12 While he was in one of the towns, Jesus came upon a man who was a mass of leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he prostrated himself before him and begged, "If you want to Lord, you can make me clean." 13 Jesus stretched out his hand, placed it on the leper, saying, "Certainly I want to. Be clean!" 14 Immediately the leprosy left him and Jesus warned him not to tell anybody, but to go and show himself to the priest and to make the offerings for his recovery which Moses prescribed, as evidence to the authorities. 15 Yet the news about him spread all the more, and enormous crowds collected to hear Jesus and to be healed of their complaints. 16 But he slipped quietly away to deserted places for prayer. Luke 5:12-16
This painted image, illuminating a Gospel page, was created in the second half of the 12th century. It deserves our attention before we reflect on the Gospel Word. "What the Word of God does for the ear, the icon does for the eye."
This poor leprous fellow is an image of persons who are utterly pushed aside. Notice he lives in a desolate place, among the weeds dust and stones. He is one of the excluded, of whom people say, "We wish they'd just go away." There's not a little of that sentiment in the world. The man owns nothing except his flimsy stick and the rag in which he's wrapped himself to cover his nakedness.
The disease has so wasted him he can no longer stand upright. The Gospel verse says he was a mass of leprosy. His head is bowed towards the ground because he knows, as far as the community was concerned, he's beyond help. He's not to be seen, heard, talked to or touched. Maybe he's picked up his head here in response to the touch of Jesus who's already got him by the wrist.
Jesus holds the scroll of his teaching in his left hand, almost buried in his robe. It's not the teaching that first matters, but the touch. Do I understand this?
Verse 12: The description is stark, "a mass of leprosy" - as if there is nothing left of the walking dead man - the disease has devoured him. Still, he presents himself to Jesus most courteously, "If you want to Lord..." He uses the post Resurrection word, Lord, in addressing Jesus. The word clean refers to his spiritual/religious condition. If he's clean, he's fit to worship again with the community.
Verse 13: The word certainly or of course - how eager Jesus is to heal the man. He doesn't procratinate. He doesn't say, Let me think about the religious ramifications of helping you.
Verse 14: Jesus warns the man not to talk about the miracle. He knows people will follow him as a result just because they want something. There are religious people like that - like the family that insists on having a priest at the graveside of the deceased person who hasn't been in a church since his First Communion.
Then Jesus tells the cured man to make the required offerings in the temple. These are spelled out in the 57 verses of Leviticus, chapter 14. They are rather bizarre: the killing of birds and lambs and the touching of their blood to the sick person's ear tips and big toes. Jesus suggests the performing of the rituals is just to get the priest-approval so the fellow can rejoin the community. That's what really matters.
Verse 15: Jesus' (don't tell) warning seems to have had the opposite effect - news of the cure spreads far and wide and the crowds around him grow even larger. But notice this, the first thing people want from Jesus is to hear him. But what might he say to me? Whatever he might say, it's not going to be about laws, but about relationships. That's what the cure did - it put the man back into relationship.
Verse 16: We have this idea of Jesus that he was always in a crowd. Not so. Here we are told he "slipped away quietly to a deserted place for prayer." No self-congratulatory tweeting about it all, just intimacy with God.
Verse 12: The description is stark, "a mass of leprosy" - as if there is nothing left of the walking dead man - the disease has devoured him. Still, he presents himself to Jesus most courteously, "If you want to Lord..." He uses the post Resurrection word, Lord, in addressing Jesus. The word clean refers to his spiritual/religious condition. If he's clean, he's fit to worship again with the community.
Verse 13: The word certainly or of course - how eager Jesus is to heal the man. He doesn't procratinate. He doesn't say, Let me think about the religious ramifications of helping you.
Verse 14: Jesus warns the man not to talk about the miracle. He knows people will follow him as a result just because they want something. There are religious people like that - like the family that insists on having a priest at the graveside of the deceased person who hasn't been in a church since his First Communion.
Then Jesus tells the cured man to make the required offerings in the temple. These are spelled out in the 57 verses of Leviticus, chapter 14. They are rather bizarre: the killing of birds and lambs and the touching of their blood to the sick person's ear tips and big toes. Jesus suggests the performing of the rituals is just to get the priest-approval so the fellow can rejoin the community. That's what really matters.
Verse 15: Jesus' (don't tell) warning seems to have had the opposite effect - news of the cure spreads far and wide and the crowds around him grow even larger. But notice this, the first thing people want from Jesus is to hear him. But what might he say to me? Whatever he might say, it's not going to be about laws, but about relationships. That's what the cure did - it put the man back into relationship.
Verse 16: We have this idea of Jesus that he was always in a crowd. Not so. Here we are told he "slipped away quietly to a deserted place for prayer." No self-congratulatory tweeting about it all, just intimacy with God.
