I do choose

 

My scripture reading today led me to think of all the ways people can feel like outcasts in their lives, especially in these COVID times.  There are those who have lost their jobs and are still finding it difficult to find another.  There are those who have had a relationship that ended.  There are others who feel devalued because of their age or economic status.  These things can be painful, because they often involve a sense of rejection, and a feeling of worthlessness.  Sometimes people engage in behaviors they know are self-destructive and even sinful, and they realize they have cast themselves out, as it were, from their true selves.

If you add to this the conflicts we see around the world, which are often based on one group seeking to “cast out” another because they are of the “wrong” race, or “wrong” faith, or “wrong” tribe, or “wrong” culture, or “wrong” gender, or “wrong” orientation.  This “casting out” is too often taken to the point of attempted genocide or extermination.

In the times of Jesus, lepers were outcasts, condemned to live in isolation, ostracized from family, community, worship, marginalized even from hope.  Levitical law also required them to remain a safe distance from the general population in order avoid spreading their contagious disease.  Some believed that leprosy was God’s punishment for sin (Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46).

But the leper in Mark’s gospel was strikingly bold (Mark 1:40-45).  He disobeyed Levitical restrictions and came so close that Jesus could touch him.  “If you choose,” he told Jesus, “you can make me clean.”  Without hesitation, with compassion, boldly, even recklessly Jesus touched the leper and said: “I do choose.  Be made clean.”  Immediately, the leprosy left him.  Jesus ordered him to tell no one about this miracle, but to present himself to the priest to confirm that he was clean.  The man disobeyed.  He didn’t go immediately to the priest.  He didn’t remain silent to the miracle.  Instead, he went out and proclaimed it everywhere.

By contrast, Jesus reversed places with the once leprous man.  Jesus, who had traveled freely everywhere, now was forced into isolation to avoid the crowds.  He was forced to the margins.  In other words, Jesus took the place of the man He made clean.  Love always says and does what is necessary and works out the consequences later.

There’s another reversal to consider.  By touching the leper, Jesus should have been contaminated.  However, it wasn’t the leper who was contagious, but Jesus.  The leper didn’t transmit his disease to Jesus, but Jesus whose contagion of love transformed the leper to wholeness, making him clean, medically, spiritually and socially. 

When Paul calls us to imitate Christ (1Corinthians 10:31—11:1), on one level we could conclude we should follow His example to do what we can to help cure lepers and our sisters and brothers who suffer from physical and emotional pain.  Paul isn’t calling on us specifically to cure, though.  It seems to me he’s calling us to emulate Christ’s attitude – avoid offending people, acting not for self but for others, doing everything for the (greater) glory of God.  When we encounter pain and suffering, disfigurement and other physical woes in the person in front of us, Paul is challenging us to be an imitator of Christ.  Jesus wouldn’t walk away, He would engage.  Jesus wouldn’t recoil, He would embrace.  Jesus wouldn’t turn away His eyes, He would deeply connect.  Even if Jesus didn’t cure the physical pain, He would share the emotional turmoil and console.    

We’re called imitate the leper’s bold faith and Jesus’ loving touch.  Like them, it demands of us that we risk crossing barriers and boundaries of convenience and comfort zone in order to reach out to the other, the one living in pain or loneliness.  Such faith and love begin with the words, “I do choose.”