The Leper shatters the boundaries - Wilson SVD

Friday, June  28-Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time 

2 Kings 25:1-12; Matthew 8: 1-4 

The Living Dead: We see Jesus touching the untouchable in today’s gospel. In the ancient world, leprosy was a terrible and destructive disease. According to Jewish laws and customs, one had to keep 6 feet away from a leper, and if the wind was blowing towards a person from the leper, they had to keep 150 feet away. The leper was banished from human society; to touch the leper, and even to approach was to break the law. Josephus writes that lepers were treated, “as if they were, in effect, dead men.”  He shall remain unclean as long as he had the disease; he is unclean, he shall dwell alone in a habitation outside the camp (Leviticus 13:36). 

In the Middle Ages, if a person was diagnosed with leprosy, the priest brought the person to the church and read the burial service over him – For all practical purposes, the leper was dead.

During Jesus’ time in Palestine, the lepers were barred from entering Jerusalem. The synagogues had isolated chamber for the lepers. The Jewish law enumerated sixty-one different contacts with lepers, which could bring defilement. If the leper attempts to enter the house, the house, including the roof beams, is considered unclean. It is illegal to greet a leper in public places. A leper was cut off from one’s family, society and religion. There was no other disease as leprosy, which so deeply separated a human being from fellow human persons. And this was the man whom Jesus touched.

The leper shatters the boundaries: What sort of man is this leper? The leper inspires me. He suffered social and religious ostracization. All these could not stop him. He shattered the social, religious, psychological and spiritual stigma. He breaks the boundaries and makes a new path for the fellow lepers to follow. The action and the statement of the leper amazing. The outcaste and unclean leper comes forward in the presence of everyone, comes close to Jesus, kneels down and asks Jesus to do with what he wills.

Lord, if you will, you can cure me: The leper does not doubt the ability of Jesus to cure him but the leper submits himself to the plan of God.  The request for healing is certainly implied in the statement; however, it means that he is primarily willing to remain a leper if Jesus so wills. The leper puts the will of Jesus ahead of his will. Even in extreme pain and social stigma, God’s will is the priority for the leper.

Jesus Touches the Leper: The touch of Jesus cleanses (καθαρίζω – Kathriso) the leper and not heal  (θεραπεύω – Therapeuo) him. The evangelist uses the word cleanse and not heal. Jesus touches him, makes him clean and restores him. The touch of Jesus restores him – he is no longer living dead. The touch affirms his presence in the society – he no longer needs to live away from others. The touch accepts him into his family- he can relate with everyone.  The touch confirms his identity as a child of God – he can enter the synagogue now.

Take away for us

1. Shatter the boundaries even if everyone and everything crushes you.

2. May the spirit of the leper inspire us to be pathmakers.

3. Whether pain or joy, God’s will be our priority.

 

Wilson SVD

Divine Word Missionary