Here we are on the edge of Lent. Our last week in ordinary time or epiphany (depending on which calendar you are using). And we continue in Mark’s faced past story. The story is moving rapidly. “Now is the time. God’s kingdom has come.” (Mark 1:15) After the intimate healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, and then praying in wilderness in the night, Jesus leaves Capernaum to preach to all the towns of Galilee. Not all were healed, but his mission is to all in Galilee. On his way he encounters a man with a skin disease. It is a strange story. The translations vary – is Jesus filled with deep seated compassion or anger? It is intimate, Jesus touches the man. He encounters people face to face. And it raises all kinds of questions about what Jesus is ordering people not to tell? At the end Jesus and the man trade places and Jesus returns to the wilderness, where it all began, and the man is restored to his whanau (family) and community and is free to enter any town he likes. Healing stories...
