[10/24/10-10/25/10]

Clearly, there is very little that I could hope to say with certainty with regard to Simon the leper. The sum total of the Biblical account concerning him consists of two Gospels mentioning this dinner in his home. So, this we know: he lived in Bethany, and he had leprosy at some point. We know that he was familiar with Lazarus, Martha and Mary at some level, but we don’t know how long this has been true, nor how it came to be so.

Given the notoriety that attached to Lazarus upon his return from the grave, it would seem strange were somebody in Bethany not aware of him. But, there is the fact that Martha has come to serve at this meal he is hosting. This suggests that they are more than acquaintances by way of local news alone. He knows this family, for however long this may have been true. I will come back to this line of thought later, I think, but there is another aspect I should like to consider.

Both Matthew and Mark write of this man as Simon the leper, who lived in Bethany. Now, why would this be? If he was just some guy in the neighborhood, I don’t know that they would have found any real cause to mention his name, even if they remembered it. Do you really suppose that the disciples had catalogued in their minds the names of each and every meal that they had ever taken in somebody’s house? They were on the road for three years! Even at two meals a day, that would be an awful lot of meals to remember. Even if it were trimmed down to those meals at which something eventful happened; well, they were with Jesus! How many meals would that really eliminate? I’m guessing not many.

Yet, they note Simon, Simon the leper. That they would mention him so casually, with no further comment, leads me to suppose that Simon was somebody their readers would know of, a familiar name in the region. We could step that down a bit, and suppose that they were only trying to provide enough that the curious could find the man and ask him themselves what had happened, but that doesn’t really change my point. To go around Bethany, and even Jerusalem, asking after Simon the leper who lived in Bethany could be expected to bring results. He was known.

Why would that be? Again, I must trust to suppositions, which is hardly a thing to be trusted. But, if he was a recognizable name in the area, then we might suppose that there was more to the man than his leprosy. There were plenty of lepers about, and I doubt that many were known by name by other than family. Lepers were to be avoided, not recognized. But, Simon was recognized. Simon was known. He was known widely enough that to speak of Simon the leper was sufficient to identify the specific man one had in mind. It was as clear an identifier as Judas Iscariot. Oh, that Judas? Yeah, he died. Well, the same was to be said in this case. Oh, that Simon? Nice guy. Lives over on Elm Street. Third house on the right.

What was his back story, then? Who was this Simon that he was so widely known? The whole thing suggests to me that prior to his bout with leprosy, he had been a man of some wealth and influence. That he had means is also suggested by this dinner party he is throwing for Jesus, His many disciples, Lazarus, and doubtless others from the area. I don’t know that we need suppose him to be the rich young ruler whom Jesus had encountered, as some suggest. If so, then there is a major gap in his story that I would really expect one of the Evangelists to have filled in. How did he go from rich young ruler to the leper?

In reality, that question is almost as valid even if he is not that other man. What happened, Simon? Well, clearly, he had at some point contracted one of those ailments commonly categorized as leprosy. This was a terrible thing. The disease itself is certainly terrible enough. But, there was also the social stigma, the religious stigma attached to those who suffered from it. To be a leper was to be unclean – so unclean that one was required to announce himself lest others touch him by accident. Can you imagine?

Think on that old text, ‘The Scarlet Letter’, wherein one is required to bear upon one’s chest a bright declaration of one’s sins, that all may know. Leper! Beware of me! Unclean! I am unclean! For most of us, this would be about the most truthful thing we could say, for we are all of us unclean. But, we are not required to shout it from the rooftops. Simon, at some point, for some period of time, had been required to do just such a thing. Whatever name he had built for himself prior to this was gone almost immediately. He may have been Simon the tailor, Simon the merchant, we don’t know. But, from this point forward, he was Simon the leper.

Now, here’s a rather amazing thing: If he is now hosting this dinner, we can safely assume that leprosy was a thing of the past. Yes, there is some possibility that it was a thing of the future, but again, if that were the case it makes no sense at all to have included it in the narrative. He would be Simon the whatever, or Simon, son of whomever. But, he isn’t. He’s Simon the leper. And, he likely continued to be Simon the leper right on to the day of his death. But, the leprosy is not upon him at this dinner. Why is that?

Well, we may as well be asking why he is holding a dinner at all. I believe the answer to one is the answer to the other. If Simon had leprosy at one point and now he does not, the simplest explanation for the change is Jesus. The simplest explanation for him having Jesus and all His entourage over for dinner is because Jesus had healed him of this terrible disease. He has good reason to be thankful, good reason to honor this One Who has restored his life to him.

Can I just say (for the thought is just now on my mind) how Simon’s situation so well reflects the effects of sin on our own lives? Jesus has made us clean. He has taken upon Himself the full cost of all our sins. He has, in some ways and to some degree, removed the worst effects of sin upon us. Yet, the marks remain. However long I am a child of God in this life, I shall also retain the label of sinner. It is not that I desire to. It is not that I am still caught up in all those things that used to keep me occupied. It is that “Jeff the sinner” continues to define me well enough to be identified by that name. Oh, him. Yes, well he’s left most of that behind, but you’ll still know him when you see him. Lives over that way a few blocks. You know, God freed him from a lot of garbage, but you can still see the shadows of his past in his face sometimes. And so it shall be ‘til heaven is my home, when Jesus completes the work and I see Him as He truly is.

One further aspect of Simon’s story seems beneficial to consider. Simon has, as the old song goes, looked at life from both sides now. He has been in the place of influence, and he has been in the place of ignominy. He has been sought out and he has been shunned. Through it all, he has discovered one constant, and that one constant is the love of Christ. I cannot but think of that marvelous verse from Paul’s writings, “I know how to get along with humble means and how to live in prosperity. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need” (Php 4:12). This, I think, is what Simon has also discovered.

It is something we also do well to keep in mind. However well we may be doing in this phase of life, the blessing is not that we are well off. The blessing is that God is with us. The trappings of the well to do lifestyle may vanish at any moment. But, God remains. Likewise, however poorly we may be doing, whatever trials may beset us at the moment, they are but light and transitory afflictions if we will but measure them against the eternal blessedness God has provided as our inheritance. And these trials, however intransigent they seem, are as fleeting as the riches we are always in danger of making the objects of our trust.

We must come to the realization that there is nothing inherently blessed about either riches or poverty. It is no more holy to revel in ones destitution and hold it up as the model of a godly life than it is to chase the prosperity gospel and insist that any lack in one’s life must be evidence of sin. But, we have such trouble seeing things in this light. We’re pretty sure either that God wants us healthy and wealthy, or that God wants us so thoroughly dependent upon Him for our needs that we scorn our wealth and our health, indeed refuse to have any of it, giving until we are beyond the capacity of caring for our own needs. Both of these attitudes miss the mark. God does not want you in some specific condition. God wants you. That’s all. He wants you.

If our trust in Him is founded on some specific outcome that we can see in our daily lives, then our trust isn’t in Him. It’s in that stuff we insist on. I confess that this is not an easy mindset to maintain. I confess that when I see my beloved wife suffering in the depths of her chronic illness, it is hard not to start making demands that God take action for the restoration of her health. It’s harder, I think, than it is to refrain from asking or demanding things on my own behalf. It’s hard to hold to that truth that God is good and what He is doing (even in my wife’s trials) is good. There are those moments of looking to God and declaring that He has some explaining to do.

Yet, the truth remains. He remains. He is not changed by the situation, nor should my faith in Him be changed by the situation. Whether He will answer as I would have it, or whether He will opt not to, He remains God. He remains Good. He remains Faithful. Man! It’s hard to hold to that sometimes. But, hold I must.

Simon has seen both sides. He has seen both sides of God’s Providence as he has seen both sides of human capriciousness. What he has seen of God stands him in good stead. God is faithful. He was there when times were grand. He was there when times were hard. He was there, and He was a friend to Simon when nobody else would come near.

You cannot be around Christians for very long without hearing some comment to the effect of one of them recognizing in retrospect how hard God had been working to preserve them until they would come to faith. I know I am such a one. I can think back to a few very specific instances where my own pursuits would have been fully committing me on the path to destruction, but God would not have it so. He was a friend to me, though I would have nothing to do with Him. How, then, can I doubt that He is friend to me still? How, then, can I doubt the actions He takes on my behalf and on behalf of those I love? I cannot in good faith and reason find cause to doubt Him. My emotions may doubt. Oh, yes! My emotional response to what I witness in my beloved’s trials would doubt His goodness. But, experience and the faith that experience has caused to become my core will not allow my emotions to convince my reason. No! Faith prevails. I have seen things from both sides.

I have seen the blessings of God pour out upon my family, and I have been thankful. I have seen Him carry us through times of scarcity, and I have been thankful. I have seen trials come and I have seen trials go, and ever He has been there like a Rock. I have wavered, but He has stood firm. I have doubted, but He has proven worthy of all trust. Even in this moment, even in this present trial, when I fear a repeat of the difficulties we endured not so many years ago may be coming upon us again, yet I know that my God is with me and with my wife, and He is faithful to see His works completed in us. Will those works include healing of physical ailments? Oh, I pray it be so! Yet, I cannot in good faith demand it. However He answers, that answer shall be good.

Lord, I simply pray that You give us the eyes to discern the good in Your answer, whatever it may be. Yes, I continue to express my desire that You would see fit to accomplish a full physical healing even now, even in this very moment. I would be thrilled to hear a ‘Hallelujah!’ shout from upstairs as my beloved wife realizes that the issue in her bowels has simply ceased to be an issue. I dare even to believe You would do such a thing. Yet, I confess I doubt that You will. Why today, when it’s been so many years? What reason have I to expect? But, I will expect this: that You will hold her in Your arms; that You will comfort her; that You love her. God, I may not understand how this is love, but I know You are love and so, this which is of Your purpose in our lives must in some wise be love, too.