“If you choose…”

see Soulwork Toward Sunday: self-guided retreat
For Epiphany 6 (year A), February 12, 2012
“two outlaws”
http://www.edgeofenclosure.org

detail, Jesus heals the leper, Unknown Illustrator of Petrus Comestor's Bible Historiale, 1372

The leper kneels.
Don’t let that fool you.
This story is not about a humble man asking sweet Jesus for healing.
The leper is not humble and Jesus is not sweet.
Jesus is angry and speechless.

This leper is more like a Zen master.
Or, a relentless political revolutionary.
In any case, he shatters Jesus’ composure to the core.

The man says,
“If you choose, you can heal me.”
But if Jesus does, he will set in motion a series of events he will not be able to control.
And we’re only in the first chaper of the Gospel of Mark.

But Jesus chooses.