Untouchables
Notes
Transcript
Pox Party
Pox Party
When I was a kid my parents waited until one of my friends had chicken pox, and then we all got together for a pox party. The actual intention was for us to get chicken pox! The theory was that it was better to get it as children than as adults… and there wasn’t a vaccine for chicken pox until 1995. Good times.
Getting “chicken pox” as an adult is called something else. Shingles. It’s not great. That was the most PC picture I could fine. Who came to church hoping to look at rashes today?
I got a whole slideshow, ready? Gross. Just kidding. Moving on.
Jesus and the Leper
Jesus and the Leper
Jesus has finished the sermon on the mount. What does he do first? When could follow on that incredible truth bomb.
1 When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
Maybe he was off listening to the whole sermon? Hiding, likely, as he would be unwelcome and it would be unhealthy and illegal for him to approach to closely.
What is Leprosy?
What is Leprosy?
This is current for me. I have this skin rash on my face. What is it? Nobody knows. It’s on the left side of my face, so the livestream can’t see it.
Could be nothing… but it’s been there for like two years now.
I was going to see the doctor about it, but then something came up and… I’ll see them at some point.
Maybe it’s leprosy? Let’s find out:
1 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,
2 “When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a case of leprous disease on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests,
3 and the priest shall examine the diseased area on the skin of his body. And if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a case of leprous disease. When the priest has examined him, he shall pronounce him unclean.
4 But if the spot is white in the skin of his body and appears no deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall shut up the diseased person for seven days.
5 And the priest shall examine him on the seventh day, and if in his eyes the disease is checked and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall shut him up for another seven days.
6 And the priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if the diseased area has faded and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only an eruption. And he shall wash his clothes and be clean.
All these second chances, chances for whatever it to heal… but if it doesn’t, if there’s still white swelling and raw flesh, well...
11 it is a chronic leprous disease in the skin of his body, and the priest shall pronounce him unclean. He shall not shut him up, for he is unclean.
Now, this is not a medical diagnosis. What we call leprosy nowadays, also called Hansen’s disease, is a highly contagious bacteria spread by touch or airborne. It kills the nerves in the extremities.
I had one friend when learning about this thought Leprosy was a super power. With no pain you could fight the bad-guys with NO FEAR. Sure… but you still take all the damage, and you don’t realize it. You grab the hot pan, nothing tells you your skin is burning, so you just hold on and burn down to the bone.
You step and snap your ankle and just start walking crooked.
Those wounds add up and, this is gross, rats come at night and eat at your wounds and you don’t feel it, so you don’t wake up, and they eat your fingers and toes.
You are broken and disfigured and doomed to death.
From extremes like Hansen’s disease, to something mild like “bad eczema” and a hundred other forms of disease that showed up with symptoms on the skin… how do you protect hundreds of thousands of people living in close quarters? At this moment, camping in close quarters?
For the safety of all, you have to isolate the infected.
The priest declares them unclean and untouchable.
This is an act of grace to the nation.
Long before there was scientific knowledge and medical treatment for these, God’s law gave very effective guidance and protection. Leviticus has rules around isolation.
This wasn’t just ahead of its time 1300 years before Jesus, this was STILL ahead of its time 1300 years after Jesus in the time of the black plague. Many people blamed the Jews for the plague because they weren’t getting sick as much, and there communities were largely protected because they isolated early and stayed away from dead bodies. It’s as if God knows how all this works and gave His laws for our good.
But… not so good for the untouchable:
45 “The leprous person who has the disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head hang loose, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’
46 He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease. He is unclean. He shall live alone. His dwelling shall be outside the camp.
“Cover his upper lip??” Like… a finger mustache??? That’s wild. Probably cover his mouth including his upper lip, just like we were taught long ago to cover a sneeze. Long before germ theory, God knows how this stuff spreads.
“Unclean, unclean!” So people could stay away.
Think of folks in the Covid ward on ventilators, no visitors allowed, except without the nurses and folks giving medical care… and without the air conditioning and comfortable beds. This is effectively turned out on the street… and your home and possessions likely declared unclean as well and burned.
That is the leper.
Not just a sick man. An isolated and ostracized man. Someone who had lost his family, his friends, his community, his religious practice (he wasn’t welcome in the temple or the synagogue)… he’s lost everything. Who knows for how long he has been living in lonely broken disease.
If You are Willing
If You are Willing
2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
Great theology!
Calling Jesus “Lord”… good start.
But he doesn’t say “heal me if you can.” That’s a more normal and expected question. That would be an appropriate question if you were asking me for help. “Is there anything you can do to help?”
The leper takes Jesus power for granted. He can make him clean, if he wills. These are Kingdom words. “Not my will, but yours be done.” And if this is the Kingdom, wherever you go is the Kingdom, your will will be done by definition.
So you can heal me. Will you?
Jesus’ Compassion
Jesus’ Compassion
What appears to be the same story in Mark tells us a bit about Jesus emotions in the moment:
41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean.”
Moved with “compassion...” the word has its roots in anger, even, GREAT emotion, one he felt in his guts. He stretched out his hand… and touched him.
He Touched Him
He Touched Him
WHAT!!!????
You aren’t freaking out. Guaranteed, his audience is FREAKING out! 6 feet of distance, Jesus! Put on a mask, make the leper put on a mask, plastic bubble, PPE. Gloves and disinfectant gel ALL over your body!
“Unclean, unclean” Jesus.
What are you doing!?
3 or if he touches human uncleanness, of whatever sort the uncleanness may be with which one becomes unclean, and it is hidden from him, when he comes to know it, and realizes his guilt;
...
5 when he realizes his guilt in any of these and confesses the sin he has committed,
6 he shall bring to the Lord as his compensation for the sin that he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering. And the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.
Did Jesus just sin? He touched an unclean person and thus became unclean!
3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
No. How long was Jesus’ finger in contact with a leper? A leper? Nope… that man is clean. The priests just haven’t done the paperwork yet!
The purity of Jesus, the righteousness of Jesus is such that it cannot be defiled. It flows from Jesus to the leper and the righteousness and rightness of Jesus makes him whole, makes him cleansed, top to bottom, every inch of skin and infection and disease.
Hey… which of the 100s of skin diseases did he have? Doesn’t matter. Cleansed.
What about missing limbs or toes or fingers? Doesn’t say. I’m going to guess… completely healed!
and then, go be restored.
Go Be Restored
Go Be Restored
4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
There’s law for this too, restoration for the broken.
Lev 14
And if I was cleansed, here’s the process then:
1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
2 “This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest,
3 and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person,
4 the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop.
5 And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water.
6 He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water.
7 And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field.
8 And he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but live outside his tent seven days.
9 And on the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair from his head, his beard, and his eyebrows. He shall shave off all his hair, and then he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.
Then there are more sacrifices after the 8th day, a lamb and oil, to “make atonement for him before the LORD.”
19 The priest shall offer the sin offering, to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering.
Sounds expensive! But there’s provision. “If he is poor” he can use two turtledoves or two pigeons instead.
And so the priests will witness the radical cleansing of this man, not once, but again and again.
The priests get lots of witnesses to Jesus, and Acts 6:7 tells us a “great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.” Little witnesses like this, irrefutable. They aren’t all chuckle heads, many eventually recognize who they’ve been worshipping.
Jesus tells him to go fulfill the Law of Moses. This is following every step of righteousness… but it is also healing in a deeper sense. This is the path to restoration of relationship, restoration to community, this is how he gets welcomed back with an official clean bill of health.
This is family and friendship restored. It isn’t just a hoop to jump through, it is confidence that he is getting his whole life back.
So good!
Touching the Untouchable: Healing the Unhealable
Touching the Untouchable: Healing the Unhealable
What will Jesus do when he finishes talking? He just called everyone to obey his words, not just listening, but with Action!
What will his action be? Will he put his action where his words are?
Matthew has talked about healing “lots of folks” before, but no real specific examples. “Perhaps he wanted people to read in light of the Sermon on the Mount.”
This is purposeful as his “first” healing, an attention-getting choice. Not just because of Jesus’ power, but because of who he heals.
A leper. An untouchable.
This is grace. This is going the extra mile. This is refusing to condemn and judge. This is the Golden Rule, treating the leper as he would wish to be treated. With compassion, with human connection and touch, with healing and restoration, to health and to family and friendship and community.
Blessed are you, even if you’re leprous, yours is the Kingdom of God.
Here’s the most important message, the truth of Jesus, the beautiful gospel. No one is too far gone.
No one is untouchable to Jesus.
No one is unreachable to Jesus.
No one is unhealable to Jesus.
No matter how broken you story is, no matter how sick in the head, in the heart, in the flesh, in the past, in the future… no matter how “unclean, unclean” you are.
Jesus is moved with great compassion for you. He can and will stretch out his hand and touch you. There is healing in his touch.
Finding the Untouchables
Finding the Untouchables
Even as we are healed by Jesus, we disciple ourselves to the Master and long to do as he does. How would he live my life if he were me?
Jesus had this eye for the untouchables, for the unwelcome, for the despised and rejected. He seems to have sought them out. I suspect many folks were calling for Jesus’ healing, he finds the leper. And all the disciples highlight this healing as one of the very first described. Here Matthew has it as the very first.
And we have to acknowledge our instincts will be shaped by our culture to (we feel) rightly reject and separate and stay away. It is prudent, it is safer, it seems wiser to stay away.
Jesus walks right into that. So… who are the lepers? Who are the untouchables, the unwelcome among us.
The AIDS epidemic in the 80s and early 90s. We didn’t know a lot, but people were dying, and it was all over the news, and there were all these rumors about how to get it.
Did you hear you can get AIDS from the drinking fountain if people get too close? We literally stopped using the drinking fountain for a year in elementary school.
Did you hear people are putting dirty needles point up in movie theater seats and people sit and they get AIDS from the needle?
It’s actually nonsense, it’s fear-mongering. There is real truth about sickness and prevention in there somewhere… but mostly it is fear and rejection of the sick.
Even the connection with sin is similar. The STRONG assumption was that the leper had done something terrible and worthy of God’s judgment.
Like the blind man “who sinner, him, or his parents?” That was the standing assumption. With AIDS it started with the homosexual, free-love and drug communities, so it was totally associated with sin.
These people are getting what they deserve as a judgment from God, stay away, stay safe.
I can imagine that story. “and the man with HIV came to Jesus ‘Lord, if you will, you can heal me.’”
Who are the lepers out there?
List from open AI:
Refugee and Asylum workers
LGBTQ+ individuals
Migrant and undocumented workers
Sex workers
Homeless individuals
Individuals with mental health conditions
Who do you wish wasn’t on my list… maybe that’s the best one to be on your list!
This is not to say Jesus would treat all these folks “the same.” Jesus would and will encounter every person appropriate to what they need.
To some he’d bring healing. To some he’d bring conviction, a call to repentance… and the power to do so.
To some he’d bring truth.
To some he’d bring spiritual deliverance.
To most, probably a combination of all the things! Power AND truth encounter.
But… the point here is… NONE of them are untouchable to Jesus.
None are un-savable, unreachable, un-healable.
So… what do we do about it?
This is not when I tell you you have to join in any specific ministry of our church. Motivating obedience through guilt is not the Way.
It is to be like Jesus. To love like He does. To see like He does. To follow His lead exactly as He is calling specifically you to do it.
So for some, absolutely, you could have opportunity to hug someone on drugs, or with visible skin sores, on a Thursday at lunch at the park. And that’s beautiful. You could have the opportunity to share Jesus, to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and even to pray healing with them. Be bold, be brave.
That’s one option, one moment, once a week.
Jesus is loving ALL the people ALL the time, the challenge is for us to rip open our eyes and SEE people as candidates for Jesus’ love and healing. To see ourselves as candidates for Jesus’ love and healing.
I don’t know who he is calling you to pray for and pray with.
I don’t know who he is calling you to show simple human touch, human connection and compassion to.
But He has shown the way and He is the way. Be ready and willing, even eager and looking for the ones He loves.
