New? January 18 Devotional
January 18, 2025
LUKE 17:12 | 12 As he entered a village, ten men with a skin disease approached him. Keeping their distance…
LEVITICUS 13:45 | 45 The person who has the defiling disease shall wear torn clothes and let the hair of his head be disheveled, and he shall cover his upper lip and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean.’
Disease is always frightening. More so when a condition is not curable and not well understood. The visible marks of leprosy and its deadly progression from lesions to loss of feeling and limbs, adds to the horror.
Leprosy in ancient Israel must have felt like a living death. It had dire social effects, since lepers were cut off from family, friends, and regular social interactions. It had awful psychological effects, since lepers had to shout “unclean, unclean” in the presence of non-leprous people. It had ruinous spiritual effects, because lepers couldn’t participate in regular religious activities in the synagogue or the Temple. If it turned out that the seeming leprosy was a temporary skin condition that abated, they could be examined by a priest and certified for participation in normal life.
In our story, the 10 lepers, a mixed group of Israelite and Samaritan sufferers, make the bold collective move to enter the public space in search of Jesus’ help.
Have you ever been restricted or isolated because of a physical condition?
Gracious God,
Help me to be sensitive to those around me who suffer the effects of exclusion.
Amen.
