Epiphany 6B February 15, 2009

Mark 1:40-45
In reality, there are two separate acts, two miracles that take place.  Jesus heals the disease & He cleanses the leper.  The one miracle is that of a physical healing, but the most important miracle was that of restoring this outcast – who was told by others & by the religious practices of the day, that he was too “dirty,” too immoral, too impure, too damaged, too broken, to be touched – restoring him so that he knew that he was embraced by God.
Jesus was filled with pity & he stretched forth his hand, touched the leper & healed the man.  This is the way the story appears in most of our translations, but there are several very ancient manuscripts that have a different reading at this point in the story. Instead of saying that Jesus was filled with pity, or compassion, they say that Jesus was moved with anger!
Jesus  was obviously not angry with the leper, but  angry at the state of affairs in a world that produces lepers, that produces outcasts & misfits, and that generates misery & suffering & evil. Upon the outcasts in the world, Jesus is not only filled with compassion, but is filled with anger, hostility, toward every force in human life that mitigates against God’s plan for wholeness and salvation.

Epiphany 5B / February 8, 2009

Mark 1:29-39
As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.  Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.  He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them. vv.29-31
This text is not merely a rather pedestrian healing story, but the transformation of this semi-anonymous, marginalized woman who is “raised up” to a new status from “mother-in-law,” “soccer mom,” expectations – to diakonos [diakonos came to designate the first ministers of the Jesus community - but the only person in the entire gospel to be described as "diakonos" is a woman.  She is the first to act like Jesus himself].
Upon entering the house, Jesus finds her lying in bed with a high fever – he hastens to her side.  He doesn’t ask her, “Do you have faith?  Have you been attending synagogue?  Have you been praying hard enough?”  He  touches her hand & lifts her up out of:

• the patriarchal bondage of misplaced expectations,

• the debilitating awareness that her security was totally dependent on others,

• the knowledge that her identity was subsumed in a servile role – that would make anyone ill.

How can you know when you have been healed?  Seems like an odd question.  For many, the answer is obvious: when the pain is gone, the fever has come down, and the disease is no more. “The fever left her,” we are told of Peter’s mother-in-law, “and she began to serve them.” As she was healed, she immediately began to serve others.  When we are ready to help others in their need & focus once again outside ourselves we will know that we too have been cured.
He comes where we need healing most in our lives; where we need restoration in our personal relationships.  He comes where our lives are frayed at the edges & bruised to its depths.  He comes when its just too much just to cope anymore with the incessant demands.  He comes, touches us – & “lifts us up” & sends us out.