Additional Readings
- Brian Stoffregen on Mark 1:40-45 (Crossmarks)
- Jesus heals a leper (With vocabulary study) (Lectionary Bible Studies and Sermons)
Overview of the Text
Mark's narrative of the healing of a leper is placed in such a way that it introduces a series a disputations between Jesus and institutional authorities on Jewish regulations based on the Torah. This is because Jesus' actions with regards to the leper breaks laws of cleanliness: Jesus touched him. The healing narrative itself, with its peculiarities, seems to continue the trend already began with the first exorcism in 1:21-28. In the Greek text of Mark, verse 43 would look like a phrase more fitted for an exorcism rather than a simple cleansing cure. Literally it goes "and groaning towards him he threw him out". Some old manuscripts harmonize this verse with verse 41 by putting "and he was enraged" (orgistheis) rather than "and he was moved with pity" (splanchnistheis). Finally, there is also the problem of verse 45: does it go with verses 41-44? Who went about proclaiming in the verse? Jesus or the leper?
A key to the understanding of this passage is given in the liturgy of the 6th Sunday in OT - B (2009) where the first reading is Lev. 13 which gives us an idea of how lepers are treated in Israel: they are outcasts from the community and must remain so until they are cleaned. They are restored to the community only when it has been ascertained that they have been cleansed from leprosy. The psalmic response from Psalm 32 gives us spiritual insight into the meaning of a leper's cleansing and restoration to the community: the forgiveness of sins. Like sin, leprosy cuts one off from communion with God's people. Jesus did not only cleanse the leper; he also trades places with him.
The Outline of the Text
The text of Mark 1:40-45 can be divided as follows:
(a) v. 40 a leper approaches and makes his request
(b) v. 41-42 Jesus' response and the cleansing
(c) v. 43-44 Jesus' instructions
(d) v. 45 Jesus' isolation
The Leper
Leprosy in the Bible is not equivalent to what we know as Hansen's disease. From Leviticus 13, we are informed that any skin disorder that leaves a white spot on the person that has it, is called leprosy (even curtains can have leprosy! (Lev. 13:47ff)). Thus the word can apply to any disorder from ringworm to leprosy proper. The same section from Leviticus provides that one proven to be a leper be separated from the community
"The one who bears the sore of leprosy shall keep his garments rent and his head bare, and shall muffle his beard; he shall cry out, 'Unclean, unclean!' As long as the sore is on him he shall declare himself unclean, since he is in fact unclean. He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp. (Leviticus (NAB) 13:45-46)
The leper is the subject of the main verb of v. 41, thereby breaking the boundaries of clean and unclean. His request can either be interpreted as a request for cleansing (a healing miracle) or for a declaration of being clean. The second alternative would be strange since Jesus is not a priest, hence, most of our translations carry the nuance that the request is for a cleansing.
Jesus' Response
Jesus' response to the request is expressed in three verbs: he was moved with compassion, he extended the hand and he touched the man. The verb for "moved with compassion" is formed from a Greek noun indicating one's guts, splancna. The verb then stands for a physical emotional response that comes from the center of one's being. In the Hebrew Old Testament, such an emotion is graphically expressed with the root word for "womb" (rhm). It is compassion in its physical sense. This movement from within Jesus is manifested in the extension of his hand and culminates in a touch. By touching the leper, Jesus too breaks the boundaries of clean and unclean, exposing himself to leprosy, the disease against which the community of Israel defends itself in Lev. 13. Jesus' gesture is explained by his words: "I do will it. Be cleansed." Here, word follows action in the sense it is given in Dei verbum: the word explains an action that could have an ambivalent meaning.
Unlike in the case of Naaman the Syrian whose leprosy was cured after immersing himself in the waters of the Jordan, the cleansing of the leper in Mark is instantaneous: "The leprosy left him immediately and he was made clean (v. 43)" The leprosy is also personified here, like the fever of Simon's mother-in-law. It is like a demon that is also driven away. The following phrase could be understood as a description of an exorcism-like cleansing: "and he snorted towards him and threw him out".
Embrimaomai is a verb used for the snorting of horses. In Mark 14:5, it is used in the sense of a rebuke to the girl who puts perfume on Jesus. The Tagalog "sininghalan" is a good translation for 14:5 and brings forward the nuance of anger. In John 11:33.38 it describes the breathing of Jesus at the point of tears because of Lazarus's death. That too can be interpreted as due to anger at Death, the last Enemy to be defeated. In Matthew 9:30 the same verb is used with the instruction Jesus gives to two blind men whose sight he has just restored. Here, the translation "stern warning" is apt.
The verb Ekballo is in the gospel of Mark used almost exclusively in the context of exorcisms. There is one instance however where exorcism is ruled out: the action of the Spirit pushing Jesus to the desert.
The two verbs coming together in Mark 1:44 therefore can also mean a stern warning together with a gesture that dispatches the man immediately. Our modern translations take the phrase to mean this way: "and sternly warning him sent him off immediately".
Jesus' Instruction
Jesus' instruction to the cleansed leper is two-fold. The first is that he does not say anything to anyone about the cleansing. The second instruction is about the cleansing itself and follows the regulations in Lev. 14. The instruction to say nothing may be related to the Messianic secret. The second instruction is in the spirit of Lev. 14. The last phrase of this instruction is worth noting. It can be translated "as a proof for them" or "as a testimony against them". The first possibility is still in accord with Lev. 14. Proof is shown to the priest so that they can issue a certificate for his reentry into the community (see RSV in loco). However the phrase eis marturion autois has the meaning of "a testimony against them" in Mark 6:11. In this latter case, the phrase is used of the dust that is shaken out of the rejected disciples' sandals and becomes proof against the town that rejects the disciples and therefore also rejects Jesus. In the case of the leper, the miraculous purification becomes a challenge to the priests (W. Harrington). This latter interpretation goes well with the idea, already suggested by Paul, that where the Law fails, there God through His Son succeeds.
For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans (NAB) 8:3)
The Law points out who gets excluded and who gets included; it does not provide the ability for those excluded to get included, only God in Christ.
Jesus' Isolation
Daniel Harrington (NJBC, 601) suggests the possibility that the "he" that does the proclaiming in verse 45 is Jesus himself. Thus, the problem about whether the cleansed leper was disobedient here would be solved. But that would be syntactically forcing the issue here: the phrase ho de following a sentence where the subject is clearly Jesus saying something to the former leper, has the force of a dysjunctive "he on the otherhand". Thus, our modern translations rightly get the sense of the phrase when they attribute to the former leper the actions of "proclaiming" and "making known the news". And it is psychologically appropriate too, since a big cure like a cleansing from leprosy cannot be easily held in secret. One could just imagine the joy that former leper felt upon learning that he can now rejoin his family and friends. And perhaps it was precisely this reaction that Jesus anticipated when he gave the man a stern warning.
The story began with Jesus going about in public places (going to their synagogues, v. 39) and the image of the leper who is isolated and alone. The story ends with Jesus unable to enter the towns and in isolated places and the former leper going about proclaiming and spreading the news. The reversal of roles appears clearly here. Jesus by his touch has taken the man's isolation and loneliness and took it upon himself. Here, Jesus the Servant of Yahweh stands out: he takes upon himself the leper's lot. A phrase from Isaiah comes to mind at this point
it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, .. Upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. (Isaiah (NAB) 53:4.5)
Conclusion
Jesus breaks the boundaries of clean and unclean as response to a leper's request for cleansing and inclusion to the community. By touching the leper, Jesus takes upon himself his isolation and loneliness. With this act, Jesus manifests what the Voice said of him at his baptism: "in you, I am well pleased." Jesus the Servant of Yahweh not only drives away the hostile forces that beset man (like sickness, demon-possession and skin disease), he also restores men to communion.
