Painting above: Christ and the Lepers, 1920, Gebhard Fugel (1863-1939)
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(…continued) So , let’s look at what this story can teach us about illness, and then I will use some of my own story to illustrate what God has been teaching me.
First of all, the lepers learn that they need Jesus. There is nothing like illness to teach you that you need something greater than yourself, and even greater than the best doctors. We have in this country the most incredible, wonderful, amazing health care system in the world. It is not without its problems, of course, but there are clinics, specialists, pills, and gadgets for any condition, and it can all work wonders. But it can’t do everything. Have you noticed; this entire, massive health care system eventually fails everyone? There comes a time when not even the Mayo clinic can help you. The lepers were at that point. It was only a few decades ago that a cure for leprosy was discovered, so there was certainly nothing for them in those days. Those lepers learned from their illness that they needed Jesus; so, says verse twelve, they came to him.
Then, says the next verse, they spoke to Jesus, crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” Now, when we talk to Jesus, we call it prayer; and illness does teach us to pray, doesn’t it? When we are in pain, or worried about a sick loved one, or waiting for test results and a prognosis—it is at those times that we pray our most intense prayers. You might not remember to say your prayers every day, but when your head is pounding and you can’t keep food down and you are getting weaker by the hour, you, like the lepers, are most likely to say, “Lord, have mercy; Lord, help me; Lord, heal me.” Illness reminds you to pray, and, it focuses your prayer. Everyone who tries to have a daily time of prayer struggles with distractions and a mind that wanders all over the place. But when you are sitting in that waiting room, waiting to see the doctor who will tell you if that lump is benign or malignant, or if your loved one is alive or dead, you do remember to pray and you do keep at it. The words might not be eloquent, but we know who we are talking to and we are not distracted. Illness first brings us to Jesus, and then, it teaches us about prayer.
Verse fourteen says, “When Jesus saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were cleansed.” The lepers came to Jesus and Jesus responded, with a command. It was an odd command. Showing yourself to the priests meant showing the priests you were all better, and you would not have to be isolated from the community any longer. But, they were not yet healed! They were still lepers, looking grotesque, with holes in their faces, missing ears, noses, fingers, and toes. Why go to the priests? But they obeyed Jesus, and they went. And as they went, it says, they were cleansed. Even when the command did not seem to make any sense at all, they obeyed Jesus. Illness can teach us to listen to Jesus, and then, to obey his Word in all things.
Now we get to what is the most obvious lesson in the story. Verse 15: “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.” Illness, especially when we are healed of it, can teach us to be grateful. It may not always lead to gratitude. Nine of those who were healed did not return to give thanks. We might say, “Oh well, I was going to get better anyway.” But healing should teach us to be grateful, even if our healings are not as dramatic as we see in this story. Think about it. Even when we get better because the illness has run its course and the body heals itself, even then we should be grateful for the way God made these astonishing bodies we get to inhabit for a few years. Everything works together quite well most of the time; and when something does go wrong, God has made our bodies with the capacity to fight disease and infections and even broken bones, and heal itself. We can learn to be grateful for every healing, even when the common cold runs its course. We might not even pray for healing when we have nothing more than a cold, because we know the routine, and that we will get better. But even for that we can be grateful. Illness, and the healing of it, taught at least one of those ten lepers to be grateful.
Illness is a teacher of many things, and, it can lead us into a deeper faith. In the last words of the text, Jesus said to the one man who returned to give thanks, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Now, a few more things I have been learning, some which are reflected in the story of the lepers, and some are not.
#1) We are indeed, as the Bible says, “fearfully and wonderfully made.” That entire passage from Psalm 139 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and your works are wonderful.” When something goes wrong, we learn about how it is supposed to work, and has been working, for our whole life already, without our even being aware of it. In my hospital visits to people with all sorts of problems, I was always amazed at how many things can go wrong with a person’s body. But then, I would be even more amazed as I realized again and again how many things are usually working together, all at once, all the time. Even pain, which appears when something is wrong, is a gift of God that we must have to live in order to live a good life. The problem with leprosy is that the body loses its ability to feel pain, and therefore, the person with leprosy does not attend to injuries because there is no warning system. So, a broken leg causes no pain for a leper, and is not noticed until the leg breaks completely in half and the bone sticks out and the person falls over; but by then, it is too late and the leg is often infected, and then the person loses that leg. Any leper would tell you to thank God for your ability to feel pain.
We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Even as you sit there with your aches and pains, or bad eyes, or weak bladder, or headache, or upset stomach; and all your attention is focused on what is not right with you; there are a thousand other things still working just fine. Health problems have reminded me of that. (continued…)
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