Cleaned

Scripture: Leviticus 13: 1-8

Sermon: Cleaned

Topics: leprosy, cancer, cleaned

Preached: September 17, 2017

Rev. Mike Abma

Preamble: We will be reading from Leviticus 13 this evening.

It reads more like a medical textbook than a section of Scripture.

And the role of the Priest in this chapter seems more like a doctor.

We will only read 8 verses, but it goes on for 2 chapters.

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:

2 When a person has on the skin of his body a swelling or an eruption or a spot, and it turns into a leprous disease on the skin of his body, he shall be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons the priests. 

³The priest shall examine the disease on the skin of his body, and if the hair in the diseased area has turned white and the disease appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a leprous disease; after the priest has examined him he shall pronounce him ceremonially unclean. ⁴But if the spot is white in the skin of his body, and appears no deeper than the skin, and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest shall confine the diseased person for seven days. ⁵The priest shall examine him on the seventh day, and if he sees that the disease is checked and the disease has not spread in the skin, then the priest shall confine him for seven days more. ⁶The priest shall examine him again on the seventh day, and if the disease has abated and the disease has not spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him clean; it is only an eruption; and he shall wash his clothes, and be clean.

 ⁷But if the eruption spreads in the skin after he has shown himself to the priest for his cleansing, he shall appear again before the priest. ⁸The priest shall make an examination, and if the eruption has spread in the skin, the priest shall pronounce him unclean; it is a leprous disease.

This is the Word of the Lord

Thanks be to God

INTRODUCTION

Leprosy is a mystery.

We have all heard of it.

We have all heard the Old Testament stories of people

afflicted with leprosy:

Moses and Miriam;

General Namaan, and King Uzziah.

We have all heard the New Testament stories of people

cured of leprosy:

the leper cured in Mark 1

the 10 lepers cured in Luke 17.

Today, when the word leprosy is used, it refers to a specific medical condition

known as Hanson’s Disease.

Hanson’s Disease is caused by slow-growing bacteria that often affect

nerves, or skin, or eyes.

Untreated, Hanson’s Disease can result in

crippled hands and feet,

paralysis,

and even blindness.

But thankfully, Hanson’s Disease is now easily treated.

Over the course of 6-12 months, a patient can be completely cured.

The last 50 years have seen an exerted effort to rid the world of Hanson’s Disease.

You may have read recently of the passing of a German nun named Ruth Pfau.

Ruth Pfau was not only a Catholic nun, but also a doctor.

She came to Pakistan in 1960 as a young woman of 30.

For the next 40 years, she worked in Pakistan, setting up 157 different leprosy

clinics to combat Hanson’s Disease.

Just this past summer, Dr. Ruth Pfau passed away at the age of 87.

She was given a State funeral in Pakistan – the only woman in Pakistan ever to receive this type of honor.

Why was she given such an honor?

Because through her work, leprosy has pretty well been eradicated in Pakistan.

What Dr. Ruth Pfau did in Pakistan, Dr. Paul Brand did in India.

You may have heard of Dr. Paul Brand, the good friend of Philip Yancey.

He was also a doctor who spent his career in India combatting leprosy – Hanson’s Disease.

Because of the efforts of people like Dr. Ruth Pfau and Dr. Paul Brand, the World Health Organization now feels that a leprosy-free world is in sight. In fact, they have set the year 2020 as the target date for no more new cases of the disease.

That is quite something.

LEPROSY —

Should leprosy be eradicated from the world, would that lessen the impact of the Biblical passages that refer to leprosy?

I do not think so.

The truth is, modern day leprosy – Hanson’s Disease – seems to be very different from what is described in passages like ours in Leviticus 13.

The symptoms in Leviticus 13 are simply different from the symptoms of

Hanson’s Disease.

Also, Hanson’s Disease only afflicts people – human beings.

But at the end of Leviticus 13, the text describes leprosy infecting clothing.

And at the end of Leviticus 14, the text describes leprosy infecting buildings.

So suddenly this leprosy in Leviticus looks more like a mold or a mildew, than a bacterial infection.

The truth is, we simply do not know exactly what Biblical leprosy was – thus that footnote in our Bible’s –

“leprosy — an uncertain disease.”

What we can say about Biblical leprosy — all forms of Biblical leprosy – is that it was a disease that went deep.

If the symptoms were superficial, no deeper than the skin, then it was not leprosy.

But if the symptoms were deeper than the skin,

if they seemed to come from deep inside a person,

then it was leprosy.

In considering leprosy, I think it would also be helpful understanding the Old Testament way of seeing things.

In the Old Testament Torah

Order was clean; Chaos was unclean.

Life was the clean; Death was unclean.

Leprosy, then, could be seen or described

as a form of death or chaos

that was deep inside the body

but which was somehow showing itself on the outside of the body

in the form of spots, or eruptions, or swelling.

CANCER

Few of us will ever again run into someone with leprosy – Hanson’s Disease.

But we will all run into someone with an illness

in which rogue cells are causing chaos in the body.

We will all run into someone with an illness

in which a form of death has invaded the body.

Where the Old Testament Priest,

carefully diagnosed someone

and declared them either clean or unclean,

today pathologists carefully analyze biopsies

and declare the results either benign or malignant.

Yes, I am talking about cancer – the great scourge of many.

Most of the cancer patients I know

simply want the cancer out of their body –

cut it out through surgery;

burn it off through radiation;

poisoned it away through chemotherapy.

Do what it takes to get it Out of our bodies.

Just as the leper simply wanted the leprosy gone, done, over

cancer patients simply want the cancer gone, done, over.

JESUS OUR PRIEST

Perhaps that is partly why we use military language when we describe cancer.

So-and-so is fighting cancer.

So-and-so is battling cancer.

It is a war.

But here is the thing that is so hard to admit –

even if surgery somehow cuts all the cancer out,

even if radiation somehow burns it all away,

even if chemotherapy somehow poisons it all,

the truth is, this may defeat cancer, but it does not defeat death.

This may defeat cancer, but this only delays death.

The harder truth for all of us,

whether we have cancer or not

is that death dwells deeply within us – all of us.

And here is where what Jesus came to do is so overwhelmingly comforting.

While we were still weak,

while we were still afflicted,

Jesus carried our diseases

He bore our infirmities.

While we were afflicted with leprosy or cancer or whatever ailment,

Jesus became as one from whom we hide our faces.

The one who is Life, became for us death,

so that all of us infected with death, might participate in his Life.

The is the essence of the good news.

Christ on the cross reached down into our death,

So that he might pull us into his life.

He is not only the Priest who declares us clean and alive.

He is the holy sacrifice who makes us clean and alive.

COMMUNION

In a moment we will celebrate communion.

You will be invited forward to take the bread, to take the cup.

Though we are all mortal, infected with death,

yet, we are not isolated.

We are called together, into this communion,

To share bread, to share a cup.

We are all mortal, infected with death,

And yet, we celebrate with hope and joy

Because the bread which we eat

And the cup which we drink

Is a sharing in Jesus Christ –

The one who entered our death

So that we might enter his life.

The Lamb of God has made us clean.

The Lamb of God has made us holy.

The Lamb of God has made us alive in him forevermore.

The Lamb of God has invited us to his feast,

Which we celebrate now

And will celebrate with him again

At the great feast of the Lamb.