Invasion of Purity

Niels Larsen Stevns's 1913 depiction of
Jesus curing the leper

This week I keep coming back to something I read in a text book, and then was challenged with the same concept by our New Testament professor. I want to share the thought and allow you to think on it too.

One of the themes of the Gospel of Mark is Jesus proclaiming the Kingdom of God. One of the new things that comes with the Kingdom of God is an "invasion of purity" that is a challenge to the traditional view in Israel that unclean must be kept separate from clean/holy. People who were unclean (ie: lepers, people with health problems like the woman with an issue with blood, and all people at one time or another) stayed away from other people because the uncleanliness they carried was contagious. Touching an unclean person or thing caused the clean person to become unclean and they'd have to go through a ritual of some sort to become clean again.

In this new Kingdom of God, Jesus reversed the idea of uncleanliness being contagious, and instead, holiness became contagious. When Jesus touched unclean people he remained clean; the unclean became clean. Revolutionary! This new system allowed Jesus to associate with everyone.

As members of this new kingdom, it is our mission to be like Jesus and absorb uncleanliness around us, rather than becoming unclean, and spread holiness by unleashing the power of forgiveness and restoration. How are you doing that today?