“39 And Jesus went throughout all Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.40 A man with a skin disease came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I am willing. Be made clean!” 42 Immediately the skin disease left him, and he was made clean” Mark 1:39-42.
I love this story because of the way that the leper prays to Jesus, asking for healing only if Jesus is willing to heal Him. The leper know Jesus has the power to heal, but the the real issue is the healing of this leper fits into the plan of Jesus for this man’s life. Jesus must be willing to heal, should He heal. What matters is what Jesu wishes for each of us. So when someone sick asks me to pray, I pray, but always asking God to heal if He is willing, if this healing is within the plan of God for this person.
For lepers, this kind of prayer, this kind of faith, is particularly powerful because leprosy is a long and slow and very crippling disease. I saw many in Asia and Africa with leprosy. Many years ago when I was living and working in Hong Kong, I traveled to Rangoon, Burma. Among many things, I went there to deliver clandestinely some bottles of grape wine to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Burma. I never met the man, but clearly he was so traditional that he refused to use wines made from anything other than grapes. Grape wine was not available in Burma at that time, only wines made from local berries and tropical fruit. Arrangements were made for me to deliver the wine, so I was driven to a secret location where the local law enforcement would not follow. There I would hand over the wine to someone who would take the bottles to the Bishop, bottles I had managed to hide in my luggage during my flight to Hong Kong. As soon as my private car headed out of the city of Rangoon along the rutty dirt road, a road long ago washed out by months of monsoon rains, a police car with siren blaring quickly pulled up behind us. Law enforcement somehow learned of this atrocious breech of the law in which I found myself unwittingly involved.
We sped along the old back road heading out of Rangoon, bouncing up and down along the way, managing to keep a short three or four car lengths ahead of the police who followed me and the drive like criminals! After nearly 30 minutes of this nerve-racking escapade, my driver suddenly and without warning pushed down hard on the breaks of our rusting 1950’s era Mercedes Benz, and turned sharply through the gates of the Rangoon Leprosarium! The last thing I saw as I turned and looked behind, was the police car idling at the gates, with the officer standing beside his cruiser with his hands on his hips, regretting our disappearance into the compound of lepers, disgusted with our escape.
For three days I lived among the lepers, most of whom had crossed over from China where they had been expelled because of their disease. With a translator in tow I visited one bungalow after another, praying with and listening to their stories. As the afternoon sun was quickly disappearing we celebrated the Mass together and then ate a communal meal of prawns and rice, accompanied by delicious tropical fruits. These were the most loving people I had ever met. Within the confines of the Leprosarium they received health care adequate enough to confine their leprosy from spreading beyond their fingerless hands and toeless feet, many already missing noses which long ago had been eaten away by this disease. Some were blinded by the disease. They shared stories of their love for God and sang Chinese and Burmese hymns, until finally on the third day I was told that someone came during the previous night from the Bishop’s office to gather the bottles of wine, and my driver would return around noon that day to take me home.
Dear friends, what I remember the most about the lepers in Rangoon, is what I remember of that single leper who was healed in our parable — the lepers of Rangoon lived their lives immersed in gratitude to and faith in God. They trusted God and they remind me often of the point to today’s parable of Jesus — that we are all called to live with hearts of faith in God. May we all trust God, and may that be our prayer today.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding”
Proverbs 3:5.
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28.
“The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him” Psalm 28:7.
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