Word to the Wise
Thursday, January 11, 2018 - Thursday in the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Sam 4:1-11 and Mark 1:40-45]"See that you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them" The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter. He spread the report abroad so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly. He remained outside in deserted places, and people kept coming to him from everywhere. [Mark]
Scripture scholars have debated for centuries the feature of the Gospel According to Mark in which Jesus tries to avoid publicity. They call it "the Messianic secret." Nevertheless, notoriety would hound Jesus and lead to his ultimate act of death and resurrection. It is his fame that threatened Jewish religious authorities and Roman political authorities. The Gospel According to Mark, the oldest of the four, was written not long after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem (70 AD). If Jesus' acts and ministry were such a threat to Jew and Roman alike, his followers could expect the same reaction. Christianity would not be simply good deeds in imitation of Jesus, but confrontation and suffering because people would misunderstand. Avoiding publicity would be very difficult. Not even Jesus could keep his fame from spreading. The cleansing of the leper in today's gospel scripture was equivalent to bringing him back from social death. He could scarcely avoid letting it be known!
However, the same notoriety would lead to misunderstanding, another feature of the Gospel According to Mark. Not even Jesus' own family would understand, much less his disciples. They would understand only once Jesus was crucified and risen. As we make our way through Mark's account of Jesus' life, we can ask ourselves about our own understanding of Jesus. What portrait do we see? What difference does our understanding of Jesus make in our life? AMEN