{"id":2011,"date":"2018-02-05T13:28:14","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T13:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/batkol.info\/?p=2011"},"modified":"2018-02-05T13:28:14","modified_gmt":"2018-02-05T13:28:14","slug":"sixth-sunday-in-ordinary-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/2018\/02\/05\/sixth-sunday-in-ordinary-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (11 February 2018)<\/p>\n

Lev. 13:1-2, 44-46; Ps. 32:1-2, 5, 11; 1 Cor. 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45.<\/p>\n

Theme: Jesus touched him.<\/p>\n

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Jesus has scarcely begun his tour of the villages of Galilee to announce the new Reign of God when he is confronted by the leper in today\u2019s Gospel story. What happens next spells out for the reader one of the defining features of that Reign.<\/p>\n

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\u2018Leprosy\u2019 in the Bible covers a range of skin diseases and need not be equated with Hansen\u2019s disease. In NT times there was a connection between \u2018leprosy\u2019 and poverty. In his study of poverty in Roman Palestine Gildas Hamel quotes the Greek physician Galen (2nd century CE) who says that in times of food shortage, during the winter or in times of famine, country people were reduced to eating twigs of trees and bushes, wild herbs and even grass. As a result they suffered vitamin deficiencies that caused a variety of ulcerating skin diseases.<\/p>\n

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The leper in the story begs Jesus not for a cure but for cleansing, \u201c\u2026you can make me clean\u201d. His greatest trial was not the physical ailment but expulsion from his community [Lv 13:45-56] and ritual uncleanness that would have excluded him from Temple worship.<\/p>\n

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Jesus\u2019 response is often translated \u201cMoved with pity\u201d, sometimes \u201cwith compassion\u201d. The Greek splagchnitzomai however is much stronger, and less polite. It is related to the word for intestines or guts, which suggests that Jesus was moved to the depths of his being. Perhaps he had this gut-wrenching feeling that \u201cThings should not be like this!\u201d and out of that deeply felt compassion he acted. Nicholas King in his commentary on Pope Francis\u2019 proclamation of the Year of Mercy in 2015 says Jesus felt \u2018gutted\u2019 when the leper came to him.<\/p>\n

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Some ancient manuscripts of Mark\u2019s Gospel have a different Greek word instead of splagchnitzomai. It is a word that means \u2018anger\u2019. If this was the original reading, some scholars suggest that it might have been prompted by Jesus\u2019 \u201cvery stern warning\u201d in 1:43, or that Jesus was angry because of the apparent doubt of the man that Jesus could cure him. It seems to me much more likely that if Jesus was angry it would have been at the system that further punished a man who was already a victim of poverty and disease. The weight of opinion however is that splagchnitzomai was most probably the original wording.<\/p>\n

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Jesus\u2019 world-view was no doubt shaped by his familiarity with the Hebrew scriptures. Compassion is one of the attributes of God highlighted particularly in the Wisdom literature and the Prophets: Psalm 145:9 for example, \u201cThe Lord is good to all and has compassion over all that he has made\u201d, and Isaiah 54:10 \u201c\u2026my steadfast love shall not depart from you\u2026says the Lord, who has compassion on you\u201d. Here the compassion of God towards Israel is an expression of his hesed, steadfast love. In both cases the Hebrew word translated \u2018compassion\u2019 is related to rehem = womb, another word that evokes the deeply felt nature of compassion.<\/p>\n

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In the closing verse of the story Jesus, who has touched the leper, is now the one who is marginalized. As Mary Healy observes: \u201cHe has healed the man with leprosy at a cost to himself\u2014just as later in the Gospel he will take on Barabbas\u2019 status as a condemned criminal, while Barabbas goes free (15:15)\u201d. Jesus models the self-giving love of a compassionate God.<\/p>\n

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For Reflection and Discussion: 1. Have you experienced a deeply moving reaction to some situation of distress? How did it affect you? 2. In what way(s) does your own society marginalize some people? 3. Recount examples of selfless compassion that you know about.<\/p>\n

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Bibliography: Hamel, Poverty and Charity in Roman Palestine (Oakland CA, 1990); Healy, The Gospel of Mark (Grand Rapids MI, 2008); King, \u2018From the Beginning\u2019, The Tablet 269, 2130, 10-11 (2015).<\/p>\n

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This week\u2019s Sunday Gospel Commentary was prepared by<\/p>\n

Br Kevin McDonnell cfc, PhD., Australia, Bat Kol Alumnus, 2003, 2004, 2005.
Email address: klmcdonnell@edmundrice.org<\/p>\n

[Copyright \u00a9 2018]<\/p>\n

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PLEASE NOTE: The weekly Gospel commentaries represent the research and creative thought of their authors, and are meant to stimulate deeper thinking about the meaning of the Sunday Scriptures. While they draw upon the study methods and sources employed by the Bat Kol Institute, the views and conclusions expressed in these commentaries are solely those of their authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of Bat Kol. Questions, comments and feedback are always welcome.<\/p>\n

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Bat Kol Institute for Jewish Studies, Jerusalem<\/p>\n

1983-2018<\/p>\n

\u201cChristians Studying the Bible within its Jewish milieu, using Jewish Sources.\u201d<\/p>\n

gill@batkol.info Website: www.batkol.info<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (11 February 2018) Lev. 13:1-2, 44-46; Ps. 32:1-2, 5, 11; 1 Cor. 10:31-11:1; Mark 1:40-45. Theme: Jesus touched him. \u00a0 Download \u00a0 Jesus has scarcely begun his tour of the villages of Galilee to announce the new Reign of God when he is confronted by the leper in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":2012,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ratisbonne.org.il\/bk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}