As Todd and I approached the former leper colony, we mused about the biblical significance of leprosy and the amazing effect that disease itself had on civilization two thousand years ago. It wasn't until we were actually on the island, that we learned how real and prevalent this devastating disease still is. We thought the leper colony was from biblical times and yet the leper colony was the last to inhabit Spinalonga. Again, I was humbled by my lack of world understanding especially when it comes to the plight and struggle of the Third World.
Leprosy is very real in 2005, with an estimated 400,000 cases infecting people today, mostly in India, Nepal and the surrounding region. (You can check out LEPRA or America Leprosy Mission for more details on leprosy and other devasting diseases) The picture posted above is of a bad case. If detected early and given the right treatement, leprosy can be controlled.
It's when I look at pictures like these that I realize what a radical revolutionary Jesus really was. In biblical times (and obviously in modern times as well) infected people where cast out from society to live as pariahs until death. You can't blame society. They were simply doing what Darwin would have called survival of the fittest - removing the weak from within. The mentally retarded, deformed, diseased, infected, abnormal people were and in many cases still are nothing.
It is these people with whom Jesus built his ministry. He touched the untouchable, loved the unlovable, sought after the unseekable, and healed the unhealable. He did things others never dreamed of. He made friends with outcasts and created family with the unwanted. He was a radical instrument of love. It is absolutely no wonder the powers that be wanted him dead. He stood for everything they stood against. This is the man I want to follow.
Now, will I...?
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