Sunday 11 February 2024 - So. Many. Questions.

Well, this seems like a pretty straightforward, out of the ordinary, gospel passage. A leper comes to Jesus, asks for healing, Jesus does it. A nice moral story. Jesus cares for the outcast, so should we. Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom.

Trouble is, once you start looking at it a bit more deeply it raises all sorts of questions.

I was pretty blown away last week by how many details from the Gospel reading we remembered together when we retold the story. So before we explore the questions, let’s remind ourselves of the story - and then we’ll see what questions begin to bother you.

LEPER CAME

leper came to Jesus, fell to his knees

ASKED

asked for help “if you are willing, you can make me clean”

INDIGNATION

Jesus moved with indignation

WILLING

Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him, saying ““I am willing. Be clean!””

HEALED

leprosy left him at once

DON’T TELL ANYONE

Jesus strongly warns the man not to say anything to anyone

SEE A PRIEST

Show yourself to a priest and bring the offering that Moses commanded as a testimony to them.

TOLD EVERYONE

Man instead went out to announce it publicly and tell the story

SURROUNDED

Because of this so many people surrounded Jesus, and he couldn’t enter a town anywhere

REMOTE PLACE

had to stay in secluded places, but people kept coming to him.

Great - so now that we’ve gone through the story twice, what questions have been raised for you?

QUESTIONS

Why did a leper come to Jesus?

See Leviticus 13-14 - biblical medical dictionary!

leprosy was often viewed as a curse from God, often connected with sin.

covered a whole range of diseases from what eczema, infections, and what we now call leprosy

when you had leprosy you were made to look different and shunned from the community - Lev 13:45

Leviticus 13:45 NET 2nd ed.

“As for the diseased person who has the infection, his clothes must be torn, the hair of his head must be unbound, he must cover his mustache, and he must call out ‘Unclean! Unclean!’

Why was Jesus moved with compassion / anger?

Two different sources used in different modern translations - one has my favourite greek words splanchnizomai. Sounds like something you’d find in a fancy Italian restaurant. But do you remember what it means? (moved to the stomach / compassion)

The other also sounds like something in an Italian restaurant - orgizō - which means indignation or anger.

Most scholars feel the source with the word orgizō, or angry, is the more authentic one.

So why would Jesus be angry?

At being interrupted?

That a leper dared to approach him?

At what the social system that demonised and excluded an entire group of people?

At what has become to his beautiful creation?

Why did Jesus touch a leper?

By touching the leper, Jesus was making himself ritually unclean.

Why did Jesus tell the cleansed leper not to say anything? (and why sternly?!) Did he not want the publicity?

Is it a good thing that Jesus can no longer show himself openly?

While healing is good, maybe making a show of it isn’t?

Why did Jesus tell him to go to a priest?

To fulfil the requirements of the law and restore his place in society?

Act of defiance? As Rebecca said last week, Simon’s mother-in-law responded to her healing by beginning to serve others on the Sabbath, overcoming in this way an aspect of the sacred day of rest.

Tom Wright - The cleansed leper’s task is not to publicize a miracle but to help confront an ideological system: … He is to make the offering for the purpose of “witnessing against them” (eis marturion autois). This is a technical phrase in the Gospel for testimony before hostile audiences (6:11; 13:9).

Jesus has asked the former leper to accept the law—you show yourself to the priest! But the healed man can no longer obey Jesus, because he has discovered a way of liberation and kingdom that overcomes the control of the priests.

Why was Jesus not able to stay in any town openly and so stayed outside in remote places?

To get away from everyone wanting a piece of him?

Because he is now ritually impure himself from touching the leper? Leper is clean, Jesus isn’t - disruption of social order?

cf Last week - after healing Simon Peter’s mother in law (somehow I’d never twigged St Peter, the first pope, was married!) the whole town gathered by his door, and he healed many who were sick. Then he went to a quiet place - then out again to preach “for that is what I came here to do” and healed many demons.

Conclusion

I feel like I’ve broken all the rules in the preacher’s handbook today, and I’m not sorry about it. I’ve not provided you with easy answers, or much of my own thoughts and conclusions as I’ve been digging in to this passage - but hopefully I’ve refreshed a different way of reading scripture for you.

Asking questions is such a good way to read scripture, particularly when you’re reading a passage that feels like a comfortable pair of old slippers. It can be a dangerous thing when we take scripture at face value and not probe in to it and allow the spirit to move in the word and in us. It’s amazing how much there is in just five verses when you really stop and think about it. Why not try it when you’re reading at home this week?

Let me pray.