Mark Tells of "Messianic Secrets"
By Paul Turner

[The Good News for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time Sunday, February 13, 2000 Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 Mark 1:40-45]

Jesus rules our imagination as a take-charge kind of guy. He wants disciples? He's got them. He has something to say? People listen. Time for a miracle? It happens. Surely Jesus held sway like a CEO.

However, next Sunday's Gospel (Mark 1:40-45) portends that Jesus may not have all the control we thought. He certainly controls the disease, but can he control the patient? The message? And - hardest to imagine - himself?

At first glance, the story looks like a typical miracle. The same parts appear in every story of healing: A person has a disease. Jesus cures. Proof is shown. A crowd gasps.

One question about this particular story is whether it concludes the previous ones or begins the next set. It seems to form a unit with the stories we've just heard, the exorcism and the healing of Peter's mother-in-law. They bear similarities. All of them treat possession and illness as if demons are involved. After Jesus exorcizes the unclean spirit, he also "exorcizes" the fever and "exorcizes" the leprosy. ("The leprosy left him.")

However, the mother-in-law story finishes up with a few lines that summarize Jesus' ministry to the many sick and possessed. If the leprosy story fits with the previous two, shouldn't it appear before that summary and not after?

It may appear after the summary for a reason. It fits with the stories that lie ahead: Jesus forgiving a paralytic's sins, calling a tax collector to discipleship, and arguing with authorities. In all these cases we find Jesus in confrontation. The cleansing of the leper may not just be a story about healing, but the opening volley of the confrontations that follow. After all, both the leper and Jesus break through the proper code of conduct for lepers and the community. According to next Sunday's first reading, lepers were supposed to keep their distance. But this one plops down in front of Jesus, and Jesus actually touches him to work the cure. In doing so, they assert Jesus' superiority over the law of Moses.

Jesus appears to be in control. But look again. He asks the man not to talk about the cure. The man promptly goes away and publicizes the whole matter. Jesus can no longer enter towns openly and remains in deserted places, but people keep on coming.

This part of the story fits into the discussion of a peculiar feature in Mark called "the messianic secret." On several occasions, Jesus tells people (and even demons) to pipe down about who he is. He wants them to keep it a secret that he is the messiah. To all appearances, the effort next Sunday fails miserably.

The messianic secret shows up with miracles out of fear that people who heard the news of a miracle might not hear the rest of the message. They'd get the sound bite, the headline, but not the meaning. Jesus preferred teaching to wonder-working. Silence about the cleansed leper would permit the development of well-informed disciples and the avoidance of people looking for the nearest freak show.

With the best of intentions, however, Jesus, who so capably controlled the disease, apparently lost control of the enthusiastic cured man and the message he proclaimed.

Another phrase of the Gospel raises the question whether Jesus completely controlled himself. Our translation says Jesus worked this miracle "moved with pity." However, some early versions of this story had a different phrase: "having become angry." That version fits with the stern warning Jesus gives a few lines later. The original version of the story probably indicated Jesus was angry, and a scribe tidied up the phrase later on.

There are many instances of Jesus' anger. It shows up in Mark during a confrontation in the synagogue (3:5) and when people restrained children from Jesus (10:14). Other episodes include his confrontations with buyers and sellers in the temple and with some religious leaders. Because we profess an unqualified faith in a sinless Jesus it is hard to accept the possibility of his anger. But Mark's account is the earliest of the Gospels and may show the human, moody side of Jesus better than later piety would allow.

Whatever the right translation, Jesus felt strongly about the situation and acted accordingly. His actions challenge us to touch the untouchables of our society - the sick, teenagers, the elderly, the poor - whomever our stratified livelihoods prefer to keep at the margins.