Thursday 18 January 2024

Background

As I write this, my miniature poodle is looking his absolute best after a trip to the groomer. He smells fresh, he is tangle free and his coat is beautifully trimmed. He will look this way for only a few hours, until his next muddy walk. Most of the time he is anything but clean!

The man with leprosy in today’s reading who wanted to be clean was not however thinking about personal hygiene. When the Jewish priesthood was established, the priests were charged with distinguishing between "the holy and the common….the unclean and the clean" (Leviticus 10:10). Many things could make a person ceremonially ‘unclean’ including illness. An unclean person would be separated from the religious life of the community. In the first century, there was a growing Jewish preoccupation with issues concerning the clean and unclean. Leprosy was considered to be particularly serious and the ‘uncleanness’ of leprosy could be communicated to others. What's called leprosy in the Bible included a range of disfiguring conditions (but probably not including Hansen’s disease, which we call leprosy today).

The man in this story would have been socially excluded because of his condition; his desperation was evident in his plea to Jesus. For this healing, Jesus not only spoke words of healing but also reached out and touched the man. Both his touch and command caused the uncleanness to retreat and the leprosy immediately left him. After a comment by Jesus in Luke 4:27 about lepers in Israel not being healed, here is a story of one with leprosy who did find cleansing and was healed.

Jesus is shown as faithful to the law of Moses; as outlined in Leviticus 14, he sent the man to the priest, so that the priest could proclaim him clean and so that the man could make the appropriate offering required for his cleansing.

The story ends with Jesus becoming increasingly well known. More and more people came to hear him and to be healed. But Jesus could not be controlled or owned, and frequently took time to withdraw and to pray (v.16).

To Ponder:

• Can you think of a group of people today who are treated as though they were ‘unclean’? If so, what do you think needs to change to remedy this?

Prayer

Loving God, forgive me if I exclude people who are different and judge people you love. Show me who needs to know love and acceptance today. Amen.