Our world is pretty good at creating lepers.
Of course when I speak of lepers, I am not speaking of the skin disease. I am speaking of people who, for whatever reason, are forced to the fringes of society.
We can all think of people fit this description. Maybe someone who says awkward things and no one really has the energy to hang around. Or maybe they have a way of life which we want nothing to do with and so keep them at arm's length.
Smokers might be an example of the modern day leper. No longer allowed to light up in pubs or crowded places, you will often see smokers leave the group of people they are with and walk as far from them as possible.
One might argue COVID seems to be forcing us to consider who will and will not be the new class of lepers as we grapple with the question who will be allowed to freely participate in society, and on what terms.
It may be that you have found yourself on the outer, treated like a leper, when what you have needed is to be embraced. Or rejected when you really needed to be helped and healed.
One of the most famous stories in the Bible is of Jesus healing a man with Leprosy. In the first chapters of Marks's gospel account we read that this man "came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, 'If you are willing, you can make me clean'."
To get some idea about just how much of an outsider this man would have been, consider that his disease has become synonymous with being shunned.
Had this taken place in the middle ages, the man might have been required to carry a pair of wooden clappers with him so that those nearby could hear him coming, and avoid him if they so desired.
And if we think that social distancing is a new phenomenon, think again. In that time and place, lepers would have been expected to live outside of the towns and cities lest they risked infecting others in the community.
So as this man approaches Jesus there is only one sane response. To keep as much distance from this leper as possible.
Yet Jesus does the opposite. Not only is he filled with compassion for this man, he shows his willingness to accept him by touching him!
Touching a leper is the last thing you would want to do. It seems the obvious way to catch an infection skin disease. It's the whole reason these people were shunned!
Yet Jesus is willing to touch him, symbolically taking the disease upon himself to cleanse the man.
Wonderfully, Jesus's compassion leads him not to ignore this man's sickness and need for healing. Instead he embraces the man as he was, then heals him of what was not right in his life.
This is beautiful news for us who might feel at times like modern day lepers. However broken we might be. However much those around us may have rejected us. We can see in Jesus one who accepts any who would come to him.
Indeed, this is the very point of his death on the cross! Just as Jesus healed the leper by taking his sickness upon himself, Jesus earned healing for us by taking upon himself what falls short in our own lives.
Wonderfully, Jesus's compassion leads him not to ignore our sin and need for healing. Instead he embraces us as we are, then over time heals us of what was not right in our lives.
We need only to come to him as the leper did that day, and acknowledge, "If You are willing, You can make me clean."
