Out caste

Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism (Acts 10:34).

Not so long ago, leprosy was the disease that people dreaded, the way that people dread AIDS today. Leprosy was a highly contagious skin disease which was incurable. People who contracted the disease could expect to die alone, in misery.

Years ago, there was a leper hospital set up by Christians in India, a haven where the poor souls afflicted with this terrible disease could find welcome and care. One day, the doctor in charge was told that one of the patients was dying on the roadside a few miles away. "It can’t be," the doctor said, "we have all our patients here." Nevertheless, the doctor sent out four other patients to see. Two miles out along the road, they found a stick-thin leper who had collapsed on his long walk to the medical facility. He was dying of starvation and disease. The men carried him with tender care back to the hospital, where they washed, fed, and cared for him. A few days later, as he lay on his clean white bed, the superintendent of the facility came to see him. Again and again the leper said, "when they brought me in, those men, they never even asked my name!"

You may wonder why the leper was so amazed that he had been cared for without having had to give his name. The reason is this: Indian society is governed by a caste system; some people are born into privilege, many are born into the middle classes, and the majority are among the lowest classes. In India, people of low social rank are permitted little or no contact with those of a higher caste; a person’s name indicates his position and social class, thus limiting who he may associate with. The fact that the four rescuers did not ask the leper’s name showed true love—love that didn’t care about social expectations or politically correct behavior.

Christ’s love is not limited by what is socially acceptable or politically correct. The Savior of mankind was the perfect Son of God, a descendant of King David, a royal and holy man; yet He scandalized societies’ leaders by eating with criminals and prostitutes and beggars. Jesus’ love drew Him to everyone who needed a new start on life, and the outcaste need Him more than anyone. And it is a good thing that the Lord loves outcastes, because, by God’s holy standards, none of us are worthy of eating with Him. In comparison to the Almighty and His Son, we are all lowest of the low. Yet remarkably, the Son of the Almighty suffered and died to cleanse us of the leprosy of our sins; He has cured us of the incurable, by dying of our disease as our substitute. That is true love.