What do we mean by saying someone is "unclean," or "clean" for that matter? Clean and unclean are terms used in the Hebrew scriptures to describe spiritual states. Unclean means being "contaminated by physical, ritual, or moral impurity; the absence of such impurities constitutes cleanness" (Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. I:641). With roots in very ancient tribal life and belief systems, a state of uncleanness displeased the tribal deities, and in the tribal mind belonged to the demonic. Few things stand as immovable as an entrenched belief system.

Over time, these concepts evolved into an elaborate system of laws, finding a home in the law of Moses, which was overseen by Levite priests. It was the job of the priests "to distinguish between the sacred and the profane, between the unclean and the clean" (Leviticus 10:10)

To call someone "unclean" amounted to a death sentence for all intents and purposes, even though the disease itself might not actually cause death. What the Hebrew scriptures label as "leprosy" actually covers a wide variety of skin disorders, and also can refer to a mold like presence on articles of clothing or houses. (Have you ever seen a house with leprosy? Mold, yes.)

But the mere presence of such a skin disorder, if declared "unclean" according to very detailed criteria outlined in the Book of Leviticus chapters 13 and 14, can certainly mean a kind of social death for the one so afflicted. Teachers of the law said it would be easier to raise the dead than to declare a person with leprosy clean.

An unclean person with leprosy had to withdraw from everyone in the community and live outside the town or village alone, or with other unclean persons. An unclean person had to leave his job or occupation, sacrificing life-supporting income for his family. An unclean person had to live apart from all family contact. An unclean person had to stay fifty paces from the nearest clean person and yell "unclean, unclean" if going near other people, so as to warn them of the presence of an unclean person nearby. For just touching another unclean person would make you unclean. Touching an unclean person made the person who touched him or her unclean.

Up until just fifty years ago, a whole class of people lived with the label "untouchable" under the caste system of India. While it is no longer legal, "untouchablility" still exists as a social force in India, and in other places not historically linked with a formal caste system.

Few things stand as immovable as an entrenched belief system. Can you imagine being considered an "untouchable"? We would die without the touch of another human being. But people do know what it is like to live as someone considered untouchable, as unclean. People living with HIV/AIDS know what it is like. People living with profound disabilities, or mental retardation, often know what it is like. People living with cancer or Alzheimer's disease know what it is like. People with obvious differences from the majority population know what it is like; differences such as skin color or hair type, language accent, or external religious expression such as practices of prayer, diet or dress. Ask them: they know.

People with not so obvious differences, such as gay or lesbian sexual orientation or family cultural or religious heritage, know what it is like to be considered different, and perhaps unacceptable, if not untouchable. They know what it is like to have others consider you dead in their eyes. They know this. Jesus knows it, too.

You see what has happened here? In this most touching and emotionally moving of passages in Mark's Gospel, Jesus touches a leper-and by doing so, becomes unclean himself in the minds of Mark's readers. People in Mark's day and age would have been horrified by Jesus' actions. "Doesn't he know what he is doing? Has he lost his mind?" These would have been natural reactions to Jesus' action.

And Jesus will have none of it. No longer does Jesus tolerate a world or system of beliefs where some are in and some are out, where some matter and others don't. Jesus literally reaches out to the outsider, and, by grasping him, by touching him, draws the outsider in, into his healing presence, into his personal field of concern.

Here in this season after the Epiphany, we recognize this story for what it is: another manifestation of God, for most likely everyone in Mark's audience knew that only God can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing. Only God "can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing" (Job 14:4). Jesus matter-of-factly declares this person "clean" and sent him away at once to prove it to the priests, "as a testimony to them" says the text. Jesus gave this leper his life back, because Jesus gave him his humanity back.

In fact, in a sense, when you look at it, Jesus trades places with this leper. Now that he is clean, the text says that the man went about freely, spreading the word to all who would hear; that was something he could NOT do while he was a leper. But now, he has his life back, he has been raised from social death and he can't stop talking about it.

Jesus, on the other hand, can no longer go into a town, but stays out in the country. He becomes like a leper, staying away from the crowds on the outskirts of the town. What an interesting turn of events. Does he consider himself unclean, like a leper, indeed? We have no way of knowing, the text is silent, as Jesus had asked the man to remain after going to show himself to the priests. But the man does neither. And even though Jesus stays out in the countryside, it doesn't stop the crowds from coming to him anyway. By his touch, Jesus brought a clean person, out of an unclean person. Jesus made an untouchable person, touchable, perhaps for the first time in a long, long time.

Sometimes, we are both of these persons. Sometimes, for various reasons, we feel untouchable, unclean, like a leper. We feel completely undone, or alone, and that "there is no health in us." In those times we must dare to approach Jesus, confident that he will choose to touch us, to make us clean, to make us whole again. Jesus raises people to new life every day. He's in the resurrection business, and business has never been better.

At other times, we are like Jesus in this story. We see the cleanness in others who don't see it in themselves. We see their common humanity, not their differences; we look closely and see the image of God in them, regardless of what other alienating factors may present themselves. And we honor that image of God by touching them, by taking them by the hand and being the conduit of Christ's love to them.

It doesn't take ordination to bring healing to another person in Christ's name, it takes compassion and the ability to see Christ in them. That willingness to touch a so-called untouchable, to recognize and honor the humanity in another person, can bring healing in so many ways and at such critical times, that we can only remain silent in the presence of it when it happens. And I promise you, it will happen.

Jesus calls you and me to BE the good news of Christ to others, to bring the message of hope and God's love TO others. All that can easily be communicated by each one of us, simply by saying, "I do choose… I choose to see you," while reaching out with our hand to touch another human being who feels untouchable, unlovable and unclean.

The Rev'd Timothy M. Dombek
ST. JAMES EPISCOPAL CHURCH
301 Piney Mountain Road
Greenville, SC 29609-3035
(864) 244-6358
timothy@stjamesgreenville.org

Copyright © 2003 Timothy M. Dombek All Rights Reserved.