CLEANSING A LEPER

Cleanliness and Godliness are neighbours; so they say. It isn’t in the Scriptures, but seems to work that way. We can’t imagine Jesus, revelling in dirt. The only time it happened, was when He had been hurt. The crucifixion process was a million miles from clean. And when the Romans finished, you’d know what “filth” could mean. So it was out of character. He didn’t live that way. You can’t cleanse people of their sin, if you’re as “black” as they. So cleanliness and Godliness go surely hand in hand. And smut and moral filthiness, were never what He planned. All the religious people, who lived in Jesus, day, Washed themselves and tried to keep all sinfulness away. It had become a fetish. Hand washing a demand. You couldn’t even have a meal, until you’d washed your hands. It is of course, quite proper. A Christian should be clean. But why were they fastidious? What had these people seen? The answer can summed up in one word – “leprosy”. There wasn’t any cure for it. It killed you - gradually. It made you look repulsive, to those who looked at you. You had to leave the city where a touch was a taboo. You couldn’t find employment. You had to keep away. You had to shout the word “unclean” to keep your friends at bay. It somehow was equated as the counterpart of sin. You were not healed, but cleansed from the condition you were in. The priest declared you leprous; or stated you were clean. He first had to examine you and say what he had seen. It really was a rigmarole, a prescribed cleansing right, That Moses’ law demanded to be “clean” in people’s sight’ Sufferers from leprosy would have to scrounge for food. They’d “haunt” the city garbage dump. Whatever could be chewed, Became their meagre diet; and so the people thought, That leprosy was something that “dirty” people caught. It is against this background that the “washing of the hands”. Began to be required by the folk throughout the land. It wasn’t very long before the Scribes and Pharisees, Thought it was essential, the Sovereign Lord to please! Then Jesus cleansed a leper. He did it with one touch. Then the religious people thought that this was a bit much. How could He stoop to do it?! It was a filthy act! How dare He think that Yahweh this “miracle” had backed? They couldn’t comprehend it. How dare this “man” come near, A filthy dirty leper. They thought that it was clear, Beelzebub had caused his leprosy to go away. O Lord what an injustice. To think, that on that day,  That Satan had done something that by Your love was done. And only was made possible, because You are God’s Son! Jim Strickland – Written 27th October 2011