LEPROSY
It’s difficult to communicate how desperate life was for someone who suffered from leprosy in Jesus’ day. The body was ravaged with a disease that killed the nerves in the extremities, and so terrible injuries were self-inflicted; if your pain response is dulled, you won’t know when to withdraw your hand if the fire is hot, or can easily crush your fingers if you hold a tool too tightly. Emotionally, you lived in crippling isolation, not welcome anywhere (because your presence would render a house unclean), not touched by anyone. You had to keep a regulated distance, and yell out ‘unclean, unclean!’ when approaching others. On top of all of this, there were some who believed that your condition was the result of some personal sin on your part, so whispers and speculation followed you.
But as we saw today, Jesus cared for this man - in his telling of the story, Mark tells us Jesus was compelled by compassion, and placed his hand upon him. Far more than a fleeting touch, the wording means ‘to take hold of’.
What a revolution took place in that moment. The disease was banished, the damaged stubs became healthy limbs with fresh skin. Lengthy celebrations would begin - if a leper declared that he was healed, the claim was carefully reviewed by a priest, an elaborate series of sacrifices were offered, and then eight days of celebration followed. The contrast between life for the person who suffered leprosy before and after healing was like night and day.
It’s a metaphor for the way we were: Scripture says that we were dead in our sins, enemies of God, aliens to grace. But now, in the Christ who has reached out his hands to embrace us, as the old hymn says, we are ‘ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven’. Home at last.