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Lessons From Lepers
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, California, USA
Delivery: 2006-06-10
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2006-06-22 23:49Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kir-lepers.php
Teaching unfallen beings takes a lot of time and TLC (tender loving care). But when it comes to us, herding cats would be easier, wouldn’t it? We are fallen beings, and more often than not, we are convinced that we are right. We are very hard to teach when we think we are right. But Jeremiah 17:9 is still with us, isn’t it?
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Even Jesus, at the end of class, still saw his students flailing about obliviously. In the garden of betrayal, Peter drew his sword and began an otoplasty on the servant of the high priest. Jesus was still the teacher, and He restored the ear, but disciple Peter should never have drawn his sword. Jesus’ students did not always make Him look good as a teacher.
God has a way of doing so many things with approaches that seem backwards to us. He often uses people and situations to humble us, because until we have received the two-by-four to the head treatment, we are not teachable. But He wants us to be teachable. So He humbles us. Wouldn’t it be easy to sit and listen to a great scientist or a well-known and highly respected physician, and to learn? But God often uses the most lowly to teach us.
In Bible times, few were more despised, more lowly, than the leper. Naturally then, God calls on the leper in order to teach us.
Matthew 8:1-4: The Inquiring Leper
Our first stop comes at Matthew 8:1-4 and the inquiring leper. Listen:
When He was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Here is a leper. He comes to Jesus. Doubtless he was full of concern, waiting for opportunity to approach Jesus. The crowds throng near Jesus and the leper waited as near he could, as covertly as he could. He must ask Jesus the question that burned in him, but he must do so before Jesus and his retinue would leave, and he wasn’t sure when that would be. Anxiously he lingered near but in the shadows. But at some time, angels intervened and made an opening for him; providence operated in his favor. His moment of opportunity had arrived. What would he do with it?
Quickly he moved toward Jesus. And drawing close he stopped and knelt down, and he looked up into the face of Jesus. Jesus looked back. He knew he was a leper.
It was hard to say anything; he was so choked with hope and shame. But he found voice to utter one provocative sentence: “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”
The words hung on the air. This, you see, is a very current question and has been so for a long time. For thousands of years demons have whispered to humans that God cannot care for us enough to heal us. He has devised whole systems of theology, he has painted God in dark, grim colors. He has pressed every theory to instill doubt and insinuation of evil upon the Creator. Satan, of course, is the consummate systematic theologian even as he is the master of the suggestive sale.
The theologian calls upon the words of God’s prophets and interprets them. The salesman calls upon the frailties of human nature to bend us and influence us to cross the line and make a commitment to the purchase. Satan combines powerful ideas with the subtleties of psychology. He uses our weakness. If we have been up for long hours, then he will work to his utmost to mislead us because it is at such times that we are unduly receptive to misinformation.
Look at this question of the leper. He was not asking whether Jesus could make him clean. He was not lacking in belief concerning Jesus’ authority to heal or His connection with the Father. His question was about his own value in God’s sight. For how many years had he, as a leper, been impressed by the world around him that he was a cursed piece of filth and that God had cursed him? But somehow he found legs to approach Jesus, and ask our Lord face to face, not if He had authority to heal, but if He would deign to heal him—
A leper.
Jesus’ answer thrills us. Because no matter who you are or how “leprous” you feel today, Jesus’ answer is also for you. “I will; be clean.” Jesus is ready, so extremely ready, in even this moment, to work in you to heal. Certainly, He works in answer to our plea for physical healing, and He answers in ways we do not always understand. But it is also true that He works in order to help us in our more spiritual needs. If you need help spiritually, Jesus says—and He says it without a moment’s hesitation—I am willing even now.”
The challenge is that few of us are as ready to receive to subdue self and receive power from God for life change and changed living by changed thinking. We want to be healed but retain our own ideas, our own certainties, our own peculiarities. But two cannot walk together unless they be agreed, and God will not compromise the principles of His kingdom. We are ready to receive good gifts, but we are still holding too tightly to misguided principles. If we are unteachable then He cannot change us.
The leper asked if God cared for such a lowly person as him. Would He care to do anything for a leper. But this leper was far ahead of some of us. He had discovered humility. He was surrendered completely. And he will go into the kingdom before those who refuse to grow. Therefore let us consider the lesson of the inquiring leper.
Luke 17:11-19: The Thankful Leper
Our next lesson comes to us from Luke 17:11-19):
And it came to pass, as He went to Jerusalem, that He passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered into a certain village, there met Him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when He saw them, He said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And He said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.
Jesus has begun on the long road to Jerusalem. Ten lepers shout to him from a distance, asking mercy. Jesus’ reply is, again, unspectacular. he makes no rousing speeches, nor preaches in excited cadence. He very simply asks them to go and show themselves to the priest. Mind you, they are still leprous when He asks them this.
Likely, the one who in a moment we will call the thankful leper, was the first to turn and begin his journey to see the priests. Someone moved first. But then, as he was walking, he noticed the change begin in his flesh. He felt new life manifesting in his body. In a thrill, he realized that the power of God was present to heal and was at work in him in that moment. He has not gone for yet either, for still he is within voice of Jesus. he stops in the middle of the road and turns around. Surely he runs. He comes and falls at the feet of Jesus and bowing before Him tells Him exactly how He feels. He pours forth thankfulness.
But the other nine are rejoicing along the road in their new found vigor. They are on their way to see the priests and have not stopped to thank Jesus. The punch line is of course that the one who was thankful was a hated Samaritan. The Jewish lepers have uttered no thanks.
There is an important lesson here about how God works with man; how man can cooperate with God. There is some insightful theology here. We miss opportunities when we veer straight to the writings of Paul, and even then we often aren’t hearing Paul but are interpreting Paul as others have long after him and more often than not without even the same theology as him. When God asks us to move, we are to move forward in faith, often even before we see the answer. It is as we are obeying that we are changed. God works and man works at the same time. In the very act of duty God speaks and gives His blessing; as we trust and move in faith, God works accordingly. what we must have is what the thankful leper had: a faith that works (Galatians 5:6).
Sometimes we deal in raw obedience. But God wants us to have a joy in us. He wants us to benefit from a thankful spirit. When God does something for us, how will we respond? Should we not pause, turn back, and thank Him? Psalm 100:2-4 says;
Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.
In Colossians 3:15 we are commanded to be thankful .Did you know that?
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
In Romans 1:21, 22 Paul writes concerning those who are unthankful and become deceived worshippers of self:
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
If we want to be full for God rather than empty for ourselves, we want to learn from the leper. Let’s be more thankful.
2 Kings 5:1-27: The Humble Leper
Now, 2 Kings 5:1-27, where we find the humble leper:
Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper. And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife. And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy. And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel. And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy. And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes, and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover a man of his leprosy? wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me. And it was so, when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel. So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean. But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage. And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean? Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant. But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused. And Naaman said, Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules’ burden of earth? for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. And he said unto him, Go in peace. So he departed from him a little way. But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, Behold, my master hath spared Naaman this Syrian, in not receiving at his hands that which he brought: but, as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him. So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well? And he said, All is well. My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there be come to me from mount Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets: give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of garments. And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents. And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bare them before him. And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou, Gehazi? And he said, Thy servant went no whither. And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards, and vineyards, and sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and maidservants? The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed for ever. And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow.
We recall the story. Naaman was the top general in Syria. His valor and skill had served him well and this extraordinary man had risen, in spite of his leprosy, to the heights of the top military slot in Syria. But leprosy was regarded with great dread throughout the land, and when it was heard that there might be a possibility of cure, he did not linger, but immediately pursued it.
The Syrians had taken captives in Israel and even though this young woman was a captive in a foreign land, she desired the good of her imprisoner. She told them of a prophet of God whom she was sure could heal him. The king of Syria finds out and sends a letter and a stack of dollars to the king of Israel, asking him to cause that his general Naaman be healed. But the king of Israel, as kings of Israel often did, had not so much confidence in God or in Elisha, and thought that Syria was looking for a pretext to go to war with him. Nevertheless, arrangement is made and Naaman travels to the home of Elisha.
But Elisha does not come out to him. In a very low key reception, Elisha sends his servant out with the simple message, go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and you will become clean.
Naaman is enraged. He takes offense. Although the prophet had said he would be healed, he had not worked according to Naaman’s expectation. He expected thunder and lightening and fireworks and seismic power. And he is provincial too. The Jordan is a mere creek he thinks, in comparison to the rivers of Syria. But his servants prevail upon him and he relents, and goes to Jordan, and washes seven times. And guess what happens? He is cured.
Here is a man who repented. He calmed down, and accepted God’s quiet, low key, even humbling approach to him. Again, this is where some of us part ways with the leper. We are too sure that we are important and we should receive some extraordinary reception by God. The skies should darken. Or glow. God should show His might and shake the earth. But God’s response to Naaman was to offer healing for a soul willing to hear it from a messenger, and wash in Jordan.
Naaman’s first thought after his surprise at the quiet reception of the mighty general, was probably how foolish he would look standing in the Jordan in front of his entourage washing seven times. No one wants to look like a fool in their own eyes, let alone in front of others. God was asking the leper to trust Him. Naaman’s expectations could have kept him a leper. But he was willing—after he calmed down—to try it God’s way.
Will we learn a lesson from Naaman?
There are other very interesting bits to the larger Naaman story. But we now take our leave. But come just two chapters forward to chapter seven for one more lesson.
2 Kings 7:1-20: The Desperate Leper
In 2 Kings 7:1-20 we have one last lesson. Jerusalem is surrounded. Consider:
Then Elisha said, Hear ye the word of the Lord; Thus saith the Lord, To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria. Then a lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, Behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate: and they said one to another, Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die. And they rose up in the twilight, to go unto the camp of the Syrians: and when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots, and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host: and they said one to another, Lo, the king of Israel hath hired against us the kings of the Hittites, and the kings of the Egyptians, to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight, and left their tents, and their horses, and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. And when these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver, and gold, and raiment, and went and hid it; and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Then they said one to another, We do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household. So they came and called unto the porter of the city: and they told them, saying, We came to the camp of the Syrians, and, behold, there was no man there, neither voice of man, but horses tied, and asses tied, and the tents as they were. And he called the porters; and they told it to the king’s house within. And the king arose in the night, and said unto his servants, I will now show you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we be hungry; therefore are they gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the field, saying, When they come out of the city, we shall catch them alive, and get into the city. And one of his servants answered and said, Let some take, I pray thee, five of the horses that remain, which are left in the city, (behold, they are as all the multitude of Israel that are left in it: behold, I say, they are even as all the multitude of the Israelites that are consumed:) and let us send and see. They took therefore two chariot horses; and the king sent after the host of the Syrians, saying, Go and see. And they went after them unto Jordan: and, lo, all the way was full of garments and vessels, which the Syrians had cast away in their haste. And the messengers returned, and told the king. And the people went out, and spoiled the tents of the Syrians. So a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. And the king appointed the lord on whose hand he leaned to have the charge of the gate: and the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died, as the man of God had said, who spake when the king came down to him. And it came to pass as the man of God had spoken to the king, saying, Two measures of barley for a shekel, and a measure of fine flour for a shekel, shall be to morrow about this time in the gate of Samaria: And that lord answered the man of God, and said, Now, behold, if the LORD should make windows in heaven, might such a thing be? And he said, Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not eat thereof. And so it fell out unto him: for the people trode upon him in the gate, and he died.
Here, not one but four desperate lepers. The city is surrounded. They reason. “Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.”
Caught between the city and the army laying siege to is, they determine to hazard themselves outside the wall. The city, with scarce supplies and close quarters, would not be anxious to let in many lepers either. But these go out and eventually happen upon empty tents. They find that god has worked and led the Syrians to fear and they have left behind all their stuff. The lepers eat and are filled; it is the best meal they have had in a long time. They finally go back to share the good news with the city (where they might have been denied entry).
When you are desperate, you are more willing to take risks. We are often less likely to change our ways when we think we can just keep on doing things the same old way. If we have not changed much, maybe we are not desperate enough. Maybe we are not desperate enough to risk living outside of the walls, outside of our familiar environs, outside of our habits and past training. So we linger, living on breadcrumbs, while we might eat the repast of fighting men. Have we learned the lesson of doing and daring for God? Of—sometimes at least—doing something... new?
Conclusion
The lepers have lessons for us. But we can say, Oh, those are just lepers, those are just dregs, those are just people to pity. But we will miss their lessons. You see, they are not their lessons; they are God’s lessons. And who is the class? God is laboring to teach us, His children.
And so, will we be willing to be inquisitive? Will we be willing to believe that God loves us and can deliver us, even us? Will we learn to act on God’s commands,and then will we be thankful when He works? Will we learn the lessons of humility, that God may have to humble us before healing us in order to accomplish His spiritual purpose? Will we learn to be desperate enough to try to do something a new way, a way that God may be seeking to share with us?
These questions prompted by lessons from lepers. May we respond to the leading of our Lord, and apply these things personally. Why miss the blessing? It may feel safe to remain a caterpillar, but we can take wing and become something more if we are willing to be what God designs. GCO
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