Keeping your distance

Today’s Gospel passage reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend a few years ago. In his 20s he had heard the Gospel, believed it, and gotten baptised. However, he felt that some of the decisions he’d made and behaviours he’d engaged in since baptism had excluded him from the Faith and from a relationship with God. He wanted to go back to God’s presence but said: “When I get my life sorted I’ll come back to Him.” Despite my attempts to convince him that he could come as he was, he still felt the need to keep his distance until he is good enough.

The lepers in today’s reading also felt the need to keep their distance. They were contagious and weren’t allowed to come close to anyone, including holy men. In that society, lepers (and anyone who had an infectious skin disorder) could only show themselves to the priests when they were better. While they were deemed ‘unclean’ they had to keep their distance.

So, these ten lepers treated Jesus, who they knew was a Holy Man and teacher, they treated Him the same as the other priests they had experienced. They kept their distance and called out to Jesus to have mercy on them. Jesus responds and tells them to go and show themselves to the priests. They believe Jesus so start the journey to the temple and while on their way, realise that their leprosy has been healed.

In our Gospel reading we see that only one of the lepers pauses from making his way to the priests. Like the other nine lepers He had believed Jesus’ words, and this faith in the words He spoke made them begin the walk to the temple even before they saw evidence that their leprosy was healed.

The Samaritan leper understood that God had made Him clean. He understood – perhaps much more than the nine Jewish lepers – how significant and life-changing this healing would be for him. Having an infectious skin disorder made him an outcast from society, just like the other lepers. But that was nothing new to him as, being a Samaritan, he already suffered racial prejudice and discrimination from the Jewish community he lived amongst. Being a leper and a Samaritan leper, he was doubly outcast.

But being a leper had also had a spiritual impact on Him. It meant he wasn’t allowed to go to the temple, to go before the priests, to bring sacrifices to cover his sins. He was kept at a distance from being in God’s presence.

And in this Gospel passage we see that when this healed Samaritan turns back to thank Jesus and prostrate himself at his feet, he is given the opportunity to get closer to God than even the priests that the other nine lepers are rushing to present themselves before. Those priests could only get as close as the altar when it was their turn to offer the sacrifices. This excluded Samaritan is now touching God’s feet. No longer keeping His distance. He has direct access to God, the Father, God, the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

In our own situations today, are we keeping our distance?

When we make a mess, when our faith takes a hit due to circumstances in our lives? When we slip up, lose our temper and speak harsh words, tell a ‘tiny’ lie to avoid getting in trouble. Are we listening to the daily news, fears of gas shortages this winter, fears of soaring energy prices, mortgage increases, cost-of-living crisis, and feeling anxious? Is there fear of what the future holds for our society and world as the times and people become more and more desperate? We are believers but we are also human and sometimes when all we hear is doom and gloom it is easy to lose heart and succumb to fear instead of faith.

And when we have these moments of weakness, fear or failure, it is so easy to keep our distance from God out of shame. It is so easy to keep our distance out of pride – because, like my friend I mentioned earlier, we want to fix the mess first and then go to God when we feel slightly more deserving. We feel we aught to go show ourselves to God only when we feel we are clean enough.

But Jesus is not like the other priests, He is the High Priest. He is not like the priests that God's people had to go to with a sacrifice to cover the messes made in their lives and the lives of others. Jesus is the High Priest. He doesn’t require us to keep our distance. He is the one who did not keep his distance from creation but entered into our world, our history. Who came close to humanity when he saw we needed healing from an infectious sin disorder. Who not only came close to us but took on human flesh, God, the Son, put Himself in our skin, and showed us the perfect example of a life lived in close relationship with the Father

Jesus is the one who has already presented the complete once-for-all sacrifice that makes us clean in God’s eyes. That washes away the stigma of sin. That places a new label on us, not ‘leper’, but Child of God.

This sacrifice, this salvation in Jesus Christ, is obtainable by anyone and everyone.

We don’t have to keep our distance. Through Jesus we can come close.

Can we be encouraged today by the Samaritan leper? Can we follow his example and remember the magnitude of what God has already done for us through Jesus Christ? He has granted us access directly to His throne. We can bring all of our problems, our fears, our concerns, our confessions, directly to Him. We don’t have to keep our distance. As St Paul reminds Timothy, if we are faithless, God remains faithful – for He cannot deny Himself.

We can, as Paul encourages Timothy to do, present ourselves to God as one approved by Him. God has already approved us. He has already healed us and removed the barriers of sin that separated us from His presence.

We can come close, like the Samaritan leper. We can remember the truth of the Gospel. We can remind ourselves of it so that whenever we are tempted to keep our distance we can instead turn back, praise God with a loud voice, prostrate ourselves at Jesus’ feet and thank Him for his great Salvation.

And then, we must do as Paul instructs Timothy to do, present ourselves as workers for God’s kingdom ready to share the truth of the Gospel with all those we know who are keeping their distance.

Maybe there is someone in your family or community who is at a distance from hearing the Word of God. Maybe the last place they would feel comfortable going is to a church service on a Sunday. What can we do as a Church community to find ways of sharing the Gospel with those who are keeping their distance? There is lots of great work already being done, the coffee mornings and church fairs that open up the church to the wider communities.

But perhaps we can seek God for new ways to share our faith with others, new ways to bring the Gospel message close to those who are keeping their distance. As our community faces the cost-of-living crisis what can we do to eases peoples’ burdens practically and how can we present the message of God’s Gospel to ease spiritual burdens?

God wants us to do this: To work together and not bicker over small internal disagreements or slights. He calls us to focus on sharing his great salvation with everyone: and especially with those who feel the need to keep their distance. Because, in Christ, all are welcome and all are invited to receive the mercy and healing that only God can give.