Being in the midst of a pandemic, we can appreciate how disease can threaten society and how we have to think seriously and take certain measures to protect and, the buzz word of the year, “mitigate” against spread. Even now, it seems the numbers are back on the rise again. It almost seems like we’ve had to deal with disease since the beginning of time itself. Throughout history, there’s been a number of pandemics, and pestilence has affected numbers large and small. Nowadays we’ve been granted an increase in medical knowledge and have treatments to help cure many diseases. However, there are still many which have no cure, or no treatment, or the treatment might be hit or miss. Personally, we’ve lost several friends and family members to cancer as I’m sure some of you have. Even some of our fellow brothers and sisters have been or were afflicted with certain incurable diseases. Certainly several come to mind, Tom Ryan, Bonita Kile and others. And so when we encounter such diagnoses, fear can surface front and center. Life threatening diseases or procedures can scare us. It might be fear of the treatment or surgery itself, or even fear of the unknown. And it may be that there isn’t a cure, a terminal disease, and it’s only a matter of time. These things can unsettle us, shake us up to the core. Disease is no respecter of sex, both males and females are afflicted; it’s no respecter of age, the young and old alike get sick and succumb to disease; it’s no respecter of class, the rich and the poor suffer afflictions; and it’s no respecter of the saved or the lost. Christians lose their lives to disease just the same as non-Christians. And if you were ever promised differently, you were dealing with a snake oil salesman. Disease don’t care if your rich or famous, eat healthy rabbit food or fine dine on donuts and cheeseburgers. You can be healthy, fit and strong one day and get struck down the next. As we turn to our text, we find God’s instructions regarding a scary skin disease called leprosy. As we’ll see this was a disease to be feared. It could strike at any time, with no cure or treatment, no hope.
People make mistakes. It’s part of what it means to be human. We have been moving into the age of artificial intelligence. Super computers, smart phones, smart homes, and smart cars. They are working on cars that drive themselves! Why? Because human drivers make mistakes. We make bad choices. People drive under the influence, drive too fast, drive too aggressive, drive too sleepy. You get the idea. Peple make mistakes and so if we can make computers that remember everything, can evaluate and make the best decision, well then the thinking goes that we can save humanity from ourselves. And yet for all the promise of technology, we still figure out a way to make a mess of our lives with technology too. Why? Because we are human, and we are fallen, and we live in a fallen world. Now I’m not anti-technology, I like my iPhone thank you very much. But we can’t put our hope, our faith in technology. Well if we did, we’d be making another mistake. When we make mistakes, something has to be done about it. There is someone we can turn to. And that is what we will find in our text this morning.
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