lep·ro·sy

lep·ro·sy

/ˈleprəsē/

noun– a contagious disease that affects the skin, mucous membranes, and nerves, causing discoloration and lumps on the skin and, in severe cases, disfigurement and deformities. 

I was reading in Mark 1 out of my Bible this morning and I came across the story of the man with leprosy.  I have heard this story a million times, but I have never HEARD this story until this morning.  The story goes: A man with leprosy begged Jesus to heal him and Jesus felt compassion for him and healed him. Pretty basic, but I never understood the meaning and impact behind this story, but first, it’s important to understand leprosy. 

            Leprosy is a serious disease!  I have always understood it to be so bad that body parts and flesh just fall off of a person, but think about it, look at the definition above.  Leprosy is a “contagious disease that affects the skin, mucous membranes, nerves causing discoloration, disfigurement and deformities.”  This sounds a lot like how sin works, doesn’t it? It starts at the surface level, “the skin”, and it makes us think about it or consider it.  Then it starts to get into our membranes, and we act on it and maybe we think “it’s just once”, or we consider that it’s not “that bad”, “I’m not breaking a big sin”, or “its ok because it’s not exactly wrong”. Finally, the worst one “it feels good so it has to be ok”.  Once we have allowed it to pass this phase it takes over our nerves, our brains, our whole bodies and it becomes our focus.  It consumes us. Either we are trying to find ways to fill it or we are eaten away with guilt and try to hide it, just like leprosy, it seems to cover our body and we feel like everyone can see it.  We try to justify it, “it’s not that bad, it hasn’t taken over every part of me and things aren’t falling off yet”.  Most important, it brings us into our own personal hell, our own prison.  We are consumed with it.  We can’t escape it.  And then Jesus walks in….  We beg Him to help us, to forgive us, to cleanse us from the guilt, the prison, the scars and discoloration.  Mark 1:41 says Jesus was, “moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him.”  Jesus was willing to free the man with leprosy to heal him of his prison, just like us!  He wants to free us from our “leprosy” and bring us to a place of wanting to run through the streets proclaiming we are healed. 

            Another important aspect to keep in mind, leprosy was a huge part of society.  If you had it, and it was visible, you were banished, avoided, and shunned by the world.  No one wanted to associate with you and didn’t even consider you as human.  Understanding this, leprosy is just like our modern-day sins.  When we dive into our worldly desires, we become (whether perceived or real) isolated from everyone else.  We feel like everyone is looking down on us and we don’t want to interact with anyone that makes us feel judged or less then because of it.  It is so important for us to think of this as we consider Jesus’ response to the man with leprosy.  He loved him, cried for him, and gave him what he needed.  THAT is what we should be doing!  That is where we should all be with each other!  None of us are without “leprosy”.  None of us can say we are completely clean, other than Jesus, and he chose to use his cleanness to love the rest of us, to give us the ultimate sacrifice.  So why do we think that judgement, and hate will bring about anything but more guilt, shame, and isolation.  How do we judge and hate someone to finding love?  It doesn’t work!  It doesn’t matter what another person has piled on their spirit, it is never “worse” than what we have piled on ours.  We have to follow Jesus example if we truly want to help our fellow man.  Jesus listened and heard the man.  He didn’t try to one up or wait for his turn to speak, he HEARD the man, his pain, his fear, his anguish, and by truly hearing he was able to truly understand and feel love and compassion for him.  How many times have you stopped to hear someone and not try to fit in your story, or one up, or even rush to the next task?  I know this is a practice for me daily.  After this, Jesus helped the man.  He healed him, he offered what he had to give him.  For us, that may be the healing power of Jesus, or it may just be someone accepting them.  Acceptance from another human being can be more powerful then almost anything.  Just knowing you are worthy of another human being to love you even though you feel alone, can change your entire perspective and trajectory. This acceptance is true love.  After all, we all have our prison cells, even if we have been taken out and freed, we know how it feels to be locked in one. 

            As I consider all of this, I just want you to walk away with this understanding. No matter what our “leprosy” we all deserve to be loved and accepted and we are all responsible to provide that love and acceptance to everyone.  None of us are better or worse than anyone else.  Focus on listening and hearing and open your heart to loving.  We can change the world with our compassion faster then our hate.  God loves us all no matter what we have done.  Lets love each other the same.