To Be Made Clean

Friday after Epiphany: To Be Made Clean (Lectionary 216)

Reading: 1 John 5:5-13; Psalm 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20; 

Alleluia: John 1:14a, 12a; Gospel: Luke 5:12-16

The choice of Gospel reading for this day, Friday after Epiphany, is a curious one. (For one thing, we will hear it again in Mark's version, in a couple of weeks, as we begin Ordinary Time.) The Alleluia verse gives us a clue as to what we should look for in this account of the healing of a leper. Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom and cured every disease among the people. Remember the Magi were seeking, the King of the Jews. Early in his public ministry, Jesus proclaimed the kingdom. Almost as a side note, he brought healing to the sick and freedom for those possessed by unclean spirits. 

A number of the sick approached Jesus for healing. The leper in today's account asks "to be made clean." According to the Law of Moses, those afflicted with skin diseases were unwelcome by the larger community; the were to separate themselves and while moving about the countryside were to warn others of their approach by saying "unclean, unclean." 

It is interesting that the man doesn't ask to be healed from the disease, but made clean. It is almost as if he were asking to be restored to the larger community, as if that were his primary concern. Or, perhaps, to be restored to attendance at the local synagogue, indeed, the Temple itself in Jerusalem. Or, maybe one should go further, to relationship with God, the LORD, himself in the synagogue and Temple. Without consciously realizing what he was asking for from Jesus was to be restored to relationship with God himself, Jesus's divine Father. Go to the priests, Jesus tells him, to prove his worthiness to associate with the larger community of Jews, but it is as if Jesus is telling the man that his relationship with God has been restored by virtue of the man's faith.

The importance of this reading for these few remaining days of Christmas time, is to remind ourselves that what we celebrate is the visible incarnation of the Son of God, who restores humanity to relationship with the Father. We are made clean by the sacrifice that Jesus offered through himself, realized in our individual Baptisms and reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. He is the King who brings healing and restoration by the New Covenant in his Body and Blood. May his name be praised, for ever and ever. Amen.