Paul's roots as a Pharisee are showing today. Faced with a case of sexual impropriety that even Roman law found too skeevy (a man marrying his stepmother), Paul responds as a first century Pharisee: separation from moral and ritual impurity.
You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. – 1 Corinthians 5:5 (RSV-CE)
To him the real offense isn't the sin committed but rather the damage the church does to itself by permitting it in its midst.
Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. – 1 Corinthians 5:6-7 (RSV-CE)
And it makes sense in this Hellenistic universe of these early Christians. If being joined to Christ’s mystical body in the Church separates one from the forces of “sin and death” through baptism, then the active, ongoing sin of one member re-exposes the whole community to forces of decay. Better for all to remove that one member. He can take his own chances with his own physical health, knowing that his spirit at least is entrusted to Christ.
In this thinking, Paul stands in the long tradition of Israel. We hear it echoed even in today's psalm:
Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of their many transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against thee. – Psalms 5:10 (RSV-CE)
But then what?
That's the uncomfortable question left unasked.
If that same Christ is the Logos of God acting in the world, is he content to leave it at that? Does the Living Word have any questions?
Pharisees of his time present Jesus with just such a case: a man excised from the community because his physical ailment endangers the ritual purity of them all. In this worldview, sickness results from sin, so exposure is contagious both ritually and physically. Healing one forgives the other and vice-versa, and that puts everyone at risk.
Clearly, Christ is no stranger to this thinking.
But he knew their thoughts, and he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come and stand here.” And he rose and stood there. And Jesus said to them, “I ask you, is it lawful on the sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to destroy it?” And he looked around on them all, and said to him, “Stretch out your hand.” And he did so, and his hand was restored. – Luke 6:8-10 (RSV-CE)
A moral reading of the lectionary sees a mystic connection between the man with the withered hand and the sinner of Corinthians. As if receiving for judgment the very one Paul cast out, the Christ receives the man suffering for his sin. He doesn't challenge the judgement upon him. He just asks what happens next.
Are you excised from God's holy people? Rightly or wrongly, do you find yourself beyond communion? Stretch out your hand. Leave it to Christ to ask what happens next.
Saint Peter Claver, pray for us.
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