Good News – Bad News    There are well-known “good news-bad news” jokes. For example, a patron presented his lottery ticket to the clerk who said, “I have good news: this ticket is worth $1,000,000. The bad news is that it expired yesterday!” Or the pilot who announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, I have good news: we are on schedule with a favorable tailwind. The bad news is that we are completely lost.” Or maybe one more: The surgeon told his patient, “The good news is that the surgery was completely successful. The bad news is that it was on the wrong knee.”
   In St. Mark’s conclusion to the story of Jesus’ healing of the leprous man, he wrote: “But going out, he [the leprous man] began to proclaim much and spread abroad the word, so that he [Jesus] was no longer able openly to enter the city, but he was outside in desert places, and they were coming to him from everywhere.” (1:45)
   Previously, Jesus told the man to go show himself to the priest, undergo the required cleansing process, be a witness to the priest, and not broadcast the news of his cleansing. Charitably, one can assume that the man went to the priest and began the process for cleansing outlined in Leviticus chapter 14, a process taking several days. Jesus did not disregard the law. It is also possible to imagine that this man’s family and friends were amazed by his change and wanted to know the source, about which he was understandably excited to tell them. That may be the good news.
   The bad news, however, was that the word about the cleansing spread abroad to the extent that Jesus was not able to enter the city because of the crowds of people gathering around him, so he stayed in “desert places.” The word used here appears throughout the New Testament to describe places outside the city: solitary places, lonely places, and unpopulated places, etc. But that only meant that “they were coming to him from everywhere.”
   The good news: the same grace that cleansed the leprous man is still available. The bad news: some still choose to reject it. Directory