Identity
Identity is a big deal in our present age. It always has had some bearing on life, but it jumped the shark a few years ago. We can’t and shouldn’t avoid the idea altogether. We all have elements of who we are that can be summed up with a label. That identity might be national, as in “American,” or it might be ethnic, as in “Native American,” or it might be professional, as in “engineer,” but we all have various identifiers that explain who we are. Unfortunately, some kind of insanity struck the West and now people are identifying as things they clearly are not. Humans are claiming they are cats, and men are saying they are women, and everyone else is expected to nod with all serious agreement with the insanity.
This insanity makes the sane folks want to divorce themselves from any sort of identity qualifiers. We shouldn’t. For example, here in Mark’s gospel, we find an instance where a man named Simon is identified as “Simon the leper.” That is not a great name. Leprosy is a horrible disease. In that day it affected not only your physical health, but your social and spiritual life as well. If you were a leper you were cut off from social contact and spiritual life. You were not allowed to enter the temple and you couldn’t get close to other people.
Why did Mark call this poor guy “Simon the leper?” It might be something as simple as wanting to distinguish him from Simon Peter, but it seems like there might have been a nicer way to do that. More than likely, Mark wanted to highlight in bold letters the gracious and steadfast love of Christ. Jesus was not afraid to associate with a social and spiritual outcast. He came into his home, sat at his table, and received food from a man everyone else would have run from.
Whatever your identity, even if it is an insane one, Jesus will come and heal and forgive. I do believe Simon was healed from his leprosy, but Mark seems to be putting an exclamation point on the kind of person he was and what Jesus delivered him from. So, technically speaking, he wasn’t a leper anymore. But to highlight the grace of Christ, that identity was still attached to him here in Mark’s gospel.
As I read this story again, I am reminded of Revelation 3:20 where Jesus says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens to door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
He did that with Simon the leper. He will do that with you.
