A leper approaches Jesus. He kneels before Jesus, begging,
“If you choose, you can make me clean.”
Lepers were outcasts. They were Jews considered unclean and
forbidden from entering every place people gathered. Keeping them outside of
community was one way to keep the rest of the people well.
Jesus has healed those in the inner circles of the Jewish
towns around Galilee. He has demonstrated power and authority in the world of
Jewish men and women in community.
Now he is moved to pity one who is excluded from that
community. Jesus is moved with pity for one who lives on the fringe. And he
does the unthinkable. Jesus reaches out and touches him. He risks his own
health and status in the community to restore the leper to all that has been
lost.
Upon touching him, Jesus warns him not to tell anyone, but
to follow the community’s procedure for being restored to fellowship. He tells
him to submit to examination by the priest and follow the rituals for
cleansing. Instead, he goes out and proclaims what Jesus has done to anyone and
everyone who will listen.
The leper’s proclamation makes it impossible for Jesus to
enter any town. There are two possible reasons for this: First, he may be
unable to enter any town because he is so popular that everyone flocks to him
to hear his teaching and be healed and restored. The other possibility is that touching
the leper had made him unclean.
People flock to him anyway, even if he is unclean. They simply don’t care. He stays out in
the country, like one unclean, whether he is or not, and people come to him
from every direction. He has power and authority over everything in their
religious world and they want what he has to offer.
Text for the day:
Things to think
about:
Every religion has rules that keep people in and out. Jesus
lives in both places.
Things to do:
Who do you consider outcast? Who isn’t welcome in your
church? Have a conversation with someone who comes to mind. Ask them to share
their story with you. Can you withhold your judgments?
Jesus,
help me break the rules for someone else’s sake.
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