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1 Samuel 4:1-11
Psalm 44:10-11, 14-15, 24-25
Mark 1:40-45
Summary
The leprosy left the leper immediately, and he was made clean. Then, warning
him sternly, Jesus dismissed the leper at once. Then he said to him, "See that
you tell no one anything, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your
cleansing what Moses prescribed.
Reflection
I have always wondered, what did Moses prescribe
of the priests when a miracle like this happens?
Does the leper have to pay something to the temple
in thanksgiving? So I decided to look up “what did
Moses prescribe”. Like the topsy-turvy God that we
have, I learned it is not about what the leper owes; it
is about what the priest owes. In both Numbers and
in II Kings, the Law of Moses provides for the ritual
purification of a leper. In curing the leper, Jesus as-
sumes that the priest will reinstate the cured man
into the religious community.
That, of course led me to ponder who are the lepers
of today? Like many people before I thought of the
sick, the homeless, the hungry, those who are HIV
positive, those with AIDS, pedophiles, adulterous spouses, those with addiction,
or the odd. What would our topsy-turvy God call us to do?
In scripture all the healings happen at the hand of God? This reminds me of the
twelve step processes: the first few steps are:
We admitted we were powerless over our addiction - that our lives
had become unmanageable
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us