“The Old Switcheroo”

Sermon-6 Epiphany-Feb. 12, 2012
O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be made clean!" Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, saying to him, "See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them." But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
There is a small town on the walk to Santiago de Compostela called Sarria. Up on a hill in the town is a very small, very old chapel made of stone. It is called the Chapel of St. Lazarus, and it was built for the lepers who walked the Camino to Santiago in the middle ages hoping to be healed. They had their own chapel because no one wanted them anywhere near the other pilgrims.
“Ho hum”, you might be thinking, “Jesus heals a leper-what a nice story!”
Ah, but this one is different.
Jesus keeps doing something in the Gospel of Mark that we hardly ever but eventually-like in today’s story, it finally jumps out at us. Let me set it up.
A few verses back, Jesus goes to Capernaum, to a house, where Peter’s mother-in-law is ill. And he takes her by the hand, lifting her up-and heals her. In today’s story, a leper comes up to Jesus and Jesus does the unthinkable-he stretches out his hand and touches him-and the leper is cleansed.
All the way through the gospel of Mark we will see Jesus doing this-touching those who are ill, laying hands on those who are off limits. Leprosy was considered a disease, but it was more than a disease-it was a physical representation of sin. So that when a person had it they didn’t need just to be healed, they needed to be washed from their taint. Consequently, when Jesus touches the man with leprosy he doesn’t send him to the doctors so they can pronounce him cured-he sends him to the priests so he can be readmitted to the community-because he is no longer an outsider. Jesus doesn’t just give the man his skin back-he gives him his life-he can now rejoin the world. He no longer has to stay away from villages and towns, he no longer needs to avoid people. This man who had a death sentence can now live a normal life. That is huge. Unfortunately-the same can’t be said for Jesus. Listen to what happens: “so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country;”-in other words-they changed places. The man who had leprosy was now back in society-but Jesus wasn’t. All because Jesus touched him.
I thought about this story for me. Has there been a time in my life, when I felt like an outsider-when no one wanted to be near me? Has there been a time when I felt like I didn’t belong, like a failure, an outcast? Was there a time when someone reached out to me, brought me back in-and it cost them?
Do you remember a time in your life, when someone touched you, literally or figuratively contacted you, and made you whole? A time when you were feeling so alone, so isolated that you might as well have been a leper? And someone came into your life, and it felt like they were saving your life?
Sara Henrich writes : “By the end of this story, Jesus has shown us what it costs to go where the people are and it is a cost he is "willing" to pay. He begins as the one free to wander and proclaim, urgent in his message and successful in gathering crowds. By the end of the story Jesus has traded places with the former leper who is now wandering freely, proclaiming what the Lord has done and creating widespread positive response, while Jesus has become isolated and lonely. There is an exchange of roles, an exchange of realities between Jesus and the man whom he has healed: this points long-range to the role that Jesus is willing to take for humanity itself, giving up his life of freedom for the loneliness of the one isolated on Golgotha, whose "willingness" is a proclamation in its own right."”
Every story in the gospel of Mark, is a shadow, a foretaste of what is coming. Here Jesus changes place with a man who is dying. It’s supposed to reveal what he will do one day for all of us.
Today’s story is about Jesus realizing what his ministry will be-rescuing those who are lost-and taking their place. So many of these gospel readings show a growing awareness on Jesus’ part what being the messiah means. Even when he does good, even when he is extremely popular, even when he is brave-perhaps especially when he is faithful, it will cost him greatly. And for us, followers of this man, we learn what he has done for us-and what the challenge will be if we are to follow him. Amen.