“Holy Disobedience”

6^th Sunday after Epiphany

Duane M. Harris

February 12, 2012

Text:  Mark 1:40-45

Title:  “Holy Disobedience”

I.       The condition of leprosy.  Who are the lepers in our world?

            It wasn’t something they understood.  They didn’t know what caused it or what cured it.  There was no society bearing its name working to provide funding for a cure.  So how could they possibly know that it was contagious only after long periods of close contact?  All they knew for certain was what it looked like when they saw it and what it did to a person as it progressed.  They saw how in very serious cases it maimed people.  It left them disfigured.  It did ugly, ugly things to people.

            It’s leprosy I’m talking about, and Jesus encountered it more than once throughout his ministry.  It’s not much of an issue for us in our day because it has all but been eliminated; certainly that’s so in our country.  It’s still afflicting people in Africa and I expect Dr. Stevens or Dr. Carr could tell us of other places in which it’s still working its ugliness in human lives, but you and I are not really afraid of leprosy.  Most of us don’t even know what it looks like.

            In Jesus’ day, though, it was a red flag word eliciting immediate and strong feelings of fear, like the word Plague did in the 1200s, or Small Pox in the 1700s, or Aids in the 1900s.­­­ Through the periods of human history we have been afflicted with some conditions or diseases—some ailments—the causes of which were not understood and the cures unknown.  And how do people so often react in such circumstances when something so life-altering and life-threatening is not understood?  The people in Jesus’ day were simply afraid of leprosy.  And fear—whether based in reality or not—can result in cruel behaviors. 

            This really wasn’t new.  In Leviticus God gave Moses instructions in dealing with skin diseases.  Chapters 13 & 14 describe in detail how the priests are to deal with people who had skin outbreaks.  Reading it I wondered how many teenagers had to visit their priest.  It reads:  “When a man or woman has white spots on the skin, the priest is to examine them, and if the spots are dull white, it is a harmless rash that has broken out on the skin; that person is clean.”  (Leviticus 13:38-39).  The priests and the people are given specific instructions when someone has a burn and the skin turns reddish-white, when a boil heals and there’s swelling, when there are sores on the head or chin.  Examination could include up to 14 days of quarantine in order for the priest to determine whether a person is to be clean or unclean.  Some of you will be glad to know God’s instruction for this condition:  “When a man has lost his hair and is bald, he is clean.  If he has lost his hair from the front of his scalp and has a bald forehead, he is clean.”  (Leviticus 13:40-41)

            But in all of this, if a priest determined someone to be unclean, the prescription is not written on a tablet sending you to the pharmacy for meds.  Instead it’s this:  “The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, ‘Unclean!  Unclean!’  As long as he has the infection he remains unclean.  He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.”  (Leviticus 13:45-46).

            One source I read said that “in Jesus’ day a leper by law could not get within fifty yards of a clean person.”  And if the leper didn’t cry out as the law said he or she should, others would do it for them:  “Leper!  Leper!”  Stones accompanying the shouts to keep them away because contamination was serious business.  It wasn’t just the disease itself that wounded a person, but the social isolation and loneliness that the law required:  can you imagine?  I wonder what it was like to be a leper in Jesus’ day.  Cut off from family, friends.  Can’t get your hair cut, go to work, or even worship.  I wonder, too, given we Christians believe the Bible is God’s Word for us today, who are the lepers now?  Who are the people we’re afraid of because they may have something we might catch that may injure us or the people we love?  Who are the lepers?  Maybe there have been times in your own life when you’ve experienced feeling ostracized from community or family or church.  Maybe you can identify with this leper just a little.  Or maybe you know someone….someone outside and alone without hope, wondering what will become of his or her life.

II.        The Leper’s approach and Jesus response

            Jesus is making the rounds in Galilee preaching, teaching, driving out demons in the small town villages.  He has already driven out a demon from a man in the synagogue in Capernaum and healed Simon’s mother-in-law in Simon and Andrew’s home.  His reputation growing, people were bringing the sick and demon possessed to him, knowing he could help. 

            It might be that the leper heard something, caught wind of a report that someone named Jesus had this power, had this strength, had this capacity to heal that drove people to him.  It spread like word of mouth like people talk about Mayo or Cleveland Clinics.  Or maybe he saw something, watched from afar, saw someone he knew go into the house sick and come out well.  However the man discovered it, when he had the chance, he disobeyed the law.  Didn’t shout, “Unclean!  Unclean”, warning Jesus.  Instead, he did an extraordinary thing and humbly came close to Jesus, close enough for Jesus to touch him.  It was shocking!  I can imagine people scattering when the leper came near, backing away as if a skunk had wandered into the crowd, backing away just out of spraying range but close enough to still see what was about to happen.  This invader exposed Jesus and anyone near him to a potentially infectious disease that could render them as unclean as he was.  Didn’t he realize what he’d done?!  He disobeyed the law!

            Jesus doesn’t move away.  He’s not afraid.  For this man to act this way in public it’s clear that he is desperate.  Maybe been away from family, friends, church for too long and willing to do whatever it took to be able to sit at a table and eat with family again, get his hair cut and wear new clothes again, go to work again.  But there’s more than mere desperation here.  He has confidence that Jesus can change his life.  He trusts Jesus will not do as others have done and allow their fears to keep him a lonely and desperate man.  Jesus is different.  ‘If you choose, you can make me clean,’ he tells Jesus.  Notice he’s not asking for healing.  He wants to be clean.  Why ask to be clean and not healed, do you suppose?

            Now, Jesus is faced with a decision.   And how does he act given this choice he faces?  He actually touches the man!  He touches him!  Why would you reach out and touch a skunk?!   No one will come near you for days!  In effect that’s what he’s doing.  Why would Jesus risk his own health?  Why would he do something that would make him ritually unclean, presumably unable to have contact with others himself until HE was pronounced clean?  Why would he intentionally disobey the purity laws himself in response to a man who has already done so?  A person just didn’t go around touching lepers!

            The Gospel of Mark describes Jesus’ response with the Greek word “splanchnizomai”.  English translations are very mixed.  The NRSV renders it “moved with pity.”  The NIV says, “filled with compassion.”  The New Jerusalem Bible poorly translates it as “feeling sorry for him.”  Other credible ancient manuscripts prefer a different word that indicates that Jesus’ was moved by anger.  Could he have been angry with the man for putting him in this position?  Angry with the disease itself that results in such a separation that leads to this kind of desperation?  Angry with interpretations of the law that requires a priest’s designation of cleanliness?  More likely, Jesus is moved by all these emotions:  pity, compassion, and anger.

            Whatever emotion or emotions moved Jesus to touch this man, it’s clear this isn’t just a casual office visit to request some antibiotics for strep throat.  Jesus is not a dispassionate dispenser of medication for a common variety bug that many of us suffer from especially this time of year.  There’s passion in this healing.  Jesus is moved by an intense emotional response as he places his healing and cleansing hand on the man.  In this man’s case, Jesus joins the man in holy disobedience that this man might have life again.  And if you’ve ever been a victim of any social designation that leaves you as isolated and lonely as a leper, you know…you know what it’s like to be touched by someone who is not afraid when no one else will.  Jesus crosses the line with this skunk of a man and takes on his uncleanness.  Jesus touch heals:  “I do choose.  Be made clean!”

            In my lifetime and most of yours—I can still hardly believe it!—people of color were considered unclean and lines were drawn.  You remember?  Many of you do.  Public signs in the Jim Crow states designating where people of color could drink, go the bathroom, where they could sit on a public bus or even in church, where they could eat in public places.  Read the book, The Help, or rent the movie.  But the Spirit of Jesus will not stand for such things, and eventually holy disobedience revealed Christ’s presence as those barriers and walls were broken down and are still being broken down today.

            Jesus is not only healer of the body in this man’s life, but he is also healer of the broken places in the social order that keep people “outside the camp” because they are different or considered “unclean”:  maybe the immigrant, the poor, the slow to learn, the social misfits, whoever the lepers of our day are.  Jesus stands ready to heal, ready to use us in holy disobedience—not with a lack of respect, but with a mission–in the words of that old Fannie Crosby hymn–to

               Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,

               snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;

               weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,

               tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

               Refrain:

               Rescue the perishing, care for the dying;

               Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

            And maybe it’s not just about walls in our social order.  Maybe we’re guilty of some of this wall building ourselves in the church.  We’ve been lamenting for years in mainline denominations that young adults don’t seem to be flocking to our sanctuaries.  We’re afraid for the future of the church.  But young adults are different.  They want to change things we’re not comfortable changing.  Some styles of worship are meaningful for them but they aren’t for many of us, so we understandably resist.  

            Author, Michael D. Powell, wrote about this dynamic in church:

The church is not immune to real life. We organize our worship, print an “Order of Worship,” and hope that everything goes as planned. But real life doesn’t follow a bulletin. In a large and very formal church a particular woman visited one Sunday who just wasn’t with the program. She kept shouting out “Amen,” during the sermon. One of the ushers hushed her, but she kept shouting “Amen” until finally the usher approached her and, in a loud whisper asked, “Madam, what are you doing?” “I’m praising the Lord,” she said. To which he responded, “Well, church is no place for that sort of thing.”

(Michael D. Powell, Reach Out and Touch Somebody)

            The leper is now healed, and Jesus is unclean.  And Jesus says something peculiar to the man. 

43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, ‘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.’

What was he warning him about and why did he do it sternly?  Jesus sounds serious, almost threatening.  “Don’t say anything to anyone!”  “Go show yourself to the priest!”  “Do it!”  Maybe because the man would not be allowed in the community until the priest gave him the official stamp of approval?  Maybe because Jesus didn’t want to be inundated with more people to heal than he could possibly handle?  Maybe because he didn’t want to be known only as a miracle worker?  Maybe all of the above.

III.       Leper’s reaction

            But the man can’t keep quiet!  He’s just been healed, cleansed, free to return to family, friends, community, church, work.  Jesus gave him his life back.  How can he keep from singing?

            You have to wonder why Jesus gave him that order in the first place.  Didn’t God try that with Adam and Eve at the beginning?  “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.”  (Genesis 3:3)  As Dr. Phil likes to ask, “How’s that working for ya?”  It didn’t work!  Eve did it anyway and then Adam!

            So not only does the man disobey the purity laws when he approaches Jesus in the first place, he disobeys Jesus’ order not to tell anyone, too!  And maybe that’s holy disobedience at work, too.  The man couldn’t help himself.  He had to tell others about Jesus. 

            Is it really so difficult to understand?  Don’t we do the same whenever we have good news to tell about some problem in our lives that’s been resolved?  Being healed of cancer, discovering someone covered your debt, receiving that much wanted and needed job, finding someone who loves you as you are, a heavy burden is lifted, somebody does a random act of kindness, “It’s a Wonderful Life” kind of life discovery, really trusting Christ wants wholeness for you and for all people:  a person can’t keep quiet, can he or she?  Can you?

Jesus disobeys the purity laws by touching and healing the leper.  The leper disobeys Jesus by telling everyone he can find.  When is disobedience holy?  And who are the people forced to live outside our “camp” because of our fears, people whom Jesus would touch and call us to receive back into the community?  These are the questions I hear from God’s Word today.