Clean and unclean

• Lepers: "And there came a leper to him, beseeching him and kneeling down to him.... 'If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean' " (Mar 1:40). "The leper, in accord with the strict conditions of the law, should not have been so close. With torn garments and dishevelled hair he should have gone around crying 'Unclean! Unclean!' (Lev 13:44,45), and he should have dwelt alone. The stern requirements of hygiene caused the Israelites to deny their camp in the wilderness to those in this condition (Num 5:2). That the man came so close is a mark, not of callous disregard of the law, but of the supreme confidence which knew that he would do no injury to the Lord, while the Lord could, if he would, confer cleansing on him. Jesus, on his part, accepted the position without embarrassment, and acted with the same assurance. To touch a leper was to contract defilement; but for the Lord to do so was to bring cleansing without himself suffering any harm" (NMk 21).
• The Samaritan woman and her neighbors (Joh 4:1-42): Even the woman at the well recognized that the Jews customarily had no dealings with the Samaritans (v 9). To the legalistically devout this was all too literally true; the gospel record finds an exact parallel in the well-reported sayings of the rabbis: "May I never set eyes on a Samaritan!" or "May I never be thrown into company with him!" It was said that to partake of their bread was like eating swine's flesh (A Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Vol. 1, p. 401). Most Israelites, in traveling between Judea and Galilee, went miles out of their way, circling through Perea, to avoid traversing the loathsome land of Samaria. How this gives weight by contrast to the statement of John, that Jesus "must needs go through Samaria" (v 4). Not only did Jesus disregard the traditional proscriptions of the land of the Samaritans, but also it was necessary that he go there! And necessary that he wait at the well, and necessary that he ask drink of the woman (unthinkable to a Pharisee), and necessary that he remain in their city two days (v 40) to bring to their thirsty lips the true water of life.
• The infirm man at the pool of Bethesda (Joh 5:1-9): "High on the hill of Zion the immaculately robed priests observed the temple ritual, aloof and impersonal. In the shadows of its walls the halt, the blind and the withered waited for the movement of the water" (MP 86,87). Among them was a certain man with an infirmity of 38 years' duration (v 5). By the law such a man, if a descendant of Aaron, would be prohibited from all official duties (Lev 21:17-23). Extreme body blemishes would exclude any Israelite from the congregation of the Lord (Deu 23:1). And so the "pure and undefiled" of Israel went their way to the Temple services, oblivious of the poor, suffering scraps of humanity who clung superstitiously to the hope of healing at the pool. Where did the Master's steps turn, upward to the beautiful ritualized service of Herod's house, or downward to the miserable exiles of Bethesda? The true scene of his ministry was not among the subtle analysts of the law but in the midst of suffering, diseased, afflicted mankind, those who needed a redeemer.
• The harlot, "a woman in the city, which was a sinner" (Luk 7:37): So astounding was Jesus' acceptance of this harlot's approach and service, that his host Simon the Pharisee thought surely he could not be a prophet or else he would push her away and revile her for her sins (v 39). He knew so little of the spirit of the Saviour! Do we know more?
• The lunatic (Mar 5:1-21; Mat 8:28-34; Luk 8:26-40): Christ and his disciples came to the shore at Gergesa, on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, in Decapolis. And there met them out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. Here was a man expelled from all society by his condition (insanity), his appearance (nakedness), and his abode (the tombs); yet Jesus approached him, spoke to him, even bearing with his fantasies, healed him, and gave him of his own garments (an unproven suggestion, but quite probable, and filled with wonderful typical significance)! So impressed, however, were those of the neighborhood that they begged him to leave (Mar 5:17); a man who consorted with such men as "Legion" could certainly be no friend of theirs.
• The woman with the issue of blood (Mar 5:25-34): Here was another condition which, like leprosy, rendered the sufferer unclean (Lev 15:19-30). As Jesus went on his way, she pushed her timid way through the crowd: "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole." This was the reverse of the legal restriction, which should have been: 'If I touch his garment, he will be unclean also.' How great was her faith! She knew what manner of man Jesus was: a man who could touch the unclean, and yet remain pure; a man whose law superseded that of Moses; a man to whom mental impurity was far worse than legal defilement.
• Gentiles: Of several examples, we note here the case of the Syrophoenician woman (Mar 7:25,26; Mat 15:21-28). Coming on the heels of the Lord's discourse about the true source of defilement (Mar 7:1-23; Mat 15:1-20), and in disregard for the traditions of the elders, this incident in which Jesus heals the daughter of the Gentile woman thus carries extra significance. Though the woman was not a Jewess, her faith exceeded by far that of Jesus' countrymen. As in the other cases we have noted, an external condition of separation was of no consequence to him who came to save the "world" and to call sinners to repentance.
• Publicans: Two of this hated class figure prominently in the gospels: Zaccheus, "chief among the publicans" (Luk 19:2), and one of the twelve, Matthew (Mat 10:3; Luk 5:27). These servants of the Roman oppressors were held in such low esteem generally that the word "publican" had become practically synonymous with "sinner" (Mat 9:11; Mar 2:16; Luk 5:30). Yet Jesus found friends among this class; perhaps some real-life publican was the model for the Lord's account of contrasting prayer styles, for the admonition of those who "trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others" (Luk 18:9-14). On the opposite side, we have the rabbinical attitude toward the publicans: They were excluded from being judges and witnesses in legal affairs. They were seen as a criminal race, to which Lev 20:5 applied (about those who committed "whoredom with Molech"). It was said that there never was a family which numbered a tax-collector in which all did not become such. And they were seen as so evil that it was permissible for the righteous to lie to them to protect their property from taxation (Edersheim, op cit, p 516).
• The dead (Mar 5:35-43; Joh 11:1-46; Luk 7:14): Here was the ultimate defilement, the dead body (Lev 21:1; 22:4; Num 5:2; 9:6,10); even from this Christ did not shrink. We know he could raise the dead by a word, as he did with Lazarus. But he did not hesitate to take the dead daughter of Jairus by the hand (Mar 5:41). His was the "personal touch" of sincere love. As always, it seems, the consequences of legal "uncleanness" were ignored as irrelevant beside the greater issues of his ministry. The Lord of life came near to death, partaking of mortality, bearing the burdens of those who grieved and the curse of the law, "tasting death" on behalf of all men.