Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 1-3.

I am used to translations which say that Jesus was filled with compassion when the man with leprosy asked Jesus to heal him that this is the first time I noticed that this translation says He was indignant.  So, why would Jesus have been indignant?  The leper prefaced his request for healing by saying, “If you are willing…”  So, Jesus was indignant that the leper had reason to believe that someone who had the ability to heal him might not be willing to do so.  This corresponds with Jesus reaction to the situation with the man with the shriveled hand in the synagogue on the Sabbath.  There He was angry because of the religious people more interested in the letter of the law (as they interpreted the law) than in helping those in need.

So, Jesus was angry that people were so afraid of stepping over the lines which the “religious leaders” had set up that they would fail to help those in need.  I don’t think His anger was directed at those who were afraid to help.  I think it was directed at those who had made them afraid to do so.  We see more of this same ethos in His response to those who criticized Him for eating with sinners.  As recorded by Mark, Jesus was not condemning the hypocritical (I never realized how much I allow Luke’s telling of this story to color my understanding of what Mark wrote).  Mark highlights that Jesus came to call sinners.  How can you convince sinners to repent, if you won’t spend any time with them?    The Luke account focuses on the hypocrisy of those who think they are better than others.  Mark is more concerned with giving us a model to follow.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.