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My friends, Dan and Carol, told me of a sermon they heard in church about Jesus healing a leper. Let s begin by reading the Scripture.
40"A man with leprosyf came to him and begged him on his knees, If you are willing, you can make me clean. 41Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. I am willing, he said. Be clean! 42Immediately the leprosy left him and he was cured." (NIV)
That conversation got me thinking and reading about leprosy, and I learned some interesting facts about the affliction. Here are a few of them:
The ancient Jews believed that leprosy was a punishment from God.
Lepers lived in isolation until they were either healthy or until they died.
Leprosy is now called Hansen s Disease. (a lot less scary name)
It is mentioned over 40 times in the Bible, depending on the translation.
It s caused by bacteria that attack the nerves, not the skin.
Leprosy is spread by multiple skin contacts with other persons.
It begins with nodules, crusts, white spots, raw looking flesh, and sometimes white or yellow hair.
Later it progresses to disfigurement of the skin and bones, tumors, twisting of limbs, claw like fingers, thickening of the ears, and collapsing of the nose.
One losses the sensation of pain, due to nerve damage.
It is the last symptom, the loss of pain, on which I really want to focus the rest of this blog. These poor people lose their sensation of pain, due to nerve damage. They incur all kinds of injuries by severely cutting, burning and scraping themselves, because they don t have functioning pain sensors to warn them of danger. So if the disease itself isn t bad enough, their situation is made even worse because they are always harming themselves.
It my reading, many writers see biblical leprosy as a powerful symbol of sin, reminding us of sin s spread and its horrible consequences. I believe that if sin takes a strong hold, one becomes immune to the pain one is in, and the pain one is causing others.
Pain is the body telling us that something is wrong. Usually, the greater the pain, the larger the problem. Say, for example, we have serious back pain after certain activities. It could be that that our vertebrae are grinding against a nerve, or each other. The pain is telling us, "Hey you! You re injuring yourself!"
Likewise, if we are a slave to a particular sin, say alcohol or drug abuse, we will cause much pain to ourselves and others around us. This pain, sent by God, should signal us to stop our sinful behavior. But the chemical abuse itself can complicate matters by dulling us to the pain we are in. We might not see the damage we ve done to our health, loved ones, careers, and our relationship with God. Unfortunately, we sometimes manage to tolerate the pain, so that we can continue our sinful behavior.
It s kind of like the Jerry Seinfeld s joke about helmets. He said we shouldn t be concerned about what kind of helmet we should wear for activities like motorcycle riding, football, or snowmobiling. What we should be thinking about is why we are involved in activities that might crack our heads open!
Don t get me wrong, not all pain is a message from God. Most pain is probably just a physical thing occurring for purely physical reasons. There is no spiritual component to it at all. But some pain is a message to us. Is God speaking to you through a megaphone, trying to get your attention? He might be repeatedly telling you, through pain, "STOP DOING THAT!"
3O" Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain; you crushed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent." (Jeremiah 5:3) NIV
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