"Trading Places"

Apparently not, since Jesus did want to heal him.

Now, before I go further, it might be good to point out that not all translations use the word "incensed" to describe how Jesus felt.

The New Revised Standard Version, for example, reads that Jesus was "Moved with pity".

But the latest New International Version says, "Jesus was indignant".

And of course, the translation I am using this morning, The Common English Bible says that Jesus was "Incensed".

And this translation is the one that most modern scholars tend to think is most accurate.

So, if Jesus wasn't angry at the man for interrupting His day...

...what was He "incensed" about?

Is Jesus angry at the disease itself?

Perhaps.

The most likely answer, though, may be that Jesus is angry, "indignant" or "incensed" at a social system that demonizes and excludes an entire group of people who are guilty of nothing more than "being different."

And isn't this how we, as Christ's followers, feel (at least to some extent) at the way our culture stigmatizes the human beings among us who are different: the diseased, the disfigured, the immigrants, the very poor, the homeless, the slow to learn--the social misfits of every sort?!!!

Isn't this why East Ridge United Methodist Church, in conjunction with some other churches in our area, are starting a new ministry which kicks off this Wednesday called East Ridge Cares?

Isn't this kind of indignation, which caused Jesus to reach out and touch and thus heal the leper, the same thing which is motivating you to start picking up the (officially homeless) children who live at the Superior Creek Lodge down the street and bring them here in order to tutor them, feed them, mentor them, and (Lord willing) bring healing to their lives through the love, mercy and compassion of Christ?

Just think how isolated, how deserted, how separated-out the children and families who suffer and live at these extended-stay hotels must feel.

How do these kids relate to their classmates who live in homes where they do not have to worry, from day to day, where their next meal will come from?

How will they be able to grow up to be healthy, happy, productive members of society if they are not shown that there is a way out of the cycle of addiction, abuse and other social ills which have landed them, at no fault of their own, in such tragic circumstances?

Does it not make you feel "incensed" to know that there are children, every bit as important and with every bit as much God-given potential as our own children, who are living in lice infested, drug infested, crime infested places just down the street from us...

...without proper clothes, nutrition, care, and without a church home...

...without a working knowledge of the love that God has for them in Jesus Christ?

...without a working knowledge that anyone loves and cares for them?

The word used to describe Jesus' reaction to the leper's condition in our Gospel lesson describes a profoundly intense emotional response that propels a person into action on behalf of others.