, you can make me clean” (Greek of Mark 1:40 & NAB), and of course, he knew that if Jesus made him ritually clean again, he would be healed of his skin ailment also. When Jesus touched the man, according to their thinking at that time, it meant Jesus became ritually unclean himself. Of course, Jesus did not become ritually unclean because he had just taken away the illness which was making the man unclean, and Jesus was stronger than illness, ritual uncleanness, and death.
Jesus asked the man not to tell anyone about what had happened (Mark 1:43-44). Presumably, Jesus did not want people to know because they had an incorrect understanding of the Messiah. They were expecting a political Messiah. We read in the Acts of the Apostles, that even after Jesus’ resurrection and before his ascension, some still did not understand Jesus and asked him if he was going to take back Palestine from the Romans (Acts 1:6). Jesus gradually revealed to his disciples in Mark’s Gospel that he was the Messiah but now, at the healing of this man, was not the time. Unfortunately, the man was disobedient to Jesus and started spreading the story everywhere. The result was precisely what Jesus wanted to prevent. The last verse of our Gospel today said Jesus could not go into any town openly and was out in the country (Mark 1:45).
So, at the end of today’s Gospel passage, the man who had been in quarantine is healed. On the other hand, Jesus who healed him, could no longer enter towns openly. Jesus took away his ritual uncleanness and did not become ritually unclean, but in their thinking he did. There was a total reversal: the situation of the man at the beginning of the Gospel passage, was the situation of Jesus at the end of the Gospel passage—the man could enter his town again but it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town. Jesus paid a costly price for the man’s freedom from his condition. Jesus freed the man, but because of the man’s disobedience telling the story everywhere, Jesus ended up taking on himself the man’s situation: isolation. Jesus became like a leper to heal the leper.
That is precisely what happened at Calvary. Jesus took our sins on his back and was crucified and died to atone for our sins. Many times, the New Testament tells us that Jesus died for us. (Rom 5:8; 8:32; 1 Cor 5:7; 15:3; Gal 1:3–4; 2:20; Eph 5:2; 1 Thes 5:9–10; 1 Tim 2:5–6; Titus 2:14; 1 Pet 1:18–19; 3:18). For example, in the First Letter of Peter we read, “Christ suffered for sins once, the righteous for the sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God.” (1 Pet 3:18) We read in the prophet Isaiah,
he was pierced for our
sins,
crushed for our iniquity.
He bore the punishment that
makes us whole,
by his wounds we were healed. (Isa 53:5)
In this Mass, as we are spiritually present at Calvary, we offer Jesus to the Father. As he took our sins on his back then, we ask Jesus to help us now. When you pray, place yourself in the presence of Jesus like the leper. Like the leper, say to Jesus what you need to say. Tell Jesus everything. See Jesus’ compassion for you, as for the leper. Allow Jesus in your prayer to put his strong hand on your head and to bless you. Spend time with Jesus blessing you and when you have finished, thank Jesus. Jesus became like a leper to heal the leper. On Calvary, Jesus became a leper for us all.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2021
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
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Related Homilies: Going to Jesus, speaking with Jesus, and being healed 2019
Father Damien in the leper colony on Molokai