Mark 1:40-45 part II

I can’t imagine a life where I was denied physical contact with others.  Physical contact is such an important method that we use to communicate love to one another.  When I have no words to console my daughters I know a simple hug is more than enough.  A high five gives immensely more joy to my daughters than a compliment on its own.  For a short period of time, as I began teaching, a number of teachers and schools advocated a no contact policy between teachers and students.  The unexpected result (at least in my mind) was the drastic impact that this had on both student results and behaviours, particularly with the lower primary students I was teaching at the time.  Children, in fact all humans, need physical contact with other humans, we crave it – whether it be a hug, or a pat on the shoulder or just a high five – physical contact is an immensely important mode through which we receive our sense of love.

Yet for many suffering leprosy, physical contact had all become a distant memory. So to this man in desperation Jesus offers him the two things for which he yearns, healing and love.  In return Jesus only asks for one thing, for the man not to tell anyone who healed him.

In so many ways Jesus is the anti-hero. He has no desire to become a superstar, when he performs a miracle – curing one of the greatest diseases of his time. A miracle sure to make him famous throughout the region, Jesus asks not for fame, but for the incident to remain a secret.

Why?  Because Jesus did not wish to be followed simply as a circus acts, as a miracle man, but rather, more important that his miracles were his desire to spread the word of God.  And yet because of this man’s disobedience, this man’s insistence on proclaiming Jesus’ miracle – Jesus’ ability to speak was severely inhibited.  Rather than being able to enter towns as before, he had now become an outcast, forced to only being able to live on the outskirts of the cities ‘the lonely places’.

Don’t miss what has happened here – the outcast, the leper has become clean and has been able to re-enter society.  Yet because Jesus healed this man, he has now become the outcast.  In his desire to show compassion to the man, he has born the man’s rejection upon himself.

And yet this is the same thing that Jesus does for us, he who knew no wrong, has taken on our wrongs so that we become clean.

Now: Read Mark 1:40-45 (Yeah I know this is yesterdays passage but read it again alright).

Then: Go Swedish (what’s this?)