Leviticus 13-15. These passages help us understand the language of the Gospels where Jesus "cleanses" people with "leprosy" rather than "healing" them. Leprosy doesn't necessarily mean Hansen's Disease only, but other kinds of skin diseases. I'm reminded of the time that my sister and I got impetigo and couldn't go to school until it had healed; or the time my own kids got ringworm from a kitten. In a close-knit community of nomads, there had to be provisions to keep infectious diseases from spreading.
The other major topic of these chapters is ritual/ceremonial uncleanness. The discharges that are dealt with here: especially semen and menstrual blood, have to do with creating life and reproductive organs; and the boundary conditions of life and death seem to confer ritual uncleanness on already-living members of the community.
Psalm 35. Another prayer for God to defend the psalmist against his enemies. After a long legal battle that extended over a decade and climaxed with an 8 week jury trial, my husband came to appreciate these psalms in a very personal way.
Mark 11. Our readings come into synch with Holy Week, as we read Mark's account of the Triumphal Entry.
What are we to make of the cursing of the fig tree by Jesus? Was he just in a grumpy mood? After all, it was early spring--Passover time. You wouldn't expect to find figs on a tree in the spring. Commentators have tried to say that it only makes sense if Jesus is employing the fig tree as a symbol of the house of Israel, whose religious and political leaders have, in his estimation, failed spectacularly to yield the fruits of the Kingdom of God.
We come next to the cleansing of the temple, with Jesus insisting that it not be a place of commerce, but rather a place of "prayer for all the nations" (11:17).
And by the end of the chapter, as another day passes, the question of the source of Jesus' authority comes to the fore.
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