This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Jesus commanded the former leper to be silent concerning his healing, and instructed him to show himself to the priests, who alone could declare him clean, and to offer the sacrifices prescribed in the Mosaic Law. The procedure to be followed was set forth in Lev. 14:2–31, and involved different offerings depending on whether the man was poor or prosperous. In the first century the man had first to show himself to a priest in his place of residence, after which he must go to Jerusalem to be pronounced clean and to make the prescribed sacrifices. Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Jesus’ response to the petition consisted of a gesture and a pronouncement. The touch of Jesus, which crossed the taboo of contact with a leper, was significant from two points of view. From the perspective of the leper it was an unheard-of act of compassion which must have moved him deeply and strengthened him in his conviction he had not asked for help in vain. From the perspective of Jesus’ relationship to the cultic and ritual system, it indicated that he did not hesitate when the situation demanded. Jesus’ touch and his sovereign pronouncement mean the same thing: “I do will it. Be made clean.” This was not a priestly pronouncement, as is made clear in verses 43–44, but a declaration that healing would follow immediately and completely. The text describes an instantaneous radical healing which was visible to all who met the man. Continue reading →

This coming Sunday is the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time. In the previous post we located our reading in the flow of Mark’s gospel and discussed some of the implications of having leprosy in 1st century Israel. The healing of the leper is a remarkable scene, full of marked contrasts. It is a fitting conclusion to Mark’s first chapter. The powerful but misunderstood Messiah is approached directly by a person who is normally denied any contact with healthy people. This outcast’s trust in Jesus is met by the pity and power of his touch and word. However, the leper’s exhilaration at his cure is dampened by a stern repetition of Jesus’ prohibitive messianic secret: “Tell no one anything!” (v. 44). (Only the priest is to know, because only his word can allow the outcast to re-enter the society from which his sickness has kept him.) Continue reading →

This next Sunday is the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time in Lectionary Cycle B. The Markan narrative continues to move along. Our gospel for this Sunday is still early in the first major section of Mark’s Gospel which extends from 1:14 to 3:6, and describes the initial phase of the Galilean ministry. A quick summary of events so far include: the calling of the first disciples, Jesus’ ministry in and around Capernaum, taught with authority in the synagogue in Capernaum so that the people “were astonished at his teaching”, cast out a demon from a possessed person, healing Peter’s Mother-in-law, and later that same day healing all the sick that were brought to him. Then we read from last Sunday’s gospel: Continue reading →