Would You Hug A Leper?

You can find references to leprosy throughout the Bible, but have you ever personally known a leper, let alone touched a person diagnosed with leprosy? It is recorded several times in the Gospels that Jesus touched lepers – and they were healed.

In biblical times the boundaries set by the legal system of the Pharisees separated a leper not only physically, but of more impact, spiritually. Leprosy was considered evidence of sin, either in that person’s life or in one of his family member’s.

For one of the lepers that Jesus touched, the disease was not only destroying him physically, but it kept him isolated from his family and his faith. For years, no one had touched or even approached him. The law required him to live outside the community, to cry “unclean, unclean” whenever anyone approached. He was the walking dead—existing, but not truly living.

Then he heard about Jesus. Hope stirred as Jesus came toward him, and he cried out loudly from about 50 feet away (as the law required). Though a leper could have been stoned for approaching a Holy Man, this was the leper’s last, desperate chance to annul the death sentence of his disease.

Does this sound familiar? Many alcohol and drug addicts can identify with this leper. In my recently published book, Only One Cure, you will read testimonies of men and women whose former lives were lived in a similar way to the lepers we read about in the Bible.

One of several testimonies in the book is of a man who has been set free from his addiction. He says, “If there had been another way, I would have tried it. There are so many things an addict tries to hold onto until they are isolated, sick, depressed, defeated, abandoned, kept at a distance, demoralized, desperately dependent on others, and a nuisance to society. That describes where I was. I tried doctors, rehabs, hospitals, medications, but I found that nothing worked. No one comes back from heroin, and no one gets clean from meth. You think your life is over. After a couple of friends relapse and die, or you relapse a couple of times, you start believing that lie that you will die, too. So, why even try? Why continue to live and break the hearts of the people who love you?”

If you were, or are, an addict, you may remember being hopeless and written off. If you are someone who loves that addict and has tried everything in your power to help, you may feel hopeless, as well.

Jesus looked at the leper the way no one else had looked at him. This man was unlovable and physically repugnant. Yet, Jesus had compassion on him, and His heart was moved. Jesus reached out His hand and touched the leper. Jesus was not afraid of the unclean. All it took for this leper to be healed and made clean was Jesus and His words, “Be cleansed.” The entire trajectory of this man’s life was changed in a moment by the Word and the touch of the Lord. (Matthew 8:2-3)

Likewise, there is hope today for someone who is hopelessly dominated by life-controlling issues such as substance abuse, eating disorders or even being controlled by another person. Today, such things are destroying people just as much as leprosy does.

Family members who live with an addict are torn between how to help their loved one and how to avoid being sucked into the addict’s world. Want to know how to help your loved one? There is only one cure for addiction and His name is Jesus. Read the true stories of those who found hope, freedom, and life through a proven, age-old source: the Bible.