Some versions of the Bible translate “moved with pity” (or compassion) as “Jesus was indignant” due to one of those textual variants that keep Biblical scholars in business. Compassion is the most accepted translation but there may be some benefit in thinking that the desperation of the leper produced a visceral response in Jesus. He felt it in his gut, which is where the Greeks located compassion (splagcnizomai lit. moved in one’s bowels) “I do choose. Be made clean!” is driven by Jesus getting hit in the gut by the beggar at his feet. So Yeshua “God saves” is indignant when confronted by the pain and suffering and isolation and desperate need of one who is unclean and Jesus has to do something about it. The leper made well doesn’t have time for the priests or whatever Moses commanded because the same passion that drove Jesus to heal now possesses the made clean leper to spread the word. We too are to possess that indignant compassion that drives us to do something about the suffering in our world so that Jesus no longer stays hidden in our houses of worship but is brought openly into our everyday everywhere.
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