Jesus heals the leper
My dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ,
As we all know, many diseases are contagious, and for the people of the ancient world there were few ways for controlling the spread of disease. Epidemics often wiped out whole towns. The most effect means for controlling the spread of disease was isolation and separation. The infected person was banished from the community, and often forced to wear distinctive cloths or to make some kind of noise to warn people to stay away. Of course this was not done out of meanness, but rather to protect society. One of the most frightening, and deadly of diseases that often threatened the ancient world was leprosy. It was so very contagious, and seeing body parts literally being eaten away was just horrifying. And almost any kind of skin disease would have been considered leprosy. The only thing that could be done in most cases was to send the inflicted to live in caves with others with the disease. This meant that the sick not only had to suffer the symptoms of their illness, but they were also cut off from their loved ones.
At one time in St. Francis of Assisi’s life, he had a terrible fear of lepers. Then one day when he was travelling, he heard the warning bell that lepers were required to ring in the Middle Ages. When a leper emerged from a clump of trees, St. Francis saw that he was horribly disfigured. Half of his nose had been eaten away; his hands were stubs without fingers and his lips were oozing white pus. Instead of giving in to his fears, Francis ran forward, embraced the leper and kissed him. Francis' life was never the same after that episode. He had found a new relationship with God, a new sensitivity to others, and a new energy for his ministry.
To the Hebrews leprosy was not only a most dreaded natural disease, it was also popularly seen as divine chastisement. The story of Miriam, sister of Moses, who was struck with leprosy as a result of her misconduct in the book of Numbers chapter 12,as well as that of Job who was afflicted with a leprosy-like skin disease reinforced their view of leprosy as divine punishment for sin.
According to ancient Hebrew belief, physical contact with lepers rendered a person unclean. Against this background the gesture of Jesus who stretches out his hand and physically touches the leper becomes unthinkable.
And, of course, we know that with the cure, this former leper returned to the community from which he had been banished. Truly, then, did this healing have a tri-fold effect: the physical disease was cured; the man was restored to the human community; and he came to faith in Jesus.
Martin was a young soldier in the Roman army. Elegantly dressed, he was mounted on his horse one day when he was accosted by a leper begging for alms. The sight and the stench of rotting flesh was so repulsive to the sensitivities of young Martin that his first instincts were to ride off on his horse. But something inside him made his walk up to the beggar. Since all he had was his military coat, he cut it in two and gave half to the leper while he wrapped himself with the other half. It was a very cold winter day. That night in his dream, he saw Christ clothed in a half coat saying to the angels around his throne, “Martin has clothed me with his garment.” This event was the turning point in the life of him who was to become St Martin of Tours.
My dear brothers and sisters, the gospel invites us to go deeper, leprosy becoming symbolic of any condition that estranges us from others and, hence, from God. Leprosy has always been a clear image of sin. It is contagious, disfiguring, repulsive, cuts us off from the community, and causes death. We can see our bodies but we can’t see our souls. Leprosy we can see; sin remains invisible.
We have a lot to learn from this poor Leper. The leper was taking the risk of coming out in public. The man approached Jesus… his trust was so great his desire to be made whole so strong, that he took a great risk and went right up to Jesus.
His words were not words of lament or “woe is me”. He didn’t ask Jesus why me? Why do I have to suffer this horrible disease, Rather he simply made a profession of faith. He trusted Jesus. He trusted God so much that he even let Jesus decide if it was in his best interest to be healed. The leper was a man of faith, a man who had worked through all of the suffering and isolation he had and still believed.
Even terrible disease of leprosy could not deprive him of his faith of his ability to hope.
He didn’t let his circumstances take away his ability to hope or his ability to believe. As much as he suffered, he still was able to trust in God’s love and God’s mercy for him.
He did not allow self-pity to take away his ability to hope. If that had been the response of the Leper he never would have been healed because he never would have asked.
The challenge for us today, my dear brothers and sisters, is to restore the lepers to the human community. And that will begin with me reaching out to someone probably very near whom I would really rather avoid.
There are still so many people we isolate today… you know they are the ones we pass on the street and avoid making eye contact with, they are the ones whose calls we never take, they are the ones we just are not willing to touch or become involved with. They are the ones whom we always blame that we don’t understand.
Remember what Peyton Conway March said “ There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.