Vineyard Church | Weekly Update January 17, 2024

Several months ago, I saw yet another in a years-long series of events that I can only characterize as the church persecuting itself. While this was not the first and definitely not the last time an event like this has occurred, it was closer in proximity due to the people involved. It is amazing to me to see how history repeats itself and how we can be complicit in this, whether positively or otherwise. 

The point of our blog today is leprosy.… Leprosy as a subtext in scripture provides imagery of sin, judgement, life, death, corrosion, and compassion. The leper was often referred to as the walking dead long before zombie movies were a cultural draw. The walking dead was an apt name for two reasons: one, the leper was moving closer to death due to their infection; but also, this infection killed tissue and left the suffering victim in a horrid state of rotting, dead flesh hung on a body fighting to stay alive.

Lepers were avoided for several reasons. First, and science has refuted this in our more modern time, leprosy was thought to be fantastically contagious. Another reason lepers were to be avoided was the smell of rotting flesh that accompanied their presence and the disgusting image of people who had begun to lose toes, fingers, and limbs as the disease killed more tissue. 

Also, the inflicted were thought to be deserving of such a disease, as sickness was seen as the judgement of God. The leper was unclean in the eyes of Jewish religious tradition, separated from community and forced to live their life of death on the outskirts of society. Because this was seen as divine judgement, and the judged were ceremonially unclean, they could not accomplish the tasks prescribed for atonement of their sin.

In many places in scripture, in many eras of church history, and in many places of our lived or observed relationship with the church, there are people who would metaphorically fit the description of a leper…walking dead due to sin, stinking of the rotting flesh of life, potentially contagious in their behavior, and ceremonially unclean so as to not be welcome into fellowship. In some cases, the metaphorical leper is so militant in their embrace of their condition that they are seen as enemies, flesh and blood representations of the evils embedded in our culture. Seen as a threat to spiritual or physical safety, these people are sometimes dehumanized, counter-attacked, ignored or avoided…. The lost become more lost.

The last few verses in chapter 1 of the Gospel of Mark give us the example of Jesus in this paradigm:

40 A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. 

41 Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” 42 Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. 43 Then Jesus sent him on his way with a stern warning: 44 “Don’t tell anyone about this. Instead, go to the priest and let him examine you. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy. This will be a public testimony that you have been cleansed.” Mark 1:40-44

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched the walking dead. While that is the point of several of our blogs, sermons, and conversations, it isn’t our point today. We know/knew that Jesus was going to do that. We know, even if we put this knowledge on the periphery, that this is an example for us…but back to the church, persecuting itself.

How do we collectively (at all levels, individual, family, local church, larger church context, global church) respond to those who are moved with compassion and go touch the lepers? When another person, especially an influential person, engages the modern-day walking dead, are they cheered and supported as a missionary of the Risen Lord, or are they chastised for daring to cross the line created between us and them?

Jesus defies the religious tradition and cultural norm in reaching out and touching the leper. He is about to be attacked for his compassion, a consequence of defying the cultural boundary between the lost and those tasked with the seeking. How do we see people willing to go to the lost, engage them where they are, and offer them compassionate rescue? Do we see it as accepting or condoning their sin? Do we question their theology and ask how far they are going to slide into deception? Do we pray for them, cover them in prayer for safety? Do we ask Jesus to be with them in the dark places? Do we follow them into the dark places or seek out other dark places with the direction of the Lord? Do we persecute the church or do we proclaim that we are the church?

Adam Greenwell
Pastor  |  Billings Vineyard Church
www.BillingsVineyard.org