When the men with leprosy arrived at the edge of the camp, they went into one tent after another, eating and drinking wine; and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and hid it. – 2 Kings 7:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (November 7, 2016): 2 Kings 7

Actor Jim Carrey once commented that “People need motivation to do anything. I don't think human beings learn anything without desperation.” I know that we don’t want that to be true, but it often is. We don’t take the risk that we need to take to solve a problem if there is any other way. And there is a good reason for that. Acts of desperation fail more times than they succeed. If there is any other option that you have to take, then take it before desperation carries you to that spot from which there is no return.

But once in a while, acts of desperation actually work. The lepers were desperate. In the first place, they were outcasts. The life of an outcast is always hard, no matter what their crime or condition and no matter the society. The outcast is cut off from the life-giving community on which they depend. But when the community is sick or under attack, the life of the outcast grows even worse. They often cannot return to the community, and they are outside of the normal communication cycle. Out of ignorance, outcasts often make rash decisions. In this case, the lepers were also sick – most likely suffering from a life threatening disease which made their return to the community even less likely. And they were hungry.

For these lepers, the choices that they had were swiftly vanishing. Hungry and without any possible chance of acceptance within the main community, the lepers decide to walk into the enemy camp. They were acutely aware that this essentially meant that they were voluntarily moving toward their own executions, but they didn’t care. Death was preferable to the life that they were able to live under the present circumstances. And so they decided to act out of desperation.

Twenty-four hours earlier and the desperate action of the lepers would have been a tragedy. They would have died just a day before God delivered Israel out of the hands of their enemies. But at this point, desperation worked. The lepers were able to discover the salvation of God in the form of an empty camp. They were able to acquire riches and eat their fill before the main community from which they had been cast out even knew that the war had ended. In fact, when the lepers finally decided to share the news of their deliverance with that community, they were not even believed. After all, what would lepers know about the things like this? After all, they were just lepers.

But in this case, the lepers knew the truth. In this case, desperation worked. And in this case, it was the outcast who carried truth to the community. Sometimes the voices of even our outcasts need to be heard.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 8