A man with leprosy came to him and begged on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. Be clean!”
-Mark 1:40-41
In March 2020, I was volunteering with homeless families who were using our church as temporary residence for the week. This was a regular act of service for me and my sons.
Talk around the dinner table turned toward the coronavirus that appeared to have escaped from China. “Social distancing” was a new phrase to me and I joked that Jesus would hate for us to embrace the sick and needy. It didn’t go over well. I knew then that something insane was happening and that I might not be able to count on Christians to stand strong.
I stayed with the overnight shift and helped with the simple breakfast setup. One of the families had a member who had been having respiratory discomfort most of the night. They wanted to go to the hospital and I directed them to the bus stop across the street. I looked outside and it was still dark and rain was pouring down, “There’s an urgent care just up the road, can I drive you there?” I had just enough room in my minivan for my sons and the family and I couldn’t send them into the dark rain. The urgent care wasn’t yet open, so I drove them to the hospital.
I got word later that day that the afflicted individual had been diagnosed with a streptococcus infection, not dissimilar from Mary’s. It didn’t change my calculation in any way. I could not send that family into the rain while ill. I could not send them on an unfamiliar route to an unfamiliar hospital. I would do the same a hundred times over if given the opportunities.
It doesn’t seem heroic, foolish, or particularly Christian. It feels like the common courtesy and helping hand I have often tried to extend to others. The repeated examples of Jesus holding the sick and “unclean” moved my heart to take up a similar path for myself.
I am grateful for these oppotunities to care for my fellow man and not shun them for my own perceived safety.
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