Leprosy

Leprosy is caused by a tiny bacteria but it has a terrible impact on the body. It numbs the nerves so you are less sensitive to pain so cuts and burns go unnoticed. This can lead to infected wounds and amputation of limbs. It weakens your muscles and can cause blindness.

In the days of the Old and New Testaments leprosy cut you off spiritually and socially as you were not allowed to enter the temple or be part of wider society due to the risk of infecting other people. It was a disease that had no cure. So when the lepers we read about this morning learn that there is someone who can cure them, they are determined to seek this person out. When Naaman encounters the prophet of God and when the 10 lepers in the gospel reading encounter Jesus, they receive healing and restoration back into the community.

This is the story of the Gospel. The Bible tells us that we are all infected with a debilitating bacterium – sin. Like leprosy, sin has a devastating impact on us. Selfishness, hatred and pride can cause pain and damage to ourselves and the people around us. Lying, gossip and stealing, damage relationships with our fellow humans and with God. And yet God offers everyone a cure. He sends His Word, Jesus Christ, as the cure for sin for all who will listen and receive it.

This sounds so simple. But it can be a difficult thing to receive, as we see in our readings.

Sometimes our pride can put up a barrier between us and the saving message of the Gospel. When people hear the Gospel, it can seem foolish. To hear that God offers forgiveness to all sinners as a free gift through faith in Jesus seems overly simplistic. It is offensive to those who feel that they are not sinners, that their own goodness or their family status or religious credentials should give them a step up in God’s eyes. So to be told that the cure for their sin is the same for everyone - no matter who they are, how worthy or unworthy they think they are – offends the pride, just as Naaman’s pride was offended.

We would rather go away on an intensive yoga and fasting retreat, striving for spiritual enlightenment and peace through our own efforts. Through some feat we can feel proud of. Not in kneeling before Jesus crucified. Not in dipping in the blood of the lamb to be cleansed of our sins.

That is the simple instruction of the Gospel. And we modern day Naaman’s have to decide whether to follow our pride and walk away from the offer of salvation or to swallow our pride, be humble and receive it.

The lepers in the Gospel reading don’t struggle with pride. They are social outcasts, so they keep their distance from Jesus and only shout out to him to have mercy on them. They are not too proud to follow Jesus’ simple instruction to go to the temple and show themselves to the priest. They immediately obey. And while they are on their way they discover that their leprosy has been cleansed.

However, only one of the lepers, the Samaritan, a foreigner, stops in his tracks and goes back to Jesus to praise God and say thank you for the healing. Perhaps, as someone who was not only outcast for his skin disease but also because of his mixed racial heritage, he didn’t have the same feeling of entitlement as the other Israelite lepers. They may have felt that they deserved the healing by virtue of being God’s chosen people. The Samaritan was a foreigner. He was amazed that he could receive the same healing as the other nine lepers who were fully Israeli. He was overwhelmed at the Grace and compassion of a God who extends mercy to all, not just to his chosen people, but to foreigner too.

As Christians, especially if we’ve been one for a long time, it can be easy to be like the nine ungrateful lepers and forget the magnitude of the grace that has been extended to us: Salvation, cleansing from sin, and inclusion into God’s kingdom. We can dutifully go to church most weeks but neglect to spend time in praise, prayer and worship at Jesus’ feet in our daily lives.

And when we allow ourselves to act like those nine lepers, it has an impact on the Church. We are the body of Christ but if we allow ourselves to become desensitised to the wonder of God’s Grace we can become the bacteria that infects the whole body. The Church can become less sensitive to the pain and needs of the surrounding community, our impact on the world around us becomes weak and ineffective, and we can become spiritually blind and deaf to our call to share the Gospel with all.

We are all called to share the good news with everyone we encounter. Those we like and those we don’t like, because all are included in God’s invitation to heal us from our sins. Naaman’s servant still shared the message of God’s healing with her master, even though her people had been defeated in war by his people and she had been carried into his country as a slave. She knew about God’s mercy and grace and wanted to share it with everyone who would listen. This is our call.

God calls us to respond to his Grace by falling at his feet in worship – offering our lives, our bodies and our wills to Him. We are all called to serve the body of Christ, whatever role we are called to play, we are called to play it wholeheartedly so that the body is healthy and able to grow. We are called to share the Good News with everyone around us that there is a cure, a remedy for the sin we struggle with.

Let’s try to be like the Samaritan and Naaman’s slave, truly recognising the mercy and grace of our compassionate God who offers salvation to all: Both Jew and Gentile, Social outcast or celebrity, Rich and poor, of moral character or criminal character. God extends the same gift of his healing, of his undeserved and unearned favour, to all sinners. To all who will acknowledge their need of his mercy and come to him.

As the psalmist encourages us to do, let’s praise God for his works and give thanks to the Lord with our whole hearts, let’s delight in them as the Samaritan did. And let’s share the good news of Salvation to all other sinners. The good news that God is offering healing and cleansing to all sinners, great and small. The cure is the same. It is simple and humbling. If you want to be healed, if you want to be saved, put your trust in God’s living Word, our Saviour Jesus Christ.