 I spent the last couple of days cleaning up after kids (and me)
suffering with some kind of stomach flu. Eeew! I am proud to say that
my house has never smelled cleaner, however! If you were to enter my
place right now, the pungent, clean smell of Pine-Sol™ would greet you. It might cause your eyes and nose to burn, but you wouldn't smell anything else, that's for sure!
When
you meet someone you know is sick with something communicable, how do
you respond? Do you rush to embrace them like long lost family, or do
you keep your distance? Heck, when I left the house today, I shooed my
wife away from a hug and kiss, "Don't touch me, you could be a
carrier!" Our response to disease is telling. We hold our own health
over short-term relationship almost every time. The same was true in
Jesus day concerning spiritual health.
The
ancient Israelites of the first century believed that one became
unclean through a whole host of activities; touching a dead body,
coming into physical contact with someone with a skin blemish or
disease, getting close to a menstruating woman. There were elaborate
rituals that needed to be followed to become clean again. Several
examples of this belief of transmission of uncleanliness appear during
Jesus' earthly ministry recorded in the Gospels.
Luke 17:11-19 gives
some small insight into this. Ten lepers called out to Jesus as he
entered a certain town. Jesus heals them from a distance, and tells
them to go see the priests to be declared clean, just as instructed in
the law of Moses. The lepers would not come close for fear of making
Jesus unclean. Luke 8
also shows us this same attitude in the Israelite culture. Jesus is on
his way to a synagogue ruler's house to heal the man's sick daughter.
On the way, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years reaches out
and touches Jesus' cloak hem. Her back-story reveals a desperate
women, ready to risk a death penalty in the hope of healing. In that
culture, a woman who was bleeding for that long would not have been
touched by anyone, not even her husband. Can you imaging having no
physical contact with anyone for twelve years? We'd likely go mad.
This woman had been to doctors, sought the advice of priests and wise
women, but nothing helped. In a last desperate act, she found the
miracle worker Jesus, and lunged to touch him for healing. Jesus
noticed the touch, even in the midst of a large and pressing crowd.
The frightened, but healed woman stepped forward to explain why.
Jesus tells her that her faith has healed her. A new paradigm has
also just kicked in- cleanliness is what is transmitted, not
uncleanliness. Jesus reinforces this immediately with the raising from
the dead Jairus' daughter. The synagogue ruler's daughter died while
Jesus was en route, but that did not dissuade the healer from saving
the day. Jesus, the child's parents, and a couple of disciples stay in
the room with the dead body. Jesus takes her hand- he touched a dead
body!- and orders her alive. She is raised to life! Jesus has
committed the ultimate unclean act, he has touched a dead body! Yet it
was the girl who was revived. Jesus remained clean.
Les
we think that this rule of passing on cleanliness applies to Jesus
alone, we need only look to the early church to see that they assumed
the same attitude. The early church rescued orphans, took in sick
people, ministered to lepers, the infirm, the marginalized, the
hopeless. They took the spiritual cleanliness given to them from a
renewing relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and passed it on.
Look to Mother Teresa and Henri Nouwen for modern examples of "passing
the clean". Our source of spiritual cleanliness is the forgiveness of
God found in the work of Jesus Christ, in his life, death and
resurrection. With a relationship with God the Father, we can pass on
to others purity, hope, belief, faith, love, and peace. What should be
left behind? Religious fear and superstition.
I
once performed a wedding ceremony for nice young couple. At their
reception, the bride's grandparents made a big show, at least to me, of
leaving when the dance started. They didn't want to be contaminated by
the uncleanliness of the dance. I didn't think much of it at the time,
I just dismissed it as an example of their age and religious background
(fundamentalism). But, the more I consider the event, the more I think
that their actions were either based on fear or selfishness. Fear that
someone would judge them for staying at their grand-daughter's wedding
dance (sin!), or selfishness in that they used a "religious conviction"
to justify leaving. In hindsight, their act of leaving was a
declaration that they did not believe that uncleanliness could be
passed on. In the least, they denied the power of Christ in their lives
to keep them clean in the midst of the dance. Jesus would have stayed
for the dance. I guess they figured they were more holy than Jesus.
So, who (or what) are you avoiding for fear of contamination?
|