Going beyond duty

I reckon ritual uncleanness must have been a nuisance for Jesus and his contemporaries who lived in a world without indoor plumbing or easily obtained water. Jesus was criticized for not washing properly (Mark 7:3–5) and a close reading of the book of Leviticus (particularly chapters 11–15) tells us that people who were ritually unclean (and those that touched them) had to stay away from human society for varying lengths of time and engage in ritual cleansing. So you have to wonder why Jesus touches this ritually unclean man. Presumably he could have just said something that would have cured him. But when Jesus sees this man, who has been deprived of human touch, his compassion overrides any concerns about the fuss and bother caused by their physical contact, and he heals him by touching him. He puts himself out, and I suspect would do the same again, despite the stated and unstated disruptions to his ministry (45) that the man’s healing caused. The Hebrew word we translate as “compassion” describes the intense physical and emotional connection (sometimes painful) between a nursing mother and her baby. That’s an attribute of God (Exodus 34:6) and an attribute we’re called on to emulate (1 Peter 3:8), which should override any inconvenience or bother.