Here is an except from my new book Threads. The book is available at amazon.com for $14 and from me for $12 plus shipping (contact me at gailcatlas@gmail.com)
Read Luke 17:11-37
The Leper’s
Friend
Amos gathered his robe around him
as he struggled to stand. He looked carefully at his feet – yes, they were flat
on the rock. One thing a leper had to always keep in mind was that the lack of
feeling in his lower limbs could have him place his weight on feet that were
twisted. Sometimes that led to broken bones in the foot, which was devastating.
“Hurry,
Amos!” Enoch yelled. “We’ll miss Him!”
One
of the other men grabbed Amos under the elbow. The halt helping the lame, Amos chuckled to himself. It wasn’t a
completely terrible life. They had their little colony, they assisted each
other. None of the outcasts cared that Amos was a Samaritan; one pariah was as
good, or bad, as another. Friends and wives from outside brought food in most
of the time.
Who
was he kidding? It was a horrible way to live. Separated from their loved ones,
scorned by all who came close enough to see them. Eyes and noses being eaten
away, feet and hands bent in unnatural ways, getting more useless every day.
That’s why all ten of them were hobbling their way to the road where rumor had
it the Teacher was coming.
“There
He is,” cried Enoch, clutching his friend’s arm, nearly sending both of them
tumbling down the hill.
“Jesus,
Master, have pity on us,” another one of them called out. The rest echoed his
words. They were still quite a distance from the crowd surrounding Jesus, but
amazingly, He looked up at them.
“Go,”
He shouted to them, “show yourselves to the priests.”
The
master resumed talking to His disciples who were clustered around Him.
“That’s
it?” Amos said.
The
other lepers murmured. They, too, expected more. They had heard Jesus had
touched some of their kind. To feel another’s hand other than each others’
would have been so good . . . .
“Let’s
do what He says,” Enoch cautiously turned toward the road to the village.
“Yes,
come on.” The others began their slow, watchful steps.
“My
legs feel stronger!” one of them exclaimed. Amos looked at Enoch’s hand, which
was clutching his, helping him over a slight bump.
“Enoch,
your skin!”
They
all held out their arms and gazed at each other’s faces. The sores had
disappeared. The olive-pink tone of normal flesh shone. They lifted their legs
and pulled back the sleeves of their robes. They were healthy!
The
men began to run. But soon Amos realized he was the only one going toward the
road Jesus was on. He didn’t stop to think about it.
He
caught up with the group and forced his way to the center. “Oh praise the
everlasting Lord!” he cried, as he fell before Jesus. “Thank You, Jesus! Thank
You, my Savior!” His tears wet the Master’s feet.
Jesus
had stopped walking. He put His hand on Amos’ head and smiled. Then He looked
up.
“Were
not all ten cleansed?” He asked. “Where are the other nine? Was no one found to
return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Amos
did not take offense. He felt the love Jesus had for him in His tone of voice,
in the touch of His hand.
Then
Jesus said to him, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well.”
Still
overcome with his new wholeness, Amos watched the mob move on. Excited chatter,
probably about him, reached his ears, but he didn’t want to follow them. He
reached up and felt his nose. It was fully formed again – the parts that had
been eroded by the leprosy were whole once more. His feet were straight, his
hands a delightful color. He jumped up, just to see if he could.
He
landed solidly on the road. Amos threw back his head and laughed, then shouted,
“Praise You, oh praise You, Almighty God!”
He
began to run toward his old home. He could hold his wife again. He could lift
his children high into the air. He would make sure they knew what God had done
through Jesus. He would see that they understood that Jesus was God’s own
Messiah.
As
he covered the distance, he thought about Enoch. They hadn’t known each other
before they had both been afflicted, of course. Enoch was a true Jew, able to
trace his ancestry back to Levi. Before, he would have had nothing to do with a
Samaritan.
But
they had become good friends in their time in the colony, more like brothers,
even. They had shared their hopes in the coming Messiah, talked about Scripture
long into the nights when pain and thirst had kept them from sleeping. Why
hadn’t Enoch come back to thank Jesus?
Amos
detoured. As much as he wanted to see Sheba again, Enoch was more important.
What if the healing had been reversed because he hadn’t shown proper gratitude?
But
although Amos searched the village – and the next one over – he couldn’t find
Enoch. The great joy of his reunion with his family was slightly shadowed by
his troubled feelings for his friend.
When
he explained to Sheba all that had happened, she delighted him by sharing his
concern. Not just for Enoch, but for following Jesus. They quickly joined
others who believed in Him and wanted to let Him change their lives. Amos never
went back to farming, selling off their land. The family moved from place to
place as Amos picked up odd jobs here and there, listening to Jesus whenever
they could and always, always, looking for Enoch.
They
found some of the others. Amos was relieved to know their healing had lasted,
although some of them reverted to treating him as any other Samaritan. No one
seemed to know anything about Enoch.
Amos
took his family to Jerusalem for the Passover. They eagerly spread palms on the
ground before Jesus as He came riding the donkey into town. The atmosphere was
so full of excitement – people shouting words of King David, children singing
praises, everyone anxious to see what Jesus would do.
“I
wonder,” Amos said to Sheba that night. “Will He single-handedly conquer the
Romans?”
“Is
that possible?” his wife whispered, not wanting to wake the children who slept
next to her in the tent just outside the city.
“He’s
God!” Amos knew it, but he couldn’t understand it. “I wish I knew more
Scripture. I wish Enoch were here.”
“Maybe
he is,” Sheba replied, encouraging as ever. “Maybe we’ll find him this week.”
Jesus’
actions during the week surprised everyone. First He made the Jewish leaders
angry by attacking the buyers and sellers at the temple. Then He continued to
talk in such a way as to irritate them even more. Amos followed closely,
hanging on the Teacher’s words about the coming of the Kingdom. It was all so
difficult to sort out. How could the Son of Man come when He was already here?
Amos needed Enoch to tell him more about what the Prophet Daniel had said.
Maybe then it would make sense. As a Samaritan, Amos only knew the books of
Moses; they did not have the prophets that the Jews studied.
The
day before the Sabbath came. Sorrow filled Amos and his family as he shielded
them from the crucifixion. They mourned the whole next day, along with many
confused devotees.
Then
the news – slowly, rumors at first, then like the buzz of a huge swarm of bees:
“He’s alive!”
The
next few weeks were like nothing Amos had ever experienced. Believers would
gather, and Jesus would be there. He was unpredictable, coming and going as He
willed, but always with an exhilaration that couldn’t be contained. Amos
understood that Jesus would go away again to be with the Father and then come
again to take His own with Him. More made sense now, even though the timing was
still unknown.
When
the ones closest to Jesus told about His ascension into heaven, Amos knew he
would continue to meet with the believers.
And
the first time he did, Enoch was there.
Amos
stared across the crowd. He feared he was imagining it – so many months spent
looking, searching, and there he was. What
am I waiting for? He nearly knocked himself in the head as he rushed over.
“Is
it you?” Enoch opened his arms. The feeling of being embraced by the only one
who had touched him those many years came back. Both wept.
“Where
have you been?” they asked simultaneously. Their words tumbled over each other
until they collapsed in laughter. Arms around shoulders, they made their way to
a quiet place.
“You
see, I had to obey Jesus,” Enoch said. “I had to go to the priest and show him
I was cleansed. I had to find the live clean birds, cedar wood, the scarlet
yarn, and hyssop. We went through the killing and the sprinkling, then I had to
shave my head and wash my clothes and wait seven days, cloistered away to see
if the healing was complete. And more shaving and bathing and sacrificing.
Finally, I was pronounced clean.”
Nodding,
Amos remembered all the rules laid out in Leviticus.
“So
much to go through, when it was so obvious Jesus had made you well in an
instant,” he told Enoch.
“Yes,”
agreed his friend. “But one of the duties of priests is to teach God’s people
the difference between the holy and the common, the unclean and the clean. I
know, I was a priest before my leprosy.”
Amos
stared at him. This he hadn’t known.
“Oh,
I’ve thought a lot about it since,” Enoch went on. “I know how Jesus cleansed
me. I know He did more than take away my sickness.”
“Well
said,” Amos agreed. “It’s as if we’ve been freed from such a burden. That all
our sins were washed clean with that healing.”
Enoch
jumped up. “That’s exactly what happened! Jesus’ healing of our outward disease
showed us what He was going to do in us. He died in our place. He took on
Himself our inward sinfulness and then He conquered it in His resurrection!”
Amos
kept silent for a few minutes, absorbing the reality of what Enoch had said.
Then he asked, “So are you still a priest? Do you go through the process of
cleansing with lepers?”
“No,”
Enoch answered with a smile. “Not in that way. I still see the importance of
making people aware of the distinction between holy and profane. But Jesus
makes it a lot simpler.”
“He
makes us holy,” Amos chimed in. “Jesus fulfilled all the Law required, didn’t
He?” Not bad for a Samaritan, he
thought to himself. “I grasp it. We don’t need all the animal killing – they
were just pictures of His death.”
“I
never got to thank Jesus in person for what He did,” Enoch went on. Amos’ eyes
opened wide. How did Enoch know what had concerned him for so many months?
“By
the time I got done with all the rituals, Jesus was crucified. And I never saw
Him after His resurrection, although I’ve talked to many who did.”
“I’m
sure He knows of your gratitude . . .” Amos began, but Enoch interrupted.
“So
I’ve dedicated my life to showing my thankfulness by telling everyone I meet
what Jesus did for me. Not just the healing of my leprosy, but the salvation of
my soul. Of the making a sinful man holy. Of the change that continues to
purify me, every minute I’m alive.”
“Let’s
do that together, my friend.” Amos stood and wrapped his arms around Enoch. The
two went off together to face the world.
