Simul justus et pecator - Simultaneously saint and sinner.
Leper in English 200
Posted On: February 03rd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Rarely does theology enter into very secular classes at a very secular university, and when it does, it usually ends up a train wreck. I was a little surprised, then, when my English professor starting making valid points about Mark 1:40-42, the healing of the leper.
First of all I wondered, how did he get away with even mentioning the Bible at school, let alone quoting it, putting it up on a projector, and then discussing it extensively?
It left me intrigued.
I suppose background information is in order: we are right now analyzing the “deep thinkers” in history: Aristotle, the Dalai Lama. Right now the topic is compassion. It makes sense that he would choose this passage to illustrate compassion. It even says it right in the story; Jesus had compassion on the leper and healed him.
My professor’s point was that Jesus did not so much heal the man as he did alleviate the alienation he had from the rest of his community. This is true. Lepers in Jesus’ time were unable to be near “normal” people without loud bells and hand gloves.
I started taking it a step further. Does it not make sense that the righteousness we receive from God is a compassion, the Father sending his only Son to the cross and heaping our sinful pain onto him as a response to the awareness of imminent death for his beloved sinful creatures? We are then reconciled with a God that could be rightly angry with us. Christ’s death removed the alienation from our Lord.
In this way, we too could be seen as the leper. What sorry creatures we are, fundamentally. Thankfully, Christ opened himself up to our suffering, the very definition and personification of compassion, and relieved it in a way no one else could.
Comments:
Re: Leper in English 200
Posted On: February 03rd, 2008 at 7:15 pm by luvable lutheran
Are you reading and discussing in class or will you have a chance to share some of your thoughts here in the academic arena through a paper or exam?
Re: Leper in English 200
Posted On: February 03rd, 2008 at 9:16 pm by Rachel Engebretson
I'd like to, but I don't think it's the time or the place. Even so, I was very impressed that my professor "went there," not denying or maintaining neutrality on the divinity of Christ.
