Can anyone imagine touching a leper?

Question

That was the worst disease known to man, your body parts literally rotted and fell off of your body. If you had it you were scorned by men and banished from society.

I don't think I could do it as much as I would want to hug each and every one of them out of sympathy for them. But Jesus touched them without a thought of himself catching it. All He thought about was healing the other person. Would you touch a leper?

Primordius Drool - You challenged what I always thought to be true and you were right and I was wrong. According to Wikipedia the body parts don't fall off. But it was still a terrible and contagious disease.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprosy

Thanks for all the current facts on lepersy but my question is, if someone had a terrible unsightly fatal disease that was very contagious and not curable, would you hesitate to touch that person?

((((Eagle Woman)))) So nice to see you sweetie. How have you been?

Answer 1

Yes, I can. I have read some on the disease, and I know that it is not near and contagious as formerly thought, and there are drugs to treat, or at least minimize the effects of the disease. I believe that AIDS victims have become the modern day lepers, and I chose to educate myself about that disease. When working with them I found that most of them were surprised that I would hug them. (This was many years ago.) I was working with street people, trying to get them into shelters in Chicago, and get them involved with the few clinics that were still taking patients. It was of no matter to me how they contracted the disease, all I saw was my fellow man in need. I can honestly say to this day that I was the one who was blessed by that time of my life, more than anyone I was trying to help. My touch never healed their disease, but I would like to think that it helped to make them feel less isolated.

Answer 2

Actually, I've read that body parts would rot and fall off due to injuries the leprosy victim could not feel and thus attend to. They were banished by a society which had absolutely no knowledge of the basics of disease, germs, etc.

Yes, I think I could touch a leper, for several reasons. Humanly speaking, leprosy is really not that easy to catch, and even so, there are now drugs to treat it. (I'm not saying that the humanity within me wouldn't think, "Yuck!")

More importantly, a leper is my brother or sister in Christ. If Jesus can touch a leper, so can I. And when you think that the leprosy victim, especially in a more backward-thinking third world location, might not have been touched for who knows how long, how could one not embrace him or her? As human beings, we are sensate creatures... we crave the touch of another (and I'm not talking about sex). Everyday, we touch people: we shake hands, we hug friends, kiss family, pick up a child, etc. Can you imagine not to have been touched nor be able to touch anyone else?

Christ has ascended to heaven. He no longer has any hands on earth but yours. He has no arms on earth but yours. If you believe in Jesus with all your heart, He will give you the strength to touch and hug and even kiss a leprosy victim if you ever encounter one.

Answer 3

I actually just read an excellent series called Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen Donaldson. The main character is a leper and he has to deal with ignorance about his disease wherever he goes.

Leprosy is not as contagious as everyone believes. They are unsure of how it is transmitted, but it is very unlikely that you will get it. The progress of the disease can be halted with certain medications.

There's an episode of Monk called Mr. Monk and the Leper. Although it is a funny episode, it is also very serious. Leprosy is nothing to be afraid of, as you will see in the episode.

Because someone that isolated from society needs our love and support, of course I would touch a leper. I am the type of person who will be there for anyone who needs me.

Answer 4

Yes, I think so, but not on an infected part! Leprosy is actually not very contagious, and today it's treatable. Of course, people didn't know that 2000 years ago! And we're not sure that the disease now called leprosy is the one mentioned in the Bible. Bu tI think all of this is beside your point.

Answer 5

Mother Teresa worked closely with Lepers for years.
The disease is not as easily transmitted as you seem to believe.

And yes, I would touch a Leper without a moment's hesitation. My life is not of more value than anyone else's.

EDIT- you edited your question to ask if I would still help a person knowing that I could very likely catch their contagious and non-curable disease. My answer has not changed. My life is not of more value than anyone else's. That is why when AIDS was first discovered, I did not hesitate to work with and hug those afflicted with the disease. Many of them told me that I was the only person who would still hug them (including their own family members).

Answer 6

In fact leprosy also was used to describe all manner of conditions of the skin, and of the actual real leprosy there was contagious and non contagious, and who knows there may have been an other that is now extinct. if I could heal them I would I doubt that i would do it with the same haste as Jesus did though.

Answer 7

With the knowledge that I have of leprosy I would have no problem touching a person suffering from that disease. Che Guevera worked closely with lepers in Argentina. This was one of the things that caused his political awakening. I will say though, that its easier now, as we have a much better understanding of the disease than they had 2,000 years ago.

Answer 8

That didn't actually happen because Jesus never existed. Even if you think it's the nicest story you ever read, that's all it is -- a story. A fictional story. Enjoy the christian bible as literature if you want to, but don't pretend it's a history book. It isn't.

* * *
Did a historical Jesus exist?
http://www.nobeliefs.com/exist.htm
[Excerpt]

ALL CLAIMS OF JESUS DERIVE FROM HEARSAY ACCOUNTS

No one has the slightest physical evidence to support a historical Jesus; no artifacts, dwelling, works of carpentry, or self-written manuscripts. All claims about Jesus derive from writings of other people. There occurs no contemporary Roman record that shows Pontius Pilate executing a man named Jesus. Devastating to historians, there occurs not a single contemporary writing that mentions Jesus. All documents about Jesus got written well after the life of the alleged Jesus from either: unknown authors, people who had never met an earthly Jesus, or from fraudulent, mythical or allegorical writings. Although one can argue that many of these writings come from fraud or interpolations, I will use the information and dates to show that even if these sources did not come from interpolations, they could still not serve as reliable evidence for a historical Jesus, simply because all sources derive from hearsay accounts.

Hearsay means information derived from other people rather than on a witness' own knowledge.

Courts of law do not generally allow hearsay as testimony, and nor does honest modern scholarship. Hearsay provides no proof or good evidence, and therefore, we should dismiss it.

* * *
The Myth of the Historical Jesus
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html

Do Any First Century Historians Mention the Jesus of Christianity?
http://freethought.mbdojo.com/josephus.html

Pagan origins of Jesus:
http://www.medmalexperts.com/POCM/index.html
http://geocities.com/christprise/
http://mama.indstate.edu/users/nizrael/jesusrefutation.html
http://www.rationalresponders.com/a_silence_that_screams_no_contemporary_historical_accounts_for_jesus
http://www.truthbeknown.com/origins.htm
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/pcc/pcc09.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_jcpa3.htm
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/lecture.html
http://www.geocities.com/paulntobin/virgin.html
http://www.harrington-sites.com/motif.htm
http://altreligion.about.com/library/weekly/aa052902a.htm
http://www.apollonius.net/bernard1e.html
.

Answer 9

The touch from Jesus was far more than just compassion for when He touched, He healed.

I work in the medical field and we are constantly in physical contact with patients that have serious contagious diseases and many of them are "hungry" for real physical attention because so many are shunned from real contact with people out of fear.

Humans need physical touch for real emotional health and often the fear of catching something is what cuts that out. As long as proper precautions are followed, physical touch can be done and should be allowed whenever possible.

Hope that helps.

Answer 10

Perhaps it's biblical allegory for laws,
which we're told to "touch not": Col 2;
for "by the using of laws all perish".

When we put away laws,
we put away dis-ease,
such as awful leprosy,
a hideous dis-ease.

Perhaps the root cause
of dis-ease is the law,
the root source of all sin,
the strength of sin's sting,
which is notably a death sting.

Christ is the end of the law: Romans 10:4
Christ is not the mend of law: Luke 5:36,37.

The GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ with you all. Amen.