One of the things I like about going to Morning Prayer on Wednesday mornings is I get a sneak preview of having Sunday's Gospel text read aloud to me. Now I'm pretty good about reading ahead on next week's texts, but there is just something that kicks my brain in gear to actually think about the texts when they are read aloud to me. The text coming up for Sunday is Mark 1:40-45:
40A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!” 42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
That whole discussion about "choosing" stuck in my mind today.
Jesus ALWAYS chooses for us to be clean. WE’RE the one that seems to be the one with issues.
The leper comes to Jesus and asks HIM to make the choice. Well, that’s because not only IS he a leper, he FEELS like a leper. He’s had years of being shunned, avoided, taunted, told he’s that way b/c of his sin. So he’s been so humiliated he can’t even ask Jesus to heal him flat-out. It’s more like, “If it’s okay with you….well…I’d kind of like to be healed…if it’s not to much bother…don’t want to put you out or anything…”
I am always struck with how the "leper" stories always cause me to first identify with the leper. How many times, when we have been the "outcast" in a situation, we find ourselves unable to ask for something in a direct fashion? We pussyfoot around the request, we hem and haw, and maybe even ask it in such a roundabout fashion that the person we're asking it OF doesn't have a clue what we are actually asking?
We can become painfully, incredibly shy when it comes to speaking the deepest of our heart's desires.
But even then, this poor leper causes an accidental ruckus. Jesus says, "Don't tell anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and have him declare you clean." But of course, the leper is so thrilled about his leprosy being healed, he basically runs down the street and tells EVERYONE. (He kind of reminds me of one of my friends, "don't tell anyone" always results in half the town knowing.) Thinking back to that business of Jesus feeling a little overwhelmed after healing Peter's mother-in-law, and half the town showing up wanting to be healed, I can see why he told the leper, "don't tell anyone, but show your sores to the priest." He wanted the priest's declaration to be the focal point of the thing, not "this guy Jesus healed me."
Of course, the leper telling half the town had the expected response. Once again, people started crawling out of the woodwork to be healed, and once again, Jesus is thinking, "Man, I can't even show my face in towns anymore. I kind of enjoy this healing stuff one-on-one, but healing these big crowds every day all day is NOT what I'm about."
Now there's a lesson. I channel surf all the time past the "televangelist channels" because they happen to be between two sets of movie channels I like. Now those folks, they definitely groove on those crowds of people wanting to be healed. Maybe right there is the difference between altruism and egoism. These TV preachers are more than happy to get the credit. Yeah, yeah, they stand there and tell people it is Jesus healing them, but when they are sermonating, you can tell there is a big dose of "me" in there, as in their "Jesus works in ME" sort of lines.
Jesus' desire to be humble in the face of all this is the lesson. Things in us that are "healed" in some way, shape, or form don't always have to be a public service announcement. We could choose to keep quiet and show our love and gratitude by going forth and serving others--a much more useful message in this broken world rather than to fawn over one person and shout his praises from the rooftops.
2 comments:
This is amazing. I just came home from my small faith sharing group in which we read this Gospel and then I find this.
Much to pray with. I love what you say.
I really identified with this: "We can become painfully, incredibly shy when it comes to speaking the deepest of our heart's desires."
And I love the difference you point out between Jesus and televangelists. That never occurred to me before.
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