The Untouchables...

In ancient Hebrew culture, no condition was more despised and feared than leprosy. The word covered several types of virulent skin diseases. Unlike other internal diseases, the disfigured markings on the skin could not be hidden. They were repulsive to others and considered incurable by human means. In order to make sense of the disease, some even regarded leprosy as a punishment for sin (see Numbers 12:9-10; 2 Kings 5:27).

Considered to be highly contagious, lepers were condemned to social banishment. They were confined outside the city limits far from the rest of the population, often dwelling in city dumps, because they could at least find food there. These "untouchables" lived in isolation. Nobody dared approach them. They were living corpses - dead men walking. Fred Craddock describes the leper's loneliness, living as "a corpse haunting the edges of the community he could no longer enter."[1] Banished from the presence of parents, siblings, and friends, unkempt and covered with rags, lepers were doomed to live in quarantined containment, unable to approach within twelve feet of "normal" people. When they found themselves within range of healthy people in order to solicit alms, the levitical law commanded that they shout "Unclean! Unclean!" in order to warn of their contaminated presence (Leviticus 13:45).

The Leper's Plea

The leper that approaches Jesus is not just another face in the crowd. He is forbidden a place in the crowd - unclean, contaminated, and condemned. But this particular leper shocks the crowd with his blatant disregard for the biblical rules and courageously (or foolishly) approaches Jesus. Though he should have remained at a distance and called out, "Unclean! Unclean!" he instead calls out to Jesus: "Jesus, Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean" (Mark 1:40).

The leper's bold and passionate request - he has no luxury for a passive, quiet approach - reveals his desperate faith. He demonstrates great respect for Jesus by bowing down and kneeling in his presence. Clearly, he does not doubt Jesus' power. "That Jesus could help him seems not to be a question in the leper's mind; the question is, will he?"[2] Will Jesus attend to the needs of someone who is ritually unclean and excluded from society? Craig Keener views the leper's submission to Jesus' will as a great act of trust:

[The leper] acknowledges that Jesus has the right to decide whether to grant the request. To acknowledge that God has the right to grant or refuse a request is not lack of faith... it is the ultimate act of dependence on God's compassion and takes great trust and commitment for a desperate person.[3]

Jesus' Response

The leper's request inspires compassion in Jesus. "Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, 'I do choose. Be made clean!'" (Mark 1:41). In this description, we gain a rare glimpse into the feelings and motivation of Jesus. Jesus is not put off by the man's uncleanness, but rather, Jesus is moved to action by a heart filled with compassion.

One variant reading suggests Jesus is moved by anger rather than compassion. Some suggest this is the more likely reading because it is the more difficult. In the process of copying and recopying the ancient text scribes would occasionally smooth out difficulties, but rarely add them. Possible reasons for Jesus' anger include: (1) Jesus is angry about this interruption to his primary mission; (2) Jesus is angry that the leper questions his willingness; (3) Jesus' anger arises because of the man's ravaged condition. But Mark's emphasis on Jesus' compassion (Mark 6:34; 8:2) seems to favor the traditional reading. Either way, R. T. France's comments strike the right balance:

Mark certainly wants us to understand that Jesus emotionally affected by the encounter, but does not explain why. The most likely explanation is, perhaps, that the suffering caused by the disease, both physically and socially, moved Jesus not only to compassion but to anger at the presence of such evil in the world; perhaps also over the insensitivity of the social taboo. That the anger was not directed against the man himself is implied by the immediate compassionate response.[4]

Ben Witherington argues that it is "the capacity for righteous anger is essential to being a minister or servant of God."[5] Brian P. Stroffregen comments, "If we are not angry about some sort of evil in society, and doing something about it, how well are we listening to God's word?"[6]

Regardless of whether the true reading is anger or compassion, the most shocking aspect of this account is found in the three words, "Jesus touched him." The law forbade touching lepers (Leviticus 5:3). Furthermore, it was assumed that touching contaminated lepers would lead to "catching" leprosy. We know today that touching lepers does not lead to contamination, but in Jesus' time, this was not apparent. In other words, Jesus was not only breaking the levitical code, he was also taking a great personal risk. We moderns know that Jesus would not become a leper, but Jesus most likely did not.

Jesus' action reveals how "willing" he is to cleanse the leper. Jesus was willing to incur defilement so that the leper may be made clean. Strangely enough, Jesus does not catch uncleanness from the contact. Instead, the leper catches cleanliness from him. The Holy One of God is not defiled by touching the leper, but rather, communicates holiness and healing to him. Jerry Goebel points out the irony and wonder of this exchange:

Jesus not only crosses the barrier of ritual; but this leper broke the law by approaching Jesus. Jesus rises over the law to offer compassion and over judgment to offer love. Jesus loves this sinner even while he is in the act of sinning![7]

We can hardly fathom how strange, new, and wonderful Jesus' compassionate touch must have been for the leper. Imagine never having been touched by human hands, always living in loneliness and isolation, constantly living with the rejection and condemnation of others. And then imagine finally being touched, accepted, recognized, listened to, and loved. N. T. Wright writes,

We know today, from studies of psychology, what powerful and long-lasting effects result from appropriate human contact. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, lovers and spouses, friends and neighbors - all in their different ways will touch each other, in a hug, a handshake, an embrace, a kiss, a light touch on the arm. A good deal of human communication takes place, not in words, but in gestures like that. To be cut off from all such contact is therefore almost as serious as losing one's sight or hearing. So much sheer love is conveyed by touch.

Nobody had touched this man, we may suppose, for years. His body was now riddled with the disease; it had clearly been, quite literally, eating away at him for a long time. And now Jesus reached out and touched him. We can only imagine the sense of awe and joy that this brought to the leper.[8]

The words of the Bill Gaither song come to mind: "He touched me, O, he touched me,  And, O, the joy that floods my soul!" Through Jesus, God's love is made visible and tangible in the simple expression of extending a hand of acceptance and healing.

Jesus' Passionate Command

After cleansing the leper, Jesus issues a stern warning. The word embrimesamenos (translated in the NRSV as "sternly warning") communicates the passion behind Jesus' command. It could be translated, "snorting with indignation, he strictly charged him with threats." Clearly, Jesus means business when he says, "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" (Mark 1:43).

This command serves two useful functions in Mark's story. First, it prepares us to correctly understand the series of controversies to come in Mark's gospel. Jesus will eventually be accused of holding the Mosaic Law in low regard. But here we see that Jesus respects his Jewish heritage and does not lightly flout the law (see also Mark 7:9-13 and 12:29-31).[9] Second, the leper's obedience to Jesus' command allows the cured man to re-enter society. Though he is healed, he remains ceremonially unclean until the prescribed ritual of cleansing has been performed by the priests (see Leviticus 13-14 and Deuteronomy 24:8). The ritual will restore the man's dignity and reintegrate him into the life and worship of Israel. Williamson writes, "Jesus' concern was to restore this man physically, spiritually, and socially. The command to offer sacrifice and so to accomplish ritual purification and social reintegration shows once more the compassion of Jesus."[10]

It is difficult to determine whether the leper obeyed Jesus' command to go to the priests for the cleansing ritual. The text offers no clues in this regard. It is likely that he did, for he would be unable to re-enter society apart from this ritual.

Though we don't know for certain whether he visited the priests, we do know with certainty that he did not obey Jesus' first command, "See that you say nothing to anyone" (Mark 1:44). Contrary to Jesus' command, we read, "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" (Mark 1:45).

The leper's impulsive witness may have been offered with the best possible motives, but it hinders Jesus' mission. Jesus' popularity continues to grow, extending beyond Galilee to "everywhere": "they were coming to him from everywhere" (Mark 1:45). Ironically, the leper's witness results in Jesus being forced to "trade places" with the leper. Jesus "ends up unable to enter towns and cities, compelled to live the kind of 'outcast' and wilderness existence from which the now-cleansed man had been set free."[11] At the same time "the leper is restored to his community, Jesus himself becomes a kind of leper, banished, in a sense, by his own popularity, the overwhelming needs of the people, and perhaps the already-building tension between him and the priests."[12] As James Edwards notes, Jesus trades places with the leper: "Mark began this story with Jesus on the inside and the leper on the outside. At the end of the story, Jesus is 'outside in lonely places.' Jesus and the leper have traded places. Early in his ministry Jesus is already an outsider in human society."[13]

Jesus cures the leper, but not without great cost to himself. This pattern will continue throughout Mark's gospel and climax in the cross.

The episode is far more, then, than the record of an isolated act of compassion on the part of Jesus. It anticipates the whole costly "entrance" of the Son of God into the "uncleanness" and alienation of the human situation, an entrance that will come to a climax as he dies on the cross, hanging between two bandits and with a cry of abandonment on his lips. As Jesus "touches" the man in all his dehumanizing disfigurement, so in his Passion he still more radically "touches" the whole human condition.[14]

Significance

In this account we discover the startling extent of God's compassion revealed in Christ. The leper cries, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reveals that God's compassion has no limits. It reaches out to all - even the most despised, hopeless, and helpless.

Jesus' will and determination to reach out and touch us in all our uncleanness is clear: "I do so will!" Jesus does this at great cost to himself - a cost that climaxes in the cross. We never have to second guess the breadth and width of God's compassion. It is greater than we can fathom and reaches out beyond the boundaries we often set.

This challenges those of us who claim the name of Christ and seek to follow our Lord. We often draw boundaries between of those who are acceptable to God and those who are not. We draw lines between "us" and "them" - those we consider outsiders to God's compassion. We may think that we've somehow progressed beyond a theology that marginalizes some people as unclean or untouchable, but if we are honest, we know there are people we've placed outside God's healing touch. In Jesus' day these outcast groups were lepers, beggars, sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, and renegades (Jewish people considered to be flouting Jewish law). The general populace viewed such people as beyond help. Our tendency to build walls and erect boundaries should lead us to reflection: Who are the people we'd rather not see, let alone touch? Who are our untouchables? Who are the people that we speak of as "them" in contrast to "us" in order to set a boundary that makes us feel justified in ignoring, rejecting, or even condemning them?

We may be unwilling to reach out and touch, but Jesus isn't. Jesus' "I will" is the power of the good news of the kingdom. Jesus "will" break rules, cross boundaries, risk contamination - and ultimately expose himself to personal rejection and suffering - in order to touch the untouchables.

"Through Jesus we see the will of God in action: Determined and willing to cleanse the least included. Does that describe us? Does that look like our church?"[15] Are we willing to move beyond places of comfort and safety to respond to the needs of others - to extend a hand?

Sarah Buteax writes, "We may not be able to heal like Jesus, but if we are willing, we can certainly love like Jesus. We may not have the power to heal each other physically but we do have the power to declare each other clean, touchable, worthy, human."[16]

Clearly, "there are plenty of people in today's world who need the touch of Jesus, literally and metaphorically, and [they] are waiting for us to provide it."[17] We are Christ's body - Christ's hands in this world. Will we have the heart of God - the heart of boundless compassion and mercy - and reach out and touch the untouchables?

Perhaps we could start at home, with our own flock. It is undeniable that many of our shut-ins feel isolated, alone, forgotten. How might we as a body make greater efforts to extend a hand of healing, hope, and love?

But we certainly do not want to end there. There is no end to those we could touch if we are willing to break down the boundaries, risk our reputation - perhaps even break a few rules. And if this sounds shocking, may I remind you of Jerry Goebel's relevant words: "Jesus not only crosses the barrier of ritual; but this leper broke the law by approaching Jesus. Jesus rises over the law to offer compassion and over judgment to offer love. Jesus loves this sinner even while he is in the act of sinning!"[18]

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© Richard J. Vincent, 2009