I don't know if you've ever really seen a person with leprosy- I mean standing face to face with one. I'll tell you, the first few times I encountered a person with leprosy I was a bit taken back.
Leprosy is a disease that effects the nerves. The sensors at the end of the nerve cells die and no longer send pulses to the brain informing the individual of movements or sensations that should be, and are, painful. The effects of the nerves dying show themselves in the skin. Most of the deformities of individuals with leprosy are due to secondary injuries to hands or feet or eyes which have lost their sense of feeling. These injuries happen during the course of normal and routine tasks such as cooking, working and even walking.
As the nerves die in their hands and feet, they don't notice when they cut their toe or burn their finger. The wounds go undetected for long periods of time, getting more and more infected. With a decrease of blood circulation and the addition of infection, the extremities begin to decay. A man or woman with leprosy usually loses all fingers and toes as the open wounds slowly consume the person afflicted.
The parent(s) of 9 of the children in our home are afflicted with leprosy. Every second Saturday of every other month the parent(s) come to visit their children. It's a sight to behold.
Ten to fifteen men and women with leprosy walk down our street, heads turning everywhere, and enter the gate of our campus. It's touching to see them hold their perfectly beautiful little boys and girls, contrasting the unsightly deformities of their parents.
In India there's still a very demoralizing stigma attached to a person with leprosy. They're considered “untouchables”, the lowest members of the Hindu caste system. A high-caste Brahmin Hindu won't even allow his shadow to cross the path of a person with leprosy. If it does, the Brahmin must bathe 7 times to ceremonially purify himself ensuring his path of reincarnation will not be affected.
Persons with leprosy are shunned, despised and completely shut out of Indian society. They have no place.
When the parents of our children come I try to spent a little time with them. Not to distract them from their special time with their children, but to encourage and love them.
Just a few months ago one of the fathers approached me. I wanted to shake what was left of his hand but I felt awkward. Finally, I mustered up the courage.
As I reached out my open hand he stared me in the eyes with a look of bewilderment. His look seemed to be telling me that I was crazy. Didn't I notice the open wounds on his decaying hands?
Nevertheless, I took his hand and shook it firmly. He kept staring at me. The stare grew less and less a look of bewilderment and more and more an embracing gaze of welcome. Suddenly the other men sitting around us got up and all walked over reaching out their hands.
I took each stump, or what was left of their hands, and shook them all. The man I first touched came back three more times before he left that morning.
Now, whenever they come to visit they immediately reach out their hands without reservation. For the first time since they've acquired the disease they've been counted as an equal and the feeling brings them significance and confidence.
I'm unable to communicate with them. My Tamil language skills are limited to a vocabulary that is only effective with small children. Though I can't listen to them talk, I've still learned so much from them.
I've taken the time to evaluate my own form of leprosy. A leprosy that may not be as visibly repulsive to man, but terribly repulsive to God. The difference is that I chose my affliction. My leprosy is that of moral decay.
Maybe you know what I'm talking about. Do you remember when you were a small child? Do you remember the purity and innocence that your mind once had? I remember the first time I ever heard a swear word- it tore my conscience and broke my heart. I remember one of the first times I told a lie- even as I spoke it I noticed something inside me die. Even as a child I remember the first time I saw a pornographic image- it shocked me and made me sick.
Can you remember how you once responded to those kinds of things? How do we respond to them now?
How many times have you gone to a movie or turned on the television and heard a swear word? How many times have you seen a commercial, program or movie where a man or woman was barely clothed, perhaps even nude? Did it bother you as much as it did when you were a child?
I'm ashamed to say that I've grown accustomed to listening to foul language in movies. I'm ashamed to say that I almost don't even notice at times the immodesty of our North American culture. I've become a “moral leper”.
In Jeremiah 3:3, 6:15, and 8:12, the prophet writes of the people, “No, they have no shame at all: they do not even know how to blush”. I remember a time when I would have blushed at many of the things I see and hear on the radio, TV and at the movies. My conscience has grown hard and I've learned to accept those things.
The decay, or should I say “moral leprosy”, of our spiritual, ethical and moral sensitivity has destroyed what was once a purity of heart and mind. We've compromised our standards and values in the name of culture, entertainment and even in some cases in the name of art. We've forgotten how to blush and in a sense, become “moral lepers”.
Our “leprosy” isn't as visibly repulsive and sickening as that of a person with the physical disease, but it is repulsive to our Master. Jesus weeps over our loss of purity, over the hardening of our hearts. He reminds us that unless we become like children we'll never enter the Kingdom of heaven. That implies a lot, but I think one of the things it implies is a re-birth of our hearts and minds.
Examine yourself. Check your heart and mind to see whether or not you've become a “moral leper”. Do the things that once bothered and hurt you as a child still affect you? Have you come to accept the sin of the world, even your own sin, as normal? What kinds of music, programs, movies, books and conversation do you enjoy? Does it glorify God or does it add to the growing decay of your moral and ethical sensitivity?
“They don't even know how to blush…”