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.