Come Home | The Chaplaincy of Poitou Charentes

I find that part of my praying is often with my I-Pad in the form of a dialogue with Jesus. I suggest something, or express something and then imagine the response back. A little while back I was reading the beginning of Mark’s Gospel and came to the climax of chapter one which is about the cleansing of a leper (1. 40-45). I know this passage really well and have preached on it, exploring its different angles. But on this particular day I was suddenly overwhelmed by the sense of welcome which Jesus offers to this man with a horrible, disfiguring skin condition. This is part of what I wrote: 

‘You didn’t say ‘be healed’ to the leper, but rather be clean, come inside, come home, belong again, be transformed externally but also internally.’ 

I was in touch with the radical hospitality of Jesus, offering me and each one of us a place we can call ‘home’. 

In his commentary on Mark’s Gospel, D.E. Nineham notes, ‘the Law could do nothing for the leper; it could only protect the rest of the community from him.’ You probably know this already, but let me paint the picture again. The word ‘leprosy’ in the Bible covers many different skin conditions which could not be cured and were therefore chronic conditions. She or he was considered to be ritually unclean, so to touch an ‘ordinary person’ was to make them unclean. A leper was not able to live within society. A leper could not find employment or enjoy family life. A leper could not take part in the religious life of the community. There was complete segregation. It was believed that leprosy was a punishment, and the leper would consider themselves to be despised and rejected by God.

When Christ touches the leper and he is made clean this is a truly wonderful, staggering event. The rabbis had a saying that curing leprosy was ‘as difficult as the raising of the dead.’
It would seem Mark places this event here at the summit of his first chapter to reveal the heart of the good news – in the coming Kingdom, the outcast is in, the unclean is clean, the despised one is loved, the homeless and rootless will find true home. 

I am in email conversation with someone about the pros and cons of Covid vaccinations. Recently I found myself describing western society as post post-modern. If post-modernism is about everyone’s beliefs being equally valid, with no external authority and no meta-narratives, then post post-modern society is one characterised by in/out, a billion chaotic voices on social media platforms, and tribalism. We desperately need the radical hospitality of Jesus today.