When our Lord reached out to heal a leper, one of the untouchables of his day, he set for us an example by feeling both heartfelt pity and perhaps even righteous anger at the customs of his day, customs that isolated those who needed support and love the most. The leper set for us an example by coming forward boldly in faith — recognizing that Jesus was able to heal miraculously — but also acknowledging that it’s up to God to decide when healing would take place.
Flip a coin. That is, if you can find one in your pocket or purse. Since people pay electronically more and more often, it’s possible that calling heads or tails will become a lost art.
So instead of flipping a coin, we’re going to have to settle an important question about this miracle by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by talking about it. That’s because in this opening chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark, there’s a real toss-up here about the healing of the leper. When this afflicted man said to our Lord, “If you wish, you can make me clean,” our translation tells us that Jesus was “Moved with pity ....”1 Pity is a gutty word, literally. It is a translation of the verb splagknos, which means colon — the gut. The ancient world believed we felt our deepest feeling in our guts, and Jesus was moved from deep within his guts with pity.
But wait a minute! Did Jesus actually feel anger instead of pity? Heads or tails.
You see, there’s a strong manuscript tradition that says that Jesus was angry. But why would our Savior be angry with someone who came to him with hope to be healed and made whole. Let’s not forget our Lord opened his ministry in his hometown of Nazareth by reading aloud from the massive Isaiah scroll, wrestling it to the proper place in the 61st chapter, to read aloud:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. ...approximately 1,464 words remaining. You are not logged in. Please see options at the top of this page to view complete sermon.
