Ten men stood a distance away. Their faces were covered and by mandate they were required to cry “Unclean, unclean!” as they walked. In the distance they saw a man approaching them. It was Jesus of Nazareth. They had heard of Him. He was reputed with healing many of various things. A hope filled their previously hopeless faces as they quietly spoke amongst themselves. Then,inmutualagreement instead of crying out, “Unclean, unclean!” they began to scream at the top of their lungs, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” In response Jesus told them to “Go show yourselves to the priests,” which was the requirement by Law. They turned to go and after only a few paces, one of them, a Samaritan, realized that they had already been made whole again. What a miracle! The man immediately returned, falling at Jesus’ feet giving Him thanks for his miracle. The Bible further says, “So Jesus answered and said, ‘Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?’ And He said to him, ‘Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.’” (Luke 17:17-19).
Leprosy – A dreaded disease in Biblical times for which there was no natural cure. In modern times it is also known as Hansen’s Disease. Today it is treatable and is not so dreaded as it was in the days of the Bible. Then, there was no cure. When you contracted it, you were certain to die. It was thought to be highly contagious and so leper colonies were formed. Those who had the disease had to live outside the city limits and if they did venture out, they were to cover their face and cry out “unclean! Unclean!” as they walked so as to warn those approaching.
God provided instructions in the Law of Moses concerning leprosy. You can read about it in Exodus 13 and 14. There you will find out the detailed instructions as to how to identify it, how to isolate it and if one was somehow miraculously cleansed of it, then there were detailed instructions as to how to ceremonially show themselves to be clean.
There are some great stories in the Bible about leprosy. For instance, one of the signs Moses was to show to the Israeli people enslaved in Egypt was that he was to put his hand in his robe and when pulled out it was leprous. When he put it in again and pulled it out it was clean again. Because of questioning the Godgiven authority of Moses, his sister, Miriam, was struck with leprosy. She was healed of it but had to go through the cleansing process before returning to the camp. One of the most quoted examples was found in the life of the Assyrian general, Naaman. He was a leper. He was told to dip himself seven times in the river, Jordan, and when he finally relinquished his pride and obeyed, he was made clean. Because Elisha did not accept gifts for his healing, Elisha’s servant, Gehazi, ran after Naaman and made him think that Elisha had changed his mind and wanted something to give to someone else. Gehazi took the reward and when Elisha found out, Gehazi was stricken with the leprosy instead of Naaman.
We can rightly compare the disease of leprosy, particularly as found in the Bible, with sin. It is a spiritual disease that plagues each and every one of us. No man or woman is exempt, except for Jesus Christ only. We are unclean in our sin. We may not be considered to be a bad person. Maybe we do our best to do good. We readily feed the poor, give to the needy and try to love as best we can. Surely, we are excused fromtheawfulpunishment associated with sin. What is that punishment? Death. Not just once in physical death, but forever with eternal death. What? But I’m not that bad! My disease is only slight. Why am I just as guilty as those who are fully submersed in sin; those who have no concern for human life and others and perhaps have even committed murder. Surely, I’m not in the same category as they are, am I?
And yet, we are. You see, in God’s eyes spiritual leprosy is spiritual leprosy. There are no levels; not one form that isn’t as bad as another. It is all the same in His eyes. Does that make God a horrible God? Does that make Him the bad guy? Not so. You see, God is perfect. Not just a little bit perfect butentirelyandcompletely pure. Sin is sin. To God Who is perfect and perfectly pure, even the slightest of sins is just as dirty as the vilest. It may not seem fair to those of us who try to do good, it is still so when measured against total perfection.
Just the slightest of sins makes us guilty enough to suffer eternal death. However, just as Jesus cleansed the lepers with just His word, so sin is cured by this same Jesus Who paid the required sacrifice with His own life on the cross, and then rose from the grave after three days to resurrect our spirits in Him, and so curing our sin-disease once for all. The only thing we have to do to receive this spiritual healing is to accept His sacrifice and glorious resurrection for ourselves. We say, “Yes” to Jesus.
Only one of those ten lepers returned to give Jesus praise for what He had done. Does that mean the other nine were not healed? The Bible doesn’t say. Personally, I think they were healed. They just didn’t give God the glory. Their healing or lack of healing is something we won’t know until we hear it from either them in Heaven or God. The point however is that we should want to turn back to Jesus and give Him the glory and honor due Him. It just makes sense, doesn’t it?
Even though we are lepers, all, we can be free from our spiritual leprosy if we are willing to accept Him. We stand together equally in our disease. But we can be cleansed. It is the individual decision of each of us. What is yours? Will you repent and turn to God? Will you cry out to Jesus, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” — Jerry D. Ousley is the author of “Soul Challenge”, “Soul Journey”, “Ordeal”, “The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional” and his first novel “The Shoe Tree.” Newer books include “Finality” and “Dividing God’s Church.” Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge