St Francis and the leper

When I see an operation on television, where a scalpel is about to cut into flesh, I cannot stand it. I’m far too squeamish to watch. I have to look away.

I know I would be far worse if I were actually in an operating theatre, seeing everything in colour with all the frightening sounds and smells…

I wonder if this to some extent is how people at the time of Jesus viewed lepers with open wounds and sores!

No, I think their reaction would have been ten thousand times worse. Not only could people not bear to look into the face of a leper, not only were they nauseated at the smell of his putrefying flesh but they were absolutely terrified of catching the disease themselves.

In this gospel story today, I imagine a deserted scene; one minute Jesus is preaching to people, then a leper approaches and there’s only one who remained behind! Jesus!

 No-one else is mentioned being there in the story, as Jesus heals and restores him.

What is happening here is one of the greatest miracles ever in all Israel’s History for the last time a leper was healed in Israel was through the prophet Elijah, when the commander of Syria’s army, Namaan was cleansed of Leprosy, but his story says just as much about his pride as his healing.

Jesus was doing what we would call headline news!!

The time of God visiting his people, in order to establish his kingdom, had surely arrived. God in Jesus was reversing the curse, of which one aspect was disease.

In a way the leper came with an element of faith in Jesus. He did not say, ‘If you can or If you are able to heal me’… he says ‘If you are willing or if you choose to…indicating his belief ALREADY in Jesus’ power and  ability.

‘What he was saying was more, ‘Would someone as important and powerful as yourself, be willing to approach such a one as me? Would you be willing to come down to my level so to speak at great risk to yourself? Would you be willing to risk walking in my shoes? (Here we have a leper (quite the opposite to Naaman) who is lowly and humble.)

The leper was indeed breaking the law. This leper had no right to speak to him, never mind approach Jesus. You could even say what a selfish request, after all Jesus could have caught something.

(I wonder if any of you have seen pictures of leprosy? Such a horrific disease, but did you know it could be treated today, and controlled by antibiotics, but the money is not available for all?)

A leper was supposed to wear rent or torn clothing, and signify his presence with a bell or something else which would alert others to his presence.

Once a person contracted leprosy, they were banished to a colony of others like themselves, but who were in a far more advanced stage of illness than they,  and it is said that these communes were horrific places to be, not only because of shortages of food and drink, but also because of reports of  murder, theft and abuse.

I suppose one had to take food wherever and whenever you could get it, you wouldn’t think twice about snatching it away from someone whose kind relative had left food out in the open. All the other lepers could well have come swooping like seagulls fighting and screeching over one scrap of fish.

These places were more like hell on earth.

A leper’s lot was not a happy one. (Medieval ‘squint holes)

And can you imagine the mental anguish of a leper once they discovered the first signs of their disease? Not to be able to hold or be held; to touch or be touched, not to have contact anymore with sons and daughters? Not to know comfort when freezing or frightened; lonely and hungry.

To look at oneself in a stream or river and see a hideous monster with staring eyes, suppurating flesh, pustules and missing limbs looking back at you must have been so traumatic?

But all of these horrific facts highlight the very nature of Christ, who looked on the leper, and was so filled with compassion that he was not afraid. He reached out his hand and touched him!.

Jesus met his desperation with understanding.

What a Saviour!

What a hero!

I suppose Jesus was breaking the law here too, as one was not supposed to touch the diseased or the dead, otherwise they would be classed as unclean.

People classed as unclean who had touched the dead had to go through special cleansing ceremonies…which is probably why the priest in the story of the Good Samaritan avoided helping the man who’d been attacked by robbers, and passed by on the other side!

Having healed the man, Jesus sent him off to fulfil the prescribed ritual set out for purification, and so Jesus did not defy Jewish law, but submitted to it.

He told him to go show himself to the priests and to make the offering that Moses commanded to be done. This would be at the temple and we can only deduce that Jesus was using the healing of the leper as a testimony to those who claim to represent God as His priests. If they allowed Him to be examined and to offer the sacrifice then they also had to acknowledge he had been healed by the power of God and so testify that to the people.

He also told the man not to tell anyone about his healing…but who could keep good news like that in?

To be able to live a normal life again  . . .!

 I wonder how we would have reacted,

With an ‘Ah thanks very much’ or  a ‘WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!’

Jesus compassion, his wisdom, his power were all at work here.

But because the man couldn’t keep the good news to himself , it meant that Jesus mission thereafter was hindered.

Many of you will be familiar with the life of St Francis, it is told that a turning point came in his life when he embraced a leper coming along the road towards him.

Francis discovered his true self in that moment of embrace, when he was able to love that which he DESPISED AND FEARED. Strangely enough when he looked round to see the leper leave, he was no longer there. Francis wondered this had been a test, and the leper had been Christ himself?

What is it we fear and despise in today’s world?

We tell ourselves we would have reacted differently to the crowd had we been there in Jesus time, but would we?

How do we greet today’s equivalent of the LEPER or should I say those who are marginalized … outcast, unloved, looked down upon and rejected?

And what reason is it that we turn our backs. Is it that we are afraid, is it that we secretly despise them in our hearts?

Do we fear what everyone will think or say, should we even associate with the like?

Who are the diseased, the degenerate, the sinful whom we avoid today?

Jesus reached out and touched… and listened to…and accepted the child within each human person and through his love the door was wide open to ministry.

True story

A local Parochial Church Council were once having the most furious argument, late one evening when everyone was tired and past their best. All were up in arms and yelling at each other.

One dear old lady, who had been a member for many years, suddenly begged leave to speak. Putting her knitting to one side, she stood rather shakily to put her question…

In a rather quiet but sincere voice she asked,

‘What would our dear Lord Jesus have said and done in this instance?

They were furious and rounded on her shouting,

‘What’s HE got to do with it?’

And one by one they came to order, suddenly realizing what they had said

One of the best line of scripture before us today is the one in the story of the healing of Naaman, which says:-

If he had asked you to do something really difficult , would you not have done it?

Go on climb Ben Nevis for me!  OK

Go on run in the Great North Run next time around, walk if you have to! OK

Learn to play the piano by this time next year. OK

Jesus says to us, I want you to love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you!

Our response? Woah! Hang on there! Just a minute!

OT pleads, ‘Don’t forget to welcome strangers…’ When an alien lives in your land, do not ill treat him. Love him as you love yourself, you were once aliens in Egypt.

What is our response?

You must be joking!

Who are our own particular lepers, whom do we fear?

God knows our hearts!

Each time we love the unlovely it’s a breakthrough: a turning point!