Jesus seldom spent much time in one
city. He was constantly travelling from
town to town, meeting all kinds of people. On his travels he and his disciples
came across a leper. The Koine Greek word
for leprosy can refer to any number of different skin diseases.
A leper was ostracized from the life of the community. The Old Testament commands that when people come in contact with a leper, the leper is to identify himself by covering his upper lip and yelling out “Unclean, unclean.” Lepers had to stand fifty paces away from everyone. To touch a leper was to become unclean yourself. If they entered a house, the house became unclean. If they walked under a tree, the tree would become unclean. One commentator writes, leprosy was not so much an illness as it was a sentence. Imagine not knowing, for years perhaps, the touch of another human being: a hug, a handshake, even a pat on the back. To feel so utterly alone, different and broken. Josephus the historian writes, there is no diff…
A leper was ostracized from the life of the community. The Old Testament commands that when people come in contact with a leper, the leper is to identify himself by covering his upper lip and yelling out “Unclean, unclean.” Lepers had to stand fifty paces away from everyone. To touch a leper was to become unclean yourself. If they entered a house, the house became unclean. If they walked under a tree, the tree would become unclean. One commentator writes, leprosy was not so much an illness as it was a sentence. Imagine not knowing, for years perhaps, the touch of another human being: a hug, a handshake, even a pat on the back. To feel so utterly alone, different and broken. Josephus the historian writes, there is no diff…