Jesus and the Leper

Riley getting everyone ready for the game!

Friday mornings are always a highlight of the week. Getting the chance to hang out with kids and then talk with them about Jesus is something I look forward to. From picking kids up to go get doughnuts with me while its still dark, to greeting everyone as they show up, I am constantly blown away that this is something I get to be a part of.

Matthew getting it done.

Riley took the lead on the game this morning. It was a relay race where grades competed against each other. The task was to transfer cotton balls from one container to another. We made things a bit more interesting by making them do it without their hands. They each got a dab of vaseline on their nose and then had to get the cotton balls stuck to their nose in order to transfer them to the next container.

Dylan, Cameron, and Tommy taking things to the next level.

The girls weren't scared!

Grace!

After the game we continued our journey through the Gospel of Mark (the 2nd book of the Bible in the New Testament). Mark is one of 4 Gospels that each tell the story of Jesus. Mark is action packed and tells of Jesus constantly doing things that seemed out of the ordinary. The story we looked at today was one of those instances.

We read the story in Mark 1:40-45 were Jesus is approached by a leper. Leprosy isn't something we normally see today, but it was something quite common in Jesus' time. Someone with leprosy would have been a total outcast. People did everything they could to avoid coming in contact with lepers.

I shared a story of a time when I felt like people tried to get away from me… though it was nothing compared to what lepers dealt with, it wasn't a pleasant experience. It was a time I passed gas in 7th grade during an English test. It wasn't planned but out of nowhere a very interesting sound made its way out of my body. Immediately the desks around me spread out and I found myself in the middle of an 8ft circle… all by myself with kids laughing at me. The teacher realized what had happened, came over and yelled at me demanding I tell him why I farted. At that point everyone in the class knew about it, and for the next week I was a total joke at school. I felt like an outcast.

While this story is incredibly minor, it isn't a pleasant experience to feel like an outcast. Its even worse when you are kicked out for something that you couldn't control.

Lepers knew this well. The disease is one that eats away at a person's body in such a way that they become very hard to look at. It literally eats away at their skin leaving oozing soars in the process, and even rotting their skin in such a way that they lose body parts. On top of this, they were banished in those days and forced to live outside the town in isolation. They wouldn't be able to work, and when they were in town they would be avoided by everyone.

Lepers were considered unclean. This meant that they weren't welcome at religious gatherings or in the Temple. In those days to not have access to the Temple would mean that you didn't have access to God. Lepers were, in every way, outcasts.

In the story a man with this disease comes and approaches Jesus and what follows is a beautiful story of Jesus doing what he does, restoring life.

This man came and knelt before Jesus begging to be healed saying, "If you are willing you can heal me and make me clean." This would have been socially unacceptable. This man should not have come to Jesus, and Jesus would have every right to move away from him. We get the sense that this man knew this. The question isn't weather or not Jesus could heal him, but weather or not Jesus WANTED to. Some people might have thought that this man had done something to deserve getting leprosy, it would have been the moral thing to do to avoid lepers… so, in a desperate act, this man wonders if Jesus might be different.

Mark tells us that Jesus was moved with compassion. The word used here is one that refers to a very deep emotional response that demands action. Jesus was moved by this man, and instead of backing away in shock and disgust, Jesus moved closer. Jesus even reached out his hand and touched this man.

This would have been unheard of. People with leprosy were unclean. When clean things touched unclean things, the clean became unclean. So, if a person that didn't have leprosy touched a person with leprosy, they became unclean and were treated much the same as the leper.

Jesus touched the leper, told the leper he wanted to heal him, and then said, "be cleaned!" Instantly the man was healed. Instantly this man was made clean, the disease was gone, and full life was restored. As we have seen over and over, wherever Jesus goes, life goes, and whatever Jesus touches is transformed.  I can't imagine what this man must have felt. Jesus told him to go to the Temple to show that he was clean and could re-enter into worship, and then told the man to tell no one what happened. We get a glimpse of how grateful this man was in that he couldn't keep his mouth shut. He told everyone what had happened. Honestly, I can't imagine doing anything else if I were him. This man may not have experienced compassion like this ever, he may not have been touched by another person in a very long time, and he for sure hadn't experienced life in this way ever. He was healed, fully restored, instantly.

I find myself in this story. There are times when I have thought the very same thing as this man, is Jesus willing? Does Jesus still want to be close? Am I acceptable to Jesus? This story, and so many others in the Bible scream the answer, "YES!" Not only am I acceptable, and not only does Jesus want to draw near and restore, but he does. He is willing and he is able, always.

Another thing this story shows me is that I can approach those that are marginalized, for any reason, with compassion. Because Jesus didn't turn away from a leper, from a person he should have turned away from, I can do the same to people that are marginalized today. It can be so easy to treat people society or our culture has deemed "outcasts" differently, it can even feel like the right thing to do at times, but stories like this show that Jesus thought differently. Jesus was moved with compassion when others may have been moved by disgust, or fear.

This is good news to a middle school kid. They are messy, and its not hard for a jr higher to feel like an outcast, both in the general population, and in their own subculture. Life is a constant game of trying to fit in, and doing everything to keep from being excluded. To hear that there is nothing they can do to make Jesus pull away is very good news. To hear that they will always have a place next to him and in his family in very good news. Its very good news to me as well. There is nothing more true than that Jesus will always move in closer, even when it seems everyone else is drawing away… even when we question if he wants to… he will always move in closer.

So, if you would like to talk with your child about WyldLife today, ask them what they did with cotton balls and vaseline. Ask them what I talked about doing in class. Ask them how Jesus treated the man with leprosy, and why that was so shacking. Then ask them how they think Jesus feels about them and what that says about how they treat others.

Kate inviting everyone to Life Groups starting this Wednesday.