{"id":3411,"date":"2024-02-20T07:39:35","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T12:39:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3411"},"modified":"2024-02-20T07:39:35","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T12:39:35","slug":"a-leper-approaches-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/20\/a-leper-approaches-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"A Leper Approaches Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
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Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at the miracles of Jesus \u2013 his spectacular displays of supernatural power that are reported in the Gospels.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em>
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Touch matters.
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Laura Guerrero, co-author of Close Encounters: Communication in Relationships<\/em>, cites recent studies that even a seemingly insignificant touch from a restaurant server often yields a bigger tip.\u00a0 People shop longer and make more purchases if they are touched by a store greeter.\u00a0 And strangers are more likely to say Yes to a request for help if there\u2019s even the briefest physical contact.
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She notes that human beings are incurably social.\u00a0 \u201cLots of times in these studies people don\u2019t even remember being touched.\u00a0 They just feel there\u2019s a connection, they feel that they like that person more.\u201d
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That seems to ring true in the National Basketball Association as well.\u00a0 Psychologist Michael Kraus studied the degree to which NBA players shared chest bumps, high fives, and backslaps throughout a recent season, and noted a higher correlation of success for the higher-touch teams.\u00a0
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Whenever we\u2019re plunged into grief or distress, physical contact is more than just comforting.\u00a0 It helps provide deep healing for our souls.
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But the most compelling confirmation of the power of touch is what happens when physical contact is taken away.\u00a0
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Multiple studies have confirmed that solitary confinement of prisoners is far more damaging than once assumed.\u00a0 Forcing someone to go for extended periods without hearing, seeing, or touching other human beings has lasting negative impacts on both body and mind.\u00a0 Nelson Mandela, who spent years in solitary while unjustly imprisoned by the South African government, recalled that his isolation was the hardest thing to bear.\u00a0
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During Bible times, one category of individuals in particular was forced to live without the blessings of touch.
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That was the leper.\u00a0
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Leprosy (or Hansen\u2019s disease, as it is commonly known today) cast its victims into a living hell.\u00a0 Progressive neurological damage slowly rendered one\u2019s extremities, then limbs, and finally major organs non-functional.\u00a0 The ulcerations that accompanied this painfully slow \u201cdeath by inches\u201d were often frightening to behold.\u00a0 A leper might linger as long as 30 years after diagnosis.\u00a0 But during that entire time, from the point of view of the community, he or she was a \u201cdead man walking.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
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Lepers were considered cursed by God.\u00a0 They were spiritually unclean, and contact with them (of any kind) rendered an uninfected person unclean as well.\u00a0
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No leper could enter a walled city, let alone Jerusalem.\u00a0 Temple worship was absolutely forbidden.\u00a0 Lepers were required by law to dishevel their clothing and hair as a heads-up to others concerning their condition.
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Scottish Bible scholar William Barclay notes that they were required to stay at least six feet away from other people, but if the wind was blowing from behind them, that distance had to be 150 feet. \u00a0When lepers saw \u201cnormal\u201d people approaching, they had to get off the path and shout \u201cunclean, unclean!\u201d as a warning.\u00a0
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If a leper did nothing more than put his head inside a house, the entire house became unclean, all the way up to the roof beams.\u00a0 One rabbi refused to eat an egg that had been purchased on a street where a leper had recently walked.
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Incredibly, it was illegal even to offer a word of greeting to a leprous man or woman. \u00a0They were the most rejected of human beings.\u00a0 As late as the Middle Ages, priests were known to bring lepers into the sanctuary and to read the burial service over their very-much-still-alive bodies.\u00a0
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That\u2019s because, for all intents and purposes, lepers were already dead<\/em>.
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Which brings us to Jesus\u2019 first miracle in the Gospel of Matthew.\u00a0
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Imagine what it was like to be the leper who encounters him in Matthew 8:1-4.\u00a0 He can neither touch nor be touched.\u00a0 If he is a husband or father, he is forbidden by law to embrace his own family members for the rest of his life.\u00a0 In fact, his present behavior, as stated in verse two, is completely out of bounds: \u201c\u2026he came to him.\u201d\u00a0 Lepers were not allowed to approach others.
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In fact, lepers knew what awaited them if they dared to close the distance to other people.\u00a0 Rabbis boasted about the stones they threw at lepers.\u00a0 Instead of a remedy for this curse, they offered only condemnation.
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Going on in verse two, the leper kneels before Jesus. \u201cLord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.\u201d\u00a0
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Bible scholar Dale Bruner dissects this startling request.\u00a0 First, there is a submissive spirit: He calls Jesus \u201cLord.\u201d\u00a0 Second, there is respect: \u201cif you are willing.\u201d\u00a0 There are no demands here, no sense of entitlement.\u00a0 As Bruner puts it, \u201cFaith does not honestly know if the Lord in every case intends to heal.\u201d\u00a0 And third, there is confidence in Jesus\u2019 competence: \u201cYou can make me clean.\u201d\u00a0
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What will Jesus do?
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He can stand at a distance and speak some authoritative words of healing.\u00a0 In fact, that\u2019s the very thing he will do on several occasions in the future.\u00a0 But, as Bruner notes, that would make this an entirely different kind of miracle.
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Instead, he steps forward.\u00a0 He breeches the societal walls that have been erected to keep lepers in their place \u2013 a place beyond human touch. \u201cHe stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, \u2018I am willing; be clean!\u2019\u201d (v. 3).\u00a0
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It was accepted wisdom that this physical transaction could have only one outcome: Uncleanness would flow from the leper to Jesus.\u00a0 The teacher from Nazareth was now defiled.\u00a0
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But the leper\u2019s ulcerations vanish.\u00a0 His gnarled body is restored.\u00a0 The one way street is actually oriented in the other direction: Cleansing, healing, and hope are flowing from Jesus to the leper.\u00a0 The curse has been removed.\u00a0 His life can begin again.\u00a0
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Here\u2019s how the filmmakers behind The Chosen<\/em> decided to depict this encounter:\u00a0 Jesus heals the Leper – The Chosen (youtube.com)<\/a>
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Perhaps you\u2019ve imagined yourself as beyond the touch or compassion of other people.
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You\u2019ve concluded that you\u2019re infected with an incurable spiritual disease.\u00a0 Because of the affair.\u00a0 Or the divorce.\u00a0 Or the prison sentence.\u00a0 Or the discovery of the websites you\u2019ve been visiting.\u00a0 Or the shame of failing to be the person you know you ought to be.\u00a0
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You cannot imagine going to church.\u00a0 Or opening up the secrets of your heart to most of the Christians you know.\u00a0 It wouldn\u2019t surprise you if they blew your cover.\u00a0 Or even threw stones at you.
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But perhaps you can imagine going to Jesus.
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You feel unworthy of being touched.\u00a0 But you are not beyond his<\/u><\/em> touch.
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The One who broke all the rules in order to bring wholeness to lepers is still in the business of touching the untouchable.
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Even you and me.\u00a0<\/em>

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Every day during this season of Lent we\u2019re looking at the miracles of Jesus \u2013 his spectacular displays of supernatural power that are reported in the Gospels.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Touch matters.\u00a0Laura Guerrero, co-author of Close Encounters: Communication in Relationships, cites recent studies that even a seemingly insignificant touch from a restaurant server often yields… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[693,11],"class_list":["post-3411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-lepers","tag-miracles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3413,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411\/revisions\/3413"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}