A leper came to him begging him, and
kneeling he said to him, If you choose, you can make me clean.
Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and
said to him, I do choose. Be made clean!
Immediately the leprosy
left him, and he was made clean. After sternly warning him he sent him
away at once, saying to him, See that you say nothing to anyone; but
go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what
Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.
But he went out and began
to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no
longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and
people came to him from every quarter.
I'm convinced that sometimes the passages in the lectionary have nothing to do with each other but this week is a little bit different. There is an obvious textual link between the Old testament lesson and the gospel lesson because both of them have to do with lepers.
We don't often think of leprosy because we're not exposed to it in our every-day world. In the United States, less than one person in hundred thousand is afflicted with leprosy. World-wide, there are about 2.5 million cases and apparently, somewhere in the neighborhood of 95% of the human population is genetically not able to contract leprosy as we now understand it. It's hardly even in our vocabulary except on the rare days that it shows up in the scripture text for the day and to be faithful to the text we're forced to talk about it.
But leprosy in the ancient world was a different matter. There were 72 different afflictions that were defined as leprosy. Some of them had no cure; some of them were highly contagious, but there was the same fear and stigma associated with all of them. Now, if you're interested, the biblical rules for leprosy can be found in the first 44 verses of Leviticus chapter 13. (I'm not going to go over all of them now because #1 it's not terribly important for today's message and # 2 I'm not sure many of us would stay awake for all of them anyway.) But more important for understanding leprosy in biblical times: there are two verses tucked in toward the end of the chapter which outline how to deal with a person who has any one of the 72 afflictions. Verses 45 and 46 of Leviticus 13 read:
The person who has the leprous disease shall wear torn clothes and
let the hair of his head be disheveled; and he shall cover his upper
lip and cry out, Unclean, unclean.
He shall remain unclean as
long as he has the disease. He shall live in isolation and his
dwelling shall be outside the camp.
Leprosy was a holistic disease. Social, spiritual and financial
realms of life were affected as well as the obvious physical
condition. When people were declared unclean with leprosy, they were
immediately isolated and outcast. They became second class citizens.
Lepers were required to stay fifty paces away from uninfected people.
They had to yell out unclean
whenever someone came into view so
that no one would accidentally get to close. To survive, they had to
beg by yelling to people on the outskirts of town. You see, their
spiritual status of uncleanness was understood to be as contagious as
their physical affliction was.
In this context, it was offensive that the leper ran to Jesus asking to be made clean. He shouldn't be anywhere near Jesus … but when you consider the stakes, it's also understandable because he wasn't only asking for his health. He was asking to be readmitted to the community. He wasn't only asking for his skin back, he was asking for his life back.
We'll come back to the gospel lesson in a few minutes … but let's take a look at our old testament lesson because there's a whole month of sermons that could be preached on this passage.
The world-view of ancient Jews, radiated out in concentric circles from the holy of holies at the temple. The Holy of Holies was understood to be where God lived. Around that was the temple, around the temple was the city of Jerusalem, around Jerusalem the land of Israel and around the land of Israel, the vast chaotic world of the gentiles. Naaman, the main character in our old testament lesson lived in that furthest out circle. He was a foreigner and a gentile. His wife's servant was a captive from Israel, so we know that he and his men conducted raids. He was not a friend. And on top of that, Naaman was a leper; even if he was a local and a friend, he still would have been an outcast because of his skin condition. The picture we get of Naaman is the picture of someone just about as far from God as it is possible to be and still be in the story at all.
And yet Naaman was also a picture of contrasts. He's portrayed as a military commander and an important man. It is a testament to how important and powerful Naaman was that even after contracting leprosy he still had some sort of access to the king and the king wanted to help him. In fact the king wanted to help him to the tune of about 2.5 million dollars … at least that's what the gift would have been worth on Thursday afternoon when I last checked the price of gold and silver. The other king, the one on the receiving end of the gift, didn't like this situation at all. He knew that he wasn't able to cure leprosy and he was afraid that a gift of that magnitude came with strings attached. He figured this whole thing was a sham to give Aram reason to attack and Aram was much stronger than Israel. So the king despaired.
But, the prophet Elisha came to both the king's rescue, and Israel's rescue, by entering the picture to heal Naaman. Naaman approached Elisha with all of the pomp and circumstance that his position afforded. He came with his horses and chariots, but Elisha didn't even come out to him. Elisha sent a messenger telling Naaman to wash in the Jordan river and he would be clean. Naaman was furious. He wanted Elisha to stretch out his hand and heal him … He wanted the healing to be done spectacularly, here, now, for good, done. Elisha's scheme for healing was beneath him. It was too easy, too simple and it just might have been too public. The whole trip was a waste of time if all he had to do was wash. He could have washed at home.
I was at a meeting earlier this week where a retired pastor, who has a
PhD. and is a well respected university professor in the DC area was
the guest speaker. He was talking about social stigmas in our culture
and how hard it is for people to rejoin communities or churches after
they have been away for reasons that have shamed them or their
families. I was listening to him and primarily hearing an academic
explanation right up until the point where he said, I know this
because I'm a recovering alcoholic. I was fired from my last
pastoral position and spent time in jail for mistakes I made while I
was drunk. When I got out, I was still the same person. I still had
all the same credentials, I was still an ordained minister, I was
still a PhD. but I became a second class citizen. I might as well
have been a leper or something by the way the people treated me …
these were people who used to be my friends, people who used to be my
church family. But now I was the problem. I was the disgrace. I was
the one everyone talked about and nobody talked to.
Chances are that none of us will deal with the stigma of leprosy here
in 21st century America, but we all deal with shame, social stigma and
disgrace on one side of the equation or the other. We have people
right here in Bowie who are treated as untouchables, or at least a
second class citizens …and they feel it. We have people right here in
our congregation who feel isolated, because they're afraid that if
people knew what was going on with them they would become the one who
is the problem … the one everybody talks about and nobody talks to.
That guest speaker I was telling you about. He called this the
conspiracy of silence. He said, It's a great system … I pretend
there's nothing is wrong in my life, you pretend there's nothing is
wrong with yours, we can walk out the door on Sunday morning and
forget we came because none of it was real anyway.
It seems to me that's just about where Naaman was but he had a change
of heart. And you know who saved Naaman from himself? It wasn't the
king, it wasn't the prophet. It was two slaves, people who had just
about at the same social status as a leper. At the beginning of our
reading it was a young girl, an Israelite prisoner of war who first
opened the possibility of healing. Toward the end of our reading it
was another slave, one of Naaman's servants who pointed out to
him, if the prophet had asked you to do something hard, you would
have done it … what he asked is easy. Why not at least try what
he said?
Naaman did and he was made clean.
You see, Naaman thought he was powerful and as long as he was caught up in his own power, it was awfully hard for him to receive the power of healing and the power of cleansing that was offered to him. The leper in our New Testament lesson had a different story though. He recognized that he was not well, which, of course, was much more obvious in his case than it is in most of our cases. In fact based on his situation it would have been pretty hard to deny it. But when he spoke truth, if you choose you can make me clean, he broke the conspiracy of silence. When he spoke the truth that he was not well, he caused the formation of a healing relationship.
It was offensive for the leper to come to Jesus. It was audacious that he knelt close to him. It was risky to ask for help. It always is. But that's the way healing happens. He said I'm not well, but you can make me clean and Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the untouchable. Jesus stretched out his hand and cleansed the uncleanable. Jesus stretched out his hands and loved the unloveable.
This is what we the church can do … We have an excellent choir but there are places in our community that specialize in music. We have an excellent education program but there are places in our community that specialize in teaching. We have excellent food but there are places in our culture that specialize in cuisine. There is no other place that specializes in caring. There is no other place that specializes in forgiveness. There is no other place that stands with arms outstretched to each other and to the community that says in this place you can break the conspiracy of silence because in this place you are loved. You are welcome here, just as you are. We are the body of Christ, let's be that for one another. Amen.
The foregoing sermon was given on Feb. 15, 2009, by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie.
© 2009 Daniel Holland
