“Unclean! Unclean!”
In Biblical times, lepers had to cry out this chilling refrain. Not only that, millennia before covid, Scripture already laid out health protocols of social distancing and quarantine. “As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp” (Leviticus 13:46).
What added to the lepers’ anguish was missing out on the joys of normal social interaction. Imagine being barred from attending a wedding celebration, holding a baby in your arms, or entering a place of worship.
Sounds familiar?
Okay, maybe there is a point where comparing leprosy and covid is like comparing apples and oranges. It’s not as if covid patients will get disfigured or lose their fingers. But it is debilitating and life-threatening in its own way.
And it disrupts relationships. It is Day 3 of my isolation and I soooo miss holding the Queen’s hands. Hands that are wearing out because she had to bear the brunt of housework, cooking and laundry, all by her lonesome.
But there is hope. The same Jesus Christ who was merciful to literal lepers is as merciful to us metaphoric lepers.
The Gospels famously narrate how Jesus healed lepers. Don’t think of this simply as healing stunts. In His time, if you touched a leper, you will be considered unclean, too. Yet that was what Jesus did! Luke 5:13 pointedly said that He “reached out his hand and touched the [leper].”
In compassion so utter that it can only be divine, we see an astonishing reversal. The Clean became unclean. The unclean became clean.
Yes, we covid patients have to be “cut off” from society, whether it is for 7, 14 or 21 days. In severe cases, there is the specter of death. We wonder when this pandemic will end. I’m speculating whether it will end at all. Don’t tell me the Greek alphabet will run out of letters before we can declare the virus has been vanquished.
I really cannot promise you that your covid will be healed. That is not mine to declare, let alone having the power to make it so.
But Jesus, the Clean for the Unclean, shares our travails. If He is truly the center of your life, then you are not really alone. Even if it’s just you and your mirror reflection in a 4 meter x 5 meter room.
Do you know this Jesus? More than hoping you get boosted, I do hope you have this peace that can only come by faith in Jesus Christ.
Shalom to you.
January 9, 2022
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