H. L. Sheppard
Bulletin
June 2008
UNCLEAN!
“STOP!” “Don’t go near those men,” the horrified little Jewish mother would cry out to her children.
In abject shame they shuffled along, head hung, gazing downward, painstakingly avoiding direct eye contact with other human beings. From the moment they were pronounced unclean they had been the insufferable outcasts of society. It seemed that there was no limit to the weight of cruelty heaped upon the stooped shoulders of the already afflicted.
Wasn’t it enough that many of them were missing portions of an ear, a nose a hand? Could the sorrow of being physically maimed and rendered incapable of gainful employment be somehow made worse? They could not return to a pleasant home and a lovely wife. They could not hold yearning children that they had watched grow from infancy to first grade. Instead, the kids would stand in the doorway of the home and watch while dad waved at them from a distance with his “good” hand.
But yes, it could get worse. Mosaic law required that those stricken with the dreaded disease of leprosy call out loudly: “Unclean, unclean unclean!” The sad housewife, the pitiful children of the leper could only observe as husband, dad, yielded himself to the painful denigration of a very public humiliation.
Leprosy stigmatized a man. It told the people around him that he was a potential danger to them, a hazard to their well-being. In Bible days there was no cure for Leprosy. It is a chronic infectious disease that primarily attacks the peripheral nerves. Ultimately, the flesh around the infected area dies & the victim loses fingers, toes, ears and other extraneous body parts.
Leprosy was a lonely disease. It isolated its victim from those he loved then insulated him from feeling loved. It was a no win affliction, a death sentence. Once the white spots appeared on the skin, a required visit to the priest’s house was necessitated. If the priest pronounced the white spots leprosy, the carrier was doomed to a life of separation and dissipation. No one hired lepers. They became beggars. Charitable offerings were not placed in their hands; they were thrown at them. No one would risk getting close enough to become infected.
Lev 13:45 And the leper in whom the plague is, his
clothes shall be rent, and his head bare, and he shall put a covering upon his
upper lip, and shall cry, Unclean, unclean.
Lev
The loneliness must have been almost unbearable. Separated from family, from friends from community the leper’s affliction confined him to a life of solitude and emptiness.
Society looked upon the leper with fear and disdain. People always fear what they do not understand. Parents would tell children to avoid the Leper. His story was that of the “Boogey-Man” “Slew-foot” the “Hook-Man” the “Juvenile Lady”…Don’t go near the Leper they would say, “Or your nose will fall off!”
Mark 1:40 And there came a leper to him, beseeching
him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean.
Mark 1:41 And Jesus, moved
with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith
unto him, I will; be thou clean.
Mark 1:42 And as soon as
he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
And so it was with horror that the
Apostles looked on as the Leper approached Jesus that day in
His Apostles learned a vitally important lesson that day: Jesus loves even lepers.
Have you been scarred by the experiences of your life? Has your character been stained by the choices you’ve made? Are pieces of your confidence in yourself and others missing? Has your life been pummeled enough by sinfulness? You are not beyond hope. You are not beyond God’s Grace.
No matter what your sin…Jesus
will touch you, heal you forgive you.
LET GOD BE GOD!