The Untouchables

Social Leprocy 101

Most Christians know of the parable of the Good Samaritan. The story appears in Luke 10:25. And when we hear it, most of the time we are reminded to love our neighbor, or we are reminded to not let our religion get in the way of our faith, as the hypocritical Sadducees tended to do in the days of Jesus. To review, though I probably don't have to, it was Jewish law and custom to avoid anything dead, which is considered "unclean." Touching a dead thing would make you "unclean," after which you would have to go through this big ordeal and ritual in order to be clean again. This is especially true for the priests (Sadducees and Pharisees among others). So, when seeing a man, left for dead, but not completely dead, mind you, these priests avoided him, thinking he was dead. As the story goes, a Samaritan then helps the man who was hurt and probably saves his life through his aid.

I am reminded of this because of a discussion I was part of over the weekend. We were talking about what/who affects our fun in life. And it was brought up that the "Eeyores" in life, those who are constantly complaining and sad about one thing or another, take away our fun and are not fun to hang around with. True enough. But to pass judgment and willingly ostracize another person because they are not "fun" is not exactly a Christian thing to do.

Perhaps I am overly sensitive on this issue. My mother is a mono-polar depressive. That means unlike manic depressives, who experience extreme ups and downs, she just experiences the downs. Constantly, of late, unfortunately. Anyway, if I want more fun in my life, does that mean I am justified in not having to visit my mother because she would impede my fun? Suffice to say, my mother, all the other Eeyores in life, and any other person who doesn't act the way we want them to act, are our modern day "untouchables," no different than a man lying on the side of the road left for dead. So do we engage them? Or do we pass by, not wanting to infect ourselves with their problematic and negative idiosyncrasies?

The answer, obviously, is a resounding, "Yes!"

I would go even further to say that they are at the core of the group of people with which we Christians should involve ourselves. In addition, we are commanded to visit those in prison, who comprise of another group of "untouchables." Let's face it: this is a sick, messy, hurtful, sinful world and humankind has made it as such. Are we going to ignore someone down in the dumps because it will interrupt our fun? Are we so fun-centric that we would rather distract ourselves with an enjoyable past time rather than show Christ's love to someone who desperately needs Him?

NO! We need to befriend an untouchable, get into his/her life, find out what troubles them, find out how we can help them, and SHOW OUR LOVE FOR THEM. Not because we enjoy their company or because they live conveniently next door. We show them our love because they are a creation of God and therefore DESERVE to be loved. And we show them our love so we can point to the source of our love: the love of Jesus Christ, who, in love, died for us so that we can spend eternity with Him in heaven. We show them our love because they are suffering, they are hurting, they are crying inwardly to be loved. Ultimately, aren't we all?

In the words of radio host, Steve Brown: "You think about that. Amen."