When anyone has a defiling skin disease, they must be brought to the priest. – Leviticus 13:9

Today's Scripture Reading (November 10, 2021): Leviticus 13

Mother Teresa of Calcutta once remarked that "the biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted." And like leprosy, the disease of being unwanted seems to spread through our communities if it is left unchecked. The problem is that if I feel unwanted, then there is no way that I can make you feel wanted. In fact, all of my efforts to address my need to feel significant will do nothing but increase your feeling of insignificance. And to stop it takes someone who is willing to see the disease and take steps to change the way we see ourselves, someone like Mother Teresa.

The biblical solution to the problem of leprosy was to bring the person to the priest and have him look at the sore. Anything that even resembled leprosy was isolated so that real leprosy would not spread. I have suffered all of my life from eczema and other skin ailments, and I recognize that had I lived in ancient times, I would have been among the ones who were cast out, just in case my skin ailment might be something much more dangerous. It was the only way that people knew that might stop the spread. And the priest was essential to the solution of containing the disease.

Mother Teresa correctly comments that we don't struggle with actual leprosy anymore, especially in the developed world. And even if we did, it is not the death sentence that it has been in the past. Those of us who suffer from even milder skin ailments are thankful for that fact. But she is also right that we have replaced it with maybe an even deadlier disease and one that is often harder to stop; unwantedness.

But the solution should still be the same. Go and show yourself to the priest, or in this case, the priesthood of believers. Ideally, we are the only ones who can impress upon our society the worth that God sees in each of us. We are worth so much that the creator of this world sent his son to die so that we might live, all of us. Every person that we come in contact with in our daily lives is of immense worth to God. No one should be left out of that. Everyone is worthy of being heard, worthy of inclusion, and every one of us is wanted; by God and, therefore, by his church. Unwantedness is a disease that should not exist in the Christian Church. As Christians, we are the missionaries responsible for carrying that message to the world with which we are in contact. We are the priests responsible for changing people who think they are unwanted into people who know that they are valued by the God who created them and loved by the priesthood of believers and the church that bears his name.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Leviticus 14