Jesus’ ministry has just begun and already he has knocked down barriers that separate, he has destroyed age old stereotypes that minimize and hurt people, and showed the world that he will do his Father’s will without worry about being contaminated by old fashioned rules and regulation that kept people apart. There is no denying it; boundaries can be found all around us. Jesus came to smash the boundaries between clean and unclean, between leper and community, between life and death.  Jesus is revealed early on in his ministry as the one who bridges these gaps in society with the touch of his out stretched hand.

Jesus always met men and women on the level of their need, regardless of who they were or what they had done. He met everyone as a human being, never as a stereotype. Stereotypes were as powerful in Jesus’ day as they are today. Once a label is placed on a person the human being vanishes and the person is reduced to an object of ridicule and scorn. Many labels were given to people in the New Testament; labels like tax collector, Samaritan, prostitute, Roman soldier, and sinner. They all appear in the gospel stories, and every time Jesus came in contact with these people he completely ignores the label and treats everyone without prejudice. Never did these factors blind him to the reality of the human being, the unique son or daughter of God he saw before him. I often wish we could look through the eyes of Jesus and see people as he saw them.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could only threat each other as a child of God just as Jesus did? 

Today we heard another in a series of healing stories.  We are getting to know the routine quite well; Jesus reaches out touches and the afflicted are made well. However there is more to this story; true there is healing. But there is also great faith and joy displayed by the one who was healed. Jesus was important, but the healing couldn’t have happened if the man did not come to Jesus. So let us imitate this man’s story of faith in action and adopt it into our way of coming to God in the midst of our times of trouble or loneliness, or affliction and when those we love are in need of a healing touch. How strong was that man’s faith; just listen to his words once again and you will know it was very strong.  He said to Jesus; “If you choose; you can make me clean.”

What our bible translates “you can” is a form of the Greek verb, dunamai.  Our English word “dynamite” comes from that word.  It is a strong word suggesting real power.  The leper knows Jesus can heal him; he knows Jesus has the ability and he knows Jesus has the power. Though out the scriptures there are reports of God’s people often doubting God’s ability. And haven’t there been times when we also have doubted God’s power in our lives or in the lives of those we love?  When we go to our Lord in prayer do we ever affirm Christ’s dynamite ability to do it – whatever it is we are asking for? When we acknowledge the power of Christ in our lives then we too will have the confidence in his ability to help us.

Another important part of this story that should not be missed is the joy factor. The law in Leviticus was clear: “The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, “Unclean! Unclean! And he shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.” If you had leprosy you lost everything — job, family, place in the community — everything.  The leper who approached Jesus showed his desperation by breaking the law, by coming into the city, and getting close enough to Jesus that he could talk to him.  When Jesus reached out and touched him suddenly, the leper’s desperation turned to joy!  This former leper becomes not just a proclaimer of the good news; he actually becomes the good news.  This uncontrollable sense of joy was not just because he had been healed.  No, it was because he had been made whole; he was freed of that which stigmatized him.  He could re-enter the community, he could go home to his family, get back his job, he could live life again.   Many people are healed from a disease but go back to living the same lives they were living before they got sick.  To be made whole is something else.  It is to be changed, it is to be transformed, it is to know that God is at work in your life.  

Perhaps the shortness of this gospel story obscures its deeper meaning. This is a story about an unnamed leper and I think he is unnamed because any one of us could be him. You see we are very much like this leper. When we are in the midst of crisis, when we are hurting, it is very hard for us to see that God is at work in our life. Perhaps there are times in our life when we genuinely feel that we shall never smile again. Perhaps there are times in our life when we think that our present situation will be our lot in life till then end. Perhaps there are times when we travel through life all alone. But just like our friend the leper, while he was at the lowest possible point, God was at work in his life; in all his loneliness and despair while his flesh was rotting away, long before his healing took place, God had not forgotten him. We can accept the fact that God has the power to heal. But can we accept the fact, in many ways more important, that quietly and mysteriously God was there all along–leading, sustaining, and guiding this poor man. God was with him and by him even when he thought his life was over?  It seems to me that if Mark is telling us anything, it is that God is not just with us in the final victory of life. God is at work all the way through our lives, there by our side even when God may have been the furthest thought from our mind.

Many people suffering from illnesses report that their family and friends become timid about touching them.  When they need most the human contact of a hug, a hand to hold, or a pat on the back, they find others drawing away.  Dying persons suffer even more acute forms of isolation. When they look too ill, even their closest friends stop visiting them.  These subtle forms of social isolation can be most devastating. 

In all the healing stories, we see that it was Jesus who reached out his hand in healing.  But today we know Jesus is not walking among us – so we wonder how we or our loved ones will be made whole.  Well wonder no more; because this day we are all called to be Christ’s out stretched hand to those in need.  It is time for us to step up and put our faith into action; to do God’s work with our hands.

It is time for us to bring some joy to the downtrodden, hope to the hopeless, wholeness to the broken in spirit.  In unexpected ways, Jesus comes to those who are clean and unclean, the mighty and the lowly, the favored and the un-favored and reaches out his hand and offers these simple words, “I do choose. Be made clean.  Let us be the ones to choose to stand in Jesus’ place, to reach out our hands and speak words of comfort and reassurance to those who need to feel the Lord’s healing touch in their lives right now.  Amen.