Are You a Pariah?

 

A Series on Living in the Wilderness: Part 2
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Luke 5:12-16 

[This is Part 2 in a series of looking at people who lived in the wilderness. Not necessarily the wilderness of nature, but the wilderness of life. In fact, there are times when we all feel like we are living in the wilderness. During those times, it’s important to remember that the Lord is faithful. That He loves you and is always with you.]

  

During the height of COVID, when school was being done remotely from home, my Grandson tested positive. When his parents told him, he started crying and asked if he was going to die. He may have felt like it, since he had to isolate in his bedroom for ten days while everyone else went freely around the house.

 

Sometime later, when school was meeting in person, my oldest granddaughter tested positive. As a result, she had to stay home for a week, falling behind in school and missing out on basketball. In both cases, I would guess that my grandkids felt like a pariah.

 

For sure, the leper did! You can tell from the passage that he was desperate.

 

¹² While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”         NIV

 

Notice that the leper didn’t ask Jesus to heal him, but to make him clean. This goes back to the Exodus, when the Israelites were camped at Mount Sanai and Moses was receiving the law directly from the Lord.

 

⁴⁵ “Anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ ⁴⁶ As long as they have the disease they remain unclean. They must live alone; they must live outside the camp.      Leviticus 13 NIV

 

It’s no wonder that the leper was so desperate. He was a pariah of the worse kind; a social, physical and spiritual outcast living in the wilderness. He couldn’t defile the camp where the presence of the holy Lord resided. He had little hope.

 

According to the Mosaic Law, to be clean required not only being rid of the defiling disease, but also an animal sacrifice with the shedding of blood. Jesus provided both of these for the leper.

 

¹³ The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴ How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!    Hebrew 9 NIV

 

Have you ever felt like an outsider; like a pariah? Have you ever lived in the wilderness, outside the camp of the Lord? Jesus can make you clean. Like the leper, all you need to do is ask.

 

Copyright 2022 Joseph B Williams