I’m just like that leper

I have been a woman full of life’s issues, it is like issues more than goodness follow me all the days of my life. I have lived a life where I most likely hear about things that hurt and discourage — from our home to our church. I got so tired of being sick-and-tired. I have been kept silent by this spiritual disease for years and unknowingly, it has been consuming every part of me. This has been isolating me from Jesus and from the people he has given me. I have thought that no one understands, not unless they are willing to go near me and know my story without any judgment nor condemnation. I have always tried to be contented with grace and forgiveness, but to really step out in light from darkness… that is something really hard.  Thus, we are still living in a society where you can become more known by what is wrong with you than who you have the potential to be — until you no longer know your own name and no longer have a real sense of your self because these issues have consumed your identity already.

I am just like the leper who Jesus have healed.

Mark 1:40 ESV

40 A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said.

41 Moved with compassion,[i] Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” 42 Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. 43 Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning: 44 “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy.[j] This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.”

45 But the man went and spread the word, proclaiming to everyone what had happened. As a result, large crowds soon surrounded Jesus, and he couldn’t publicly enter a town anywhere. He had to stay out in the secluded places, but people from everywhere kept coming to him.

This leper was given no name but we know about his issue which is leprosy, a disease for which there is no cure. His identity has been completely consumed by his issues. He has been  relegated, confined, quarantined to the outside corners of society prohibited from human relationships which caused him to dwell in desolation.

Leviticus 13

45 “Now the leper on whom the sore is, his clothes shall be torn and his head bare; and he shall cover his mustache, and cry, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ 46 He shall be unclean. All the days he has the sore he shall be unclean. He is unclean, and he shall dwell alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

This is how miserable life could be for a leper. Now, this man with leprosy may want to listen to the sermons in the synagogues however, he must stay behind the screens  and at least six feet from anyone. A disfigured man, covered with sores from head to toe, dressed in tattered clothing, his face partly covered, shadowing the edge of the streets so as to avoid people, is often shunned and ostracized. He is unclean and he has been prohibited to go near to those who are clean for they will be also unclean just like him. No one dares to come close. Why? Because scientifically, leprosy is contagious and infectious. To touch a leper defiled a Jew almost as much as touching a dead person. In a sense, leprosy was a sign of God’s disfavor. People would not even dare to look at this leper even so walking close to him. He could have just waited for death to take him over.

But… this man covered with leprosy came to Jesus, the One who has the name above all names. He has this fervent desire to come close to Jesus despite of the fact that he is going to violate the law separating the clean from unclean.  He wants to be clean! Just like me, this leper might have been so tired-and-sick of living in despair, pain, sickness, isolation and misery. He believes that if Jesus can drive out demons and heal many incurable diseases, why not him?!

And for us to grasp the risk that this leper has taken, there are possibilities that people might throw him dirt or worst beat him and stone him to death at once if he is twice six feet distant to anyone who is clean. If Jesus can heal him, he must risk any punishment, however severe. He must come to Jesus for healing! His actions were like, “I’d rather die trying to be whole than to die half-hearted. I’d rather take the risk to be healed than the risk of dying without any costs at all”.

He desired to come to Jesus and be healed.

He stared fixedly upon Jesus in a distance away from the crowd.. 

He rushes across the street to where Jesus is standing.

He falls down with his face to the dust before him.

He asked Jesus first if he is willing to clean and heal him. 

You can almost hear a gasp from the crowd around Jesus, with hands to their mouths and instinctively taking step backwards.

But Jesus is so amazing and pronounced the words one almost-dead for years would want to hear in return, “I AM WILLING”, “BE HEALED!”.

With desperation, faith, passion, humility and submission, this leper was able to receive healing from Jesus no matter how difficult the process could be.