For (some) lepers only

Lepers? Are there any in Jersey? Think about it in this way – are there people in Jersey who are treated as lepers? 

Take a look at the AD 30 incident in bold above from the first century biography of Jesus Christ written by a physician named Luke. Jesus met ten lepers in a village in a non-Jewish area, when he was travelling towards Jerusalem (the Israeli capital city). 

These ten people were lepers and, indeed, they were being treated as lepers. They stood at a distance and lifted up their voices so as to be heard by Jesus.  They said “Jesus, Epistates [one who puts all things in place], have mercy on us.”

Their use of the word Epistates (in the original Greek) is rather interesting. What do you make of it? Did these 10 sidelined people, with one voice, acknowledge that Jesus was the one who had at least allowed (if not decreed) their isolation from society? Serious wrong was perceived to be in them – was Jesus over and above the lives of all of them? 

 

With one voice these ten lepers asked Jesus, the one who puts all in place, for mercy. "Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Mercy." When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. (The priests would decide whether they were cleansed or not. But they all knew.)

This is really wonderful. They received mercy.

During last weekend I received a letter from the parents of a pre-teen boy living in the Ukraine. They had this to report about their son. “His medication has been changed yet again. We are praying and hoping it will help and the amount of seizures he has is reduced and the frequency as well. The results from his blood tests are not very optimistic and our understanding is that it does not look as if it will get better. It is hard to write such a thing; we just pray God will help us to accept whatever he sends with grateful hearts, knowing that it is exactly what we need in order to be prepared for glory with Jesus Our Lord.”

Those parents definitely know that Jesus is Epistates – is the one who puts all things in place. 

But how many of us parents and grandparents of healthy progeny know that it is this Jesus, this Epistates, who has shown mercy to us all. That mercy, in my understanding of my own heart, was and is undeserved by any of us. 

How much more wonderful is it that one (former) leper when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. 

 

If you had been there you would have seen this person’s body language. He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet. Face down on the ground. At the feet of Jesus. 

There are many Christians in Jersey today. Tell me when you next find one in that position. This person was a Samaritan (not one of God’s favoured people). Moreover this person was a foreigner (a non-native). Could it ever be that a Jersey person could be so changed?

A change like that would change the world for that person. “Rise and go your way; your faith has saved you.” Resurrected. Autonomous. Saved.