by Fr. Vin

Thrones, Powers, and Dominions - II 2/12/2012

Last week I wrote about how people of Jesus’ time, just as we do, made sense of the invisible-yet-real dimension of life that gives experiences their power.  Jesus’ contemporaries didn’t use the same words we do, but they were aware that reality is moved by invisible forces that take shape in things we can touch or see, but which also go beyond those things and give them their power.  (Try buying a burger with a Confederate dollar if you need proof.  The tangible piece of paper may still exist, but “the Confederacy” – the invisible entity that gave that piece of paper its power – is no longer with us.)  Illness – as in today’s Gospel – is a good illustration of that same interplay between the visible and the invisible.  And this can help us to understand Jesus’ message with its revolutionary power.

 “Leprosy” in the Bible was a social category as much as it was a disease.  Scholars believe the mildly contagious bacterial illness we know as Hansen’s disease existed in the New Testament period, but it’s not clear that any Biblical reference is directly to it.  It seems a variety of skin conditions (possibly not all of which we would today even consider a disease) were all gathered under the term.  Why?

Exclusion.  The “people of Israel” were, as they understood the Biblical command, to be “perfect.”  They thought that meant not only morals but appearance.  The imperfect were a blot on Israel and so were to be excluded.   Evident imperfections – like skin conditions, among many other things – marked some people out for exclusion.   (Anthropologists tell us that this leads to greater cohesion in the group who are doing the excluding – a sad commentary on human nature.)  Without realizing it, the people’s life was being shaped by a “Power” – an invisible assumption and social force that divided people.  It was this Power that Jesus came to conquer.

Here’s the point: When Jesus “cures a leper” he does three things:

1.    He miraculously removes the evident skin condition.   (Without this happening, no one would credit the next two things, which are more important for his ministry and perhaps even for the person cured).

2.    He restores the excluded person to full participation in social life.

But this is only “following the rules of the game” erected by the invisible Power that separates people one from another.  To stop here would be to make Jesus a miraculous healer, rather than a prophet of the Kingdom of God.  So –

3.    Jesus shows by the healing that this Power-who-separates can be overcome; the world is returning – in and through Him – to its God-given, all-inclusive form.

I admit that it takes hard thinking to grasp this.  It’s easier – because more in line with the narrow confines of our contemporary way of viewing the world – to think of Jesus as doing only #1 (or, if we’re inclined to think sociologically, #1 and #2).  To understand that he’s also – mostly, in fact – doing #3 requires that we appreciate the polar, visible-invisible structure of the world (both as we see it, and as Jesus’ contemporaries see it); and, that we confront the likelihood that we, even now, need to be liberated from the Powers.  That’s a topic for next week.  Until then, Peace.

…A Word of Thanks