The cleansing of the leper by Jesus

Today’s Gospel story is about the Cleansing of the Leper. As you must have learned a long time ago, leprosy was the scourge of ancient society. It was a very contagious disease and when you got leprosy, society suddenly shuns away from you, then your friends deny you’re even one of them. Then off you go to the Valley of the Damned where all the lepers are sent so they won’t ever contaminate the healthy people. So let’s go over to Mark 1:40-45.

“A leper came to [Jesus] [and kneeling down] begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” 42 The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean. 43 Then warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.

44 Then he said to him, “See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.” 45 The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere.”

I checked some medical information regarding leprosy and it is also called “Hansen’s disease” which is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. It is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions are the primary external symptom and if left untreated, leprosy can be progressive and cause permanent damage to the skin, nerves, limbs and eyes. Old legends have it that when a person has leprosy, his limbs or nose often fall off. This is apparently false.

If you remembered that epic movie “Ben-Hur” starring Charlton Heston, his mother and sister were sent to a leper colony as punishment for his “crime” and eventually they contracted leprosy. But in those days, medicine was unlike it is today where leprosy is no longer considered highly-contagious because medical studies have sown that around 95% of people are immune to leprosy and if you ever contracted one, today’s medicines can cure you in just a few days. Indeed in the 1980’s leprosy was already curable and even the Leper colony we had in Mandaue City is no longer off limits.

So in Mark’s gospel, we see Jesus being approached by a leper who kneels in front of him and asks Jesus to clean him, if he so wishes. This leper wasn’t demanding for a cure, but waiting for God’s will to make him clean. Jesus of course was so touched by the leper and immediately heals him. But he gives the now cleanse leper instructions to go to the priest for the ritual cleansing under the Law of Moses and warns him not to tell anyone.

Of course the leper was more than overjoyed that he was cleansed and therefore, he could rejoin society. It was expected for him to tell the truth when he probably went to the priest for the cleansing and the priest may have asked him how he got cured… because in those days there were no cures for leprosy. So the poor fellow undoubtedly told the truth that this Jesus of Nazareth made him clean and so everyone must have heard an earful from the cured leper and as you know, even in this modern day of mass communication, often the word of mouth is faster than a text message.

Theologically, this story speaks volumes about how often in our lives, we get separated from our brethren, like for instance when one leaves the fold of the Catholic Church and joins a fundamentalist movement they shy away from the rest of the community. Later when in the end, this person realizes that only Catholics believe that our Lord Jesus Christ is truly present, body, blood, soul and divinity in the Holy Eucharist, only then is this person reunited to God and is accepted back to the fold of Catholic Church and once more becomes part of the Body of Christ.

Today’s gospel also teaches us that even if God himself has cleansed the leper, our Lord Jesus still asks him to go to a priest and offer his cleansing as prescribed by the Law of Moses. This statement runs counter to certain Christian sects that no longer believe in the sacred priesthood… that if you already have a personal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, you don’t even need to go to church services anymore as you’re already saved!

But even when he walked the earth and healed the sick, our Lord Jesus Christ found a need for priests and so if God himself uses priests, therefore it goes without saying that we humans also need the services of priests. We need cooks and restaurants to nourish our flesh; we also need our church and priests to give us spiritual nourishment. While leprosy is no longer the scourge of humanity, however the modern world have our own type of leprosy and that is AIDS, where people are so scared even to touch AIDS victims. Let’s pray for them that they too would also find Jesus in their midst.