Made Clean

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, Jesus heals a leper. Mark's Gospel tells us:

A leper came to Jesus 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.

John J. Pilch of Georgetown University writes of this passage saying,

[Jesus] touched the man. While touching is common in this culture, touching a leper is not. Remember, “modern” leprosy is minimally “catchy.” The ancients surely knew this of that scaly skin condition as well. The concern of the ancients was not that the situation was “catchy,” but that it was “dirty”: not infectious, but polluting. People who had the problem did not infect the community; they polluted it. For this reason, they had to live outside the camp, apart from God’s holy people, alone, until the pollution was gone.

By touching the “leper” Jesus challenges his culture’s judgment. In Jesus’ view, the “leper’s” problem is not polluting, and with his touch he restores the leper to full membership in God’s community, to solidarity in human fellowship.

The ancient distinction between an infecting and a polluting condition is worth pondering. The consequences are very different, too. Can you identify parallel or comparable situations in contemporary society? How should a Christian respond to them?