Article December 9, 2019 Issue

Cradled in God’s love

Lois Degler

The man was a leper. Disfigured. An “untouchable” to others because of the fear of contagion. Jesus, seeing the man, went to him and cradled him in his arms. He kissed the top of his head. When Jesus let the man go, the leprosy was healed. The man’s skin was clear, his body free of the disease.

Although this was a film interpretation of Jesus’ healing of a man with leprosy (Risen, 2016), healing was a natural element of Jesus’ lifework. I’ve known of these biblical accounts of Jesus’ healing work, and have always been grateful for them, recognizing how important they were to those healed and to those witnessing them. And today they reveal to all of us important things about God, who is always cradling us in His loving embrace, and who is the Love Christ Jesus reflected and demonstrated as God’s Son. But never before had I felt how Jesus’ healings were truly outpouring evidence of God’s love. That love was palpable in the way Jesus was represented in the film as responding to the leper. There was no repugnance, no fear. Just the utmost tenderness.

How could Jesus do that? How was Jesus able to cradle and kiss that leper? How could he express that tenderness when what he faced would be quite alarming to most of us?

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