The episode of Jesus healing the leper shows the real character of
Jesus. It also points towards the mounting opposition against him. Leviticus
13-14 discusses the situation where the social as well as the private life of a
person when he/she is infected with leprosy.
This portion also points towards the authority of the religious
structures over the individual lives.
1. The leper who came and knelt before Jesus, as well as Jesus, who touched the leper, were equally breaking the rules of ritual purity. The leper was not allowed to come to the society and we read that he came to Jesus and knelt in a distance which could be covered by stretching the hand.
The leper ought to have approached the priests to get absolution
from his social isolation. But he came to Jesus. He had no doubt about the
healing potential of Jesus. That is why he came to Jesus disregarding all the
hurdles. Jesus who had the authority of words deliberately touched him.
Jesus was taking on Himself the risk of getting polluted by that
action. He was ready to defy the existing purity code. The 'dose insensitivity'
that Jesus possessed out of His inner strength helped Him to challenge the
purity code which defined the holy-unholy distinction.
Jesus was proving that by touching anything so-called impure will
not make Him unholy. Instead of their impurity polluting Him, Jesus was proving
that His holiness flowed towards them.
2. Jesus sternly instructed the healed leper not to give publicity about the healing but to go to the priest to show themselves and to offer the sacrifice of purification as was instructed by Moses. The healing of the leper will be complete only when his social reintegration is done.
The certificate of healing from the priest was essential for that.
There was a belief among the people that only God could heal the lepers. (2
Kings 5:7). If Elijah, the prophet of God could heal Naaman, it is the Son of
God who heals the leper here. The priest would have given the testimony of
fresh life flowing to the morbid social structure. Jesus was questioning the
priestly exploitation which misused the prophecy of Malachi that those who
offer the sacrifices of righteousness in the Lord's temple will be saved. God's
favour could not be purchased by giving gold or silver, but only by experiencing
God's grace alone, healing and salvation could be experienced.
3. Contrary to the instruction from Jesus, he proceeded to proclaim the fact of healing everywhere. We are not sure whether he went to the priest. To travel to Jerusalem and perform the purification rites were time-consuming. But, he started proclaiming his healing immediately.
That publicity affected
Jesus negatively. He could not enter the town because of that as Jesus was
'unclean,' by touching the leper. The healed person might have been emotionally
overwhelmed by the healing he experienced. The immature social minds cannot
involve in the transformation of the society and they cannot be the vanguard of
social changes. That is how much often the well-intentioned social initiatives
create social conflicts.
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