Leper Lessons - Kenya Update 8/28/08

This morning I read the story at the beginning of Matthew chapter 8 about the leper who approached Jesus asking to be cleansed: "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean!" The Barclay commentary described what a terrible, debilitating and tragic disease leprosy was. Not only that, but how poorly lepers were treated within the religious culture of Israel. The ideas of cultural sensitivity and awareness have been on my mind the last week, so this story is especially interesting. Jesus went on and healed the leper, touching him. In that touch Jesus became unclean and committed a culturally unacceptable act. Yet it was love that motivated Him, love for this outcast, love for those who are hurting, for this one man who needed the touch of God.

I hope that is why I am in Kenya. Is it too presumptuous to aim to be God's hand in a distant land? Not to say that the people here can be represented by a destitute leper - that would not be fair. Yet that question of culture is more complicated than I thought it would be. I am well versed at doing the "need meeting thing" at home within a society and culture I am familiar with. It turns out the process of meeting needs in Kenya is far from the process in Massachusetts or New York. I believe that the lifestyle of love to which God calls us, which we see demonstrated through Jesus, is truly cross cultural.

Jesus defied the culture that ostracized the hurting, but not fully. Immediately after Jesus healed the leper he instructed him to fulfill the requirement in the temple for his cleansing. Jesus was not an ignorant foreigner - he was no mzungu. He understood the value and importance of the Jewish culture. Perhaps that is why I am struggling. I must intentionally pursue a working knowledge of how things work around here, so that as a Jesus person I can provide healing and love in the ways I know best (even if that is reformatting hard drives).

My ultimate goal is to be Jesus to the good people here in and around ANU. If that means feeling baby sat and under foot, so be it. I just hope that those who are doing the sitting, whose feet I am tripping up, will have patience with me.