Mark Pt 9: Touching the Untouchable
1. The Condition of the Man
Leprosy! The very word filled people with horror. The Jews regarded it as “the stroke of God.” The leper carried about in his body corruption, contamination, and death. Society ostracized and rigidly segregated him lest he contaminate others of the community. If anyone wandered into his vicinity, he had to cover his mouth and cry, “Unclean! Unclean!” to warn the other person away. He was excommunicated from the religious life, functions, and feasts of the nation. His only companions were other lepers in the same pitiable condition as himself. He could not work because who would want the goods and services of a leper? He could not come and go as he pleased. He endured a living death, because his disease spread and was incurable. Often, it began in a small way. He lost the feeling in his fingers, in his feet, and in his limbs. Before long, he presented a dreadful spectacle with rotted stumps where once had been healthy limbs. He had no hope. He was cut off from his family, from his former friends, and from the fellowship of the people of God. All he could look forward to was death. No wonder leprosy is often viewed as a type and picture of sin.
2. The Compassion of the Messiah
If the priest declared a particular skin problem to be leprosy, the sufferer was excluded from the community by divine decree (Lev. 13:45–52; Num. 5:2–4). This banishment was not rooted in any fear of spreading the disease but of spreading religious impurity. Leprosy was considered a primary source of uncleanness. Like a corpse, the leper could impart impurity to objects found within the same enclosure. As a result, he or she was viewed as a living corpse, and a cure was likened to raising the dead.17 The leper was confined by a strict set of rules that governed his contact and relations with other people.18 The leper in Mark 1:40, however, does not keep a safe distance but breaks through the religious barricade to confront Jesus. He is willing to chance that Jesus has both the power and the grace to heal him.