Pain and Compassion: A Gift and A Sign to Set Things Right (A reflection on Jesus heals the leper)

Jesus felt the pain of the one who could not feel his own pain, and He touched him to heal. The leper had death and decay reigning in him, but still could not feel a thing.[1] Likewise, many people of our present world cannot feel the pain, though sin, death, and decay are reigning among them. They have lost all consciousness of pain, the pain that would lead them to repentance and acceptance in the Lord. Like Jesus felt the pain of the leper in his innermost parts, the creator feels the pain of his out-of-joint creation filled with injustice, immortality, and idolatry in his innermost being.[2] When the leper confronted or pleaded (depending upon the version of Mark’s story), Jesus healed him. Jesus said angrily or empathetically (depending upon the manuscript of Mark’s story we prefer), “I’m willing.”[3]

 

Similarly, God is willing and perhaps passionate to heal the painless sinner, who cannot feel the pain of separation from God. And, he lives in luxury, pleasure, and oppressive behaviour like the rich man in Jesus’ parable who “dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.” Yet, the rich man did not notice the poor and sick beggar lying at his gate in his lifetime (Luke 16:19-22). Jesus is willing, God is willing, the Spirit is willing to raise his creation out of death and decay, and fill it with life and creative love (Rom 8:18-21). Like the leper who groans within him, though it cannot feel the pain, God’s creation groans within itself (Rom 8:22). Perhaps this accounts for many suicides and depressive disorders among people who have everything the world can offer.

 

On the flip side, it also represents the painless yet inexpressible pain, whose visible signs are death and decay, of the needy and orphaned people of this world. They are troubled by needless wars and policies that promote the greed and selfishness of wealthy rulers of this world. Further, it symbolises the pain of the persecuted Christian, who is abandoned by his previous community and the church alike. The signs, such as death and decay, follow if such individuals are neglected forever. Again, it symbolises the painless pain of the unjust systems of the world that keep promoting structural injustice without any corrective measures, turning a blind eye to the suffering of those who fail to make it due to deformities, poverty, economic pressures, addictions, or mishaps in their lives. There is death, division, discrimination, and decay reigning everywhere, but no pain –the pain that could perhaps initiate setting things right.[4]

 

Even so, the Spirit of God that groaned within Jesus on the day he touched the leper still groans within every child of God (Rom 8:23). The groaning of the creation, spirit, and the church echoes how the Israelites groaned in their slavery in Egypt. God heard their groaning, remembered his covenant and acted decisively on their behalf.[5] The Holy Spirit eagerly expects and foresees a renewal of the whole creation when Jesus returns. Wright writes, “The whole creation will be rescued from its groaning, sorrow, and chaos when humans are raised from the dead to take proper charge of it.”[6] The Spirit groans within a child of God, a temple of God, to express the pain in wordless words –the pain words cannot express– the pain of separation and injustice. The Spirit groans to express God's willingness to step into creation with his creative acts of justice-packed love, restoring it to a new beauty and a greater glory.

 

The leper was healed, but after Jesus healed the paralysed man in Mark 2:5, Jesus became a stumbling block to many Pharisees and Teachers who came to see him, perhaps based on reports they had heard of him from the Leper’s confessions (Mark 1:43-45). To begin with, Jesus had warned the leper to secretly show himself to the priest and offer the required sacrifices to get included in the community again (Mark 1:43-44). “Instead, he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere.” (Mark 1:45) “A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.“ (Mark 2:1) “Now, some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, ‘Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’” (Mark 2:6-7) Strangely, when Jesus –the creator in human form– spent his time with his created world, the religious Jews got hurt first.

 

Perhaps, Jesus' emphasis on the painless pain of the leper, which the Jews could not see or feel, made them conscious of their own injustice and idolatry, but like many of us, they chose to justify themselves. “Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, 'Why are you thinking these things? Which is easier: to say to this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up, take your mat and walk’? But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the man, “I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home.” He got up, took his mat, and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone, and they praised God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this!” (Mark 2:7-12)

 

Therefore, let us be thankful to God for the gift of pain that helps us notice what is wrong within us and seek God’s help.[7] Let us hear the groaning of the creation that is subjected to death and decay in every human heart that feels abandoned and dejected, and seeks temporary relief through addictions and attachments. Let us pay close attention to the worldly consumerism and materialism that seek to entice us away from God’s presence. Let us not ignore the cry of the Spirit within us when he confronts the lepers of various kinds, those who are unaware of their decaying condition because of a lack of pain. Let us sensitively acknowledge the inner groaning of our spirit, as he “moved” Jesus with compassion that sprang from his inner parts to touch the leper, and metaphorically, expressed the creator’s innermost desire to touch and heal his decaying creation.[8] Let us impart the healing touch of love and introduce the new reality of post-resurrection life into the unjust, decaying world.

You are not a Terminator. But a Resurrect-or of the weak.

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[1] The ideas of death and decay, reigning over humanity as a consequence of humanity’s fall, are now being reversed, beginning with Jesus’ resurrection and eventually at the final resurrection, are borrowed from N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, Kindle (Harper One, 2008), 143, 262.

[2] The Phrase “out-of-joint creation” is borrowed from N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, 95 and 279. The phrase “idolatry and injustice” appears in N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies, Kindle (Zondervan, 2024), 105, 148. Wright often uses this phrase to express the consequences of humanity’s fall and sin. He identifies sin as idolatry in his other writings. “First, there is the underlying issue of idolatry, injustice, and plain old “sin.” That is clear. It hasn’t gone away...(Ch. 13) The new Passover is the large, overarching reality. Jesus has defeated all the anti-God, anti-creation powers. He has stripped them of their borrowed robes and robbed them of their hollow crowns. And he has done this by dealing with the sins, the human idolatries and injustices, that handed to the “powers” the authority and responsibility given to humans in the first place. (Ch. 15)” Wright, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion, Kindle (Harper One, 2016).

[3] Mark writes, “Jesus was indignant [footnote: Many manuscripts read Jesus was filled with compassion]. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately, the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. (Mark 1:41-42 NIV)

[4] The writer borrows the phrase “God setting things right” at the final resurrection from Wright, Surprised by Hope, 137, 179, 213, 217.

[5] The idea of groaning is taken from Romans and applied to Jesus’ empathetic feeling toward the ailing leper. Wright, Into the Heart of Romans: A Deep Dive into Paul’s Greatest Letter, Kindle (Zondervan, 2023), Ch. 1.

[6] Wright, Into the Heart of Romans, Ch. 1.

[7] The gift of pain is an excellent work based on Dr. Paul Brand's real-life work among lepers. It establishes that pain is primarily a God-given alarm to protect people’s bodies, not a means of enacting judgment. Philip Yancey and Paul W Brand, The Gift of Pain : Why We Hurt & What We Can Do about It. (Zondervan, 1997).

[8] In the NT, σπλαγχνίζομαι occurs mostly concerning Jesus. People’s distress triggers Jesus’ compassion (Matt. 9:36). It leads to healing (Matt. 14:14; 20:34; Mark 1:41), feeding (Matt.15:32; Mark 8:2), forgiveness (Matt. 18:27), consolation (Luke 7:13), caretaking (Luke 10:33-34a), and acceptance (Luke 15:20). It always leads to practical action. Bauer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, 690, 511, 938.