Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, cycle B

Mark 1:40-45

Like other professions, the profession of medicine has a certain culture. During medical school and residency, there is something called roundsmanship, in which physicians in training try to demonstrate that they know more about something than everyone else. Long after training, this surfaces in conferences and other gatherings, when otherwise mature physicians still try to prove that they know more than the rest of the group. Another part of the culture is described by the statement, “See one, do one, teach one.” This means that after you watch a certain procedure, you should be able to do it, and if you can do it, you should teach it to someone else. Obviously this doesn't hold for every procedure, but again, it's part of the culture.

As I was thinking about today's Gospel, I was reminded how Mark's story of Jesus seems to be one miracle after another, until Jesus goes down to Jerusalem and his passion. Mark has very few parables, no beatitudes, no collections of Jesus' sayings. It is the oldest gospel, and some people think it is the actual recollections of Peter, dictated to Mark. It is in Mark that Peter's mistakes and blunders are most obvious; the other writers tend to cover them up. So why is Mark telling us about all these miracles? Today we hear yet another story, the healing of a leper.

There are several things about this short story to notice. First of all, the leper approaches Jesus. As you heard in the first reading, they had laws in those days about lepers. One was that they were supposed to avoid people who didn't have leprosy. They were to live outside the city. Thy had to cover their faces. They couldn't have jobs and depended on the charity of relatives to survive. If they were walking on a road and healthy people were to come along, the lepers were to get off the road. So this leper is clearly in violation of all these rules. By Jewish standards he is not only a leper, he is a sinner.

When we read the English translation, it is kind of whitewashed. Some authorities say that the leper says something like “If you will it, you can declare me clean.” That kind of sounds like someone who would defy the laws about leprosy, doesn't it? Our leper has reached the point where he doesn't care what happens to him. He's at the end of his rope. And notice, he is challenging Jesus. If by chance someone who was declared a leper did get over his skin disease, and remember that many lepers had other problems, probably a little psoriasis here and there – the leper had to go to the priests, who would inspect him and then if no sign of leprosy was seen, declare him clean. Our leper is not only asking Jesus to cure him, but also to carry out the task of a priest.

It says Jesus was filled with compassion, but some manuscripts say that Jesus “snorted in anger” which is a very different picture. I think it is because he is angry with a system that treats people the way the leper has been treated. The least the society could do would be to provide food and shelter for these unfortunates. Instead, the Jewish society, convinced that you got leprosy because you were a sinner, shunned and ostracized lepers.

Jesus says, “I am willing, I declare you clean”, and demonstrates to all those who are watching that the leper is now cured by touching him. To touch a leper was to become unclean yourself, but if you touched a healthy person, you remained clean. When Jesus touched the leper, he invites him back into society.

Finally, Jesus tells the leper to go to the priest and follow the Jewish rituals for re-entry into society. Then he adds “as a testimony to them”. Who is them? Perhaps it is all of those who have shown no compassion for the leper. Words would probably not move them, but seeing the person they had kicked out of town returning with a clean bill of health – that might finally shame them into reconsidering how they should deal with the sick and the lame and the possessed among them.

And the last thing to consider about this story is what happens to Jesus. Jesus said, “I am willing.” And he must have known that his actions would lead to what happened. This was yet another miracle, and the consequence was that Jesus and the leper changed places; now Jesus couldn't enter the towns, while the leper returned to his former place in society. It seems as though this foreshadows the Passion, in which Jesus in some way takes our place.

So what does all this have to do with “see one, do one, teach one?” One of Mark's major themes is that the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom is here, you can enter it, you don't have to wait around to die. How do you enter it? Jesus shows you how. Jesus shows that in the kingdom of God there is no illness, no death, no demonic possession. In the kingdom there is no blindness, no paralysis, no withered limbs. Whenever Jesus runs across these sorts of things, he fixes them. But in the kingdom there is no hunger, and Jesus feeds the 5000. In the kingdom there are no barriers between people, and Jesus touches the leper, heals a gentile slave and a woman who has a disease which makes her unclean. And in the kingdom there are no people who abuse their authority, and Jesus heals the leper as a testimony to those in authority, who see sin as the cause of disease.

And we are not to stand in awe at yet another miracle. Jesus expects us to imitate him. If we are people who bear his name, we have to do everything in our power to heal the sick, to break down barriers between people, and to insist that justice be done. If we go where our Lord and Master has gone, we will have entered the kingdom of God.