When Jesus healed the leper in this Sunday’s Gospel, Mark 1:40-45, he directly challenged the purity code that micromanaged the lives of many people who were poor, sick, disabled, or female. Jesus lived in a time when there were strict rules for who one could eat with, talk with, walk with, and touch. The boundaries designated who was clean, and therefore worthy to come to the temple and pray, and who was unclean, despised and no longer worthy of being a member of the community. For lepers, the laws were even stricter. Part of the laws undoubtedly addressed the fears that people had about diseases they could not cure. Yet for Jesus, taking the risk of touching the leper was preferable to excluding the leper and causing him to suffer even more. Over and over again Jesus’ actions declared that the laws of exclusion were abominable, and he regularly broke them e.g., talking to women, eating with sinners, and touching the leper.
Ched Myers in his commentary on Mark, interprets Jesus sending the newly cleansed leper to the priests as a way of publicly challenging the purity laws and the priests who supported the system. The leper should not have come near Jesus – it was against the law- and he assuredly knew the laws for people like himself. And yet, the leper came to Jesus and knelt down while begging Jesus to heal him, because the leper knew that Jesus could do so if he was willing. Jesus, filled with compassion could not turn the person away. He did, however, hope that once the leper had been cleansed, he would not speak about what Jesus had done until after he went to the temple and showed himself to the priests as “proof” that a person could be made clean outside the temple system.
As it turned out, it was too much for the leper to stay quiet. Instead, he spoke up about what had happened, how Jesus had cleansed him, and because he could not remain silent, Jesus himself became a man outside the law. He had touched a leper which made him unclean.
In child development theory, we learn that the age for enforcing rules comes at around ten years old. Ten-year-olds can spend an inordinate amount of their recess or play time arguing with one another about the rules of the game they are playing instead of actually playing the game. Figuring out the rules, the borders and boundaries of behavior, is a way of going out into the world safely, knowing what is expected of oneself, and of others. It is difficult for youngsters to have the rules change. Rules can be too restrictive, but no rules at all leaves a child feeling less than comfortable. Somewhere in adulthood, most people figure out that some rules can be broken without harm, while others are best left in place. And most people eventually figure out that there are occasions when compassion tells them that a rule must bend or change lest it be hurtful rather than helpful.
Purity laws were put in place at a time of limited understanding or limited resources. Purity laws around food prevented spoilage and food-borne illness. Laws about cleanliness, and who was welcome to eat with whom, decreased other types of illness, or kept it within family groups. Excluding lepers removed the threat of the disease spreading at a time when there was no treatment. There were, however, some laws that simply helped to support the culture as it had evolved, with men in charge and women and children as secondary. Jesus was particularly unhappy with laws that excluded people. Lepers were representative of classes of people who were different, incurable, misunderstood, and unwelcome to participate in polite society. Every age has had their ‘lepers.”
In our own day we have so many categories of people who are deemed unworthy to be part of community, it is no wonder that community life is suffering: immigrants, non-English speaking people, people of color, indigenous people, old people, disabled people, non-binary people, trans-people, poor people, houseless people, prostitutes, sick people, under-educated people, socialists, communists. We have many ways of separating people from one another and many ways to express our fear of people who are not exactly like “us” depending on who you decide “us” is. We have even passed laws to help enforce the separation of the worthy from the unworthy.
Christian churches are not supposed to be that way. “When we follow Jesus, we cannot be horrified by any unclean man or woman or refuse to receive anyone who has been excluded. For Jesus, what matters is the person who suffers, not the law that’s broken. The best way to lose the compassionate responsiveness of Jesus toward those who are despised or rejected is to give the law priority. It is the best way to live without compassion.” (Jose Pagola. Meditations on Year B, page 87) Jesus was all about inclusion. He had an open table fellowship. He broke bread, blessed and shared it with crowds of people that undoubtedly included sinners of all kinds. He never sent anyone away.
A few years ago, I attended mass where the priest asked everyone who ‘looked homeless’ if they were a Catholic in good standing as they came forward to receive communion. If the answer was not correct, the person was blessed, but communion was withheld. I was so disturbed by what I saw that I never went back to that church. I have since heard about this same practice in other parishes. It is the opposite of what Jesus was preaching and teaching through his words and actions.
Pope Francis continues to be villainized for his compassionate view of blessing all people. He has spoken out more directly of late to those who disagree with blessing same sex couples. “No one is scandalized if I give a blessing to an entrepreneur who perhaps exploits people: and that is a most serious sin.” The pope calls it hypocrisy. citation
Jesus has compassion and love for everyone.
It is the task of his followers to do the same.