Today I am going to indulge my desire to write something fictional, but based on a particular Bible verse.  “While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper” (Matt 26:6).  This verse does not stand alone, but is the introduction to the story of the woman who anointed Jesus for burial.  But the very fact that Jesus was in the house of a man called Simon the Leper has given me much to think about.  Instead of writing a theological reflection in the normal way, I am writing a theological reflection in the form of a short story.

Hello.  My name is Simon and this is my story.  I grew up in Bethany.  My parents live there with my brothers and sisters, my aunts and uncles, cousins and friends.  Almost all the people have ever known live in Bethany.  It is not a very large town, but it has been my home for my whole life.  My life revolved around these people.  I could not imagine living without them.

When I reached twenty years old my parents arranged a marriage for me.  We had only seen each other from afar, but I looked forward to being a husband and a father.  I had built a little house for my bride.  I had a trade, since I had been apprenticed to father since I was a young child.  My life looked to be ordinary, but still pleasant.

But one day everything changed.  The bottom fell out of my world.  I discovered a swollen red spot on my arm.  My parents had taken me to the synagogue every Sabbath for my entire life.  I knew the law.  I knew that I needed to go to the priest, since it is commanded in Lev 13:1-3.  I prayed that it would not be what I feared.

When I went to the priest, he knew what to do.  He sent me away, told me not to go near anyone for a week and return again.  Even before I returned to the priest, I knew that the news would be bad.  The rash had spread.  The redness and swelling were worse.  The hairs on my arms had turned white.  My arms had become painful.

Just as I feared, when I went back to the priest, he declared that I was unclean.  I had to leave my house.  I had to leave the town where I had grown up and where everyone I knew lived.  My marriage could not go ahead.  My bride would never be mine.  She would marry someone else.  I would be alone.  Unclean lepers are not allowed to come in contact with ordinary people.  I could not ever see my family or friends again.  If they came near me they would also become unclean and be cast out.  The only people I could come near were other lepers.

I lived that lonely life for years.  I wandered the vacant places with fellow lepers.  We were lonely together.  People left us food so that we would not starve.  But that was not much of a life.  I lived without hope of every entering society again.  I had no hope of being part of the worshipping community ever again.  Lepers cannot come to God.  Our uncleanness left us without hope and without God.

But one day we heard rumours about someone new in town.  The rumour said that he healed lepers and made them clean.  I wanted to know about this man.  I wanted to know if this could possibly be true.  I knew that I could not actually go into Bethany because I would be driven out.  Dare I hope to live a normal life ever again?  Dare any of us lepers hope for something like this?  Many of the lepers outside of Bethany had been there for decades, with no hope of return to normality.  Exile was simply our lot.

We could not go into town and no one would come out to us.  Yet one morning a stranger appeared on the horizon.  We all knew what to do.  We covered our faces and called out “unclean, unclean”.  Perhaps this man was lost and did not know that he was among lepers.  But he kept coming towards us.  Then I realised that this was the man we had heard rumours about.  I called out to him, “Have mercy on me”.  He asked me, “What do you want?”  I said, “If you are able, I want to be clean”.  “I am able and I am willing,” he said.

He reached out and touched my hand.  What an incredible thing to do.  No one could touch me.  No one had touched me for years, except fellow lepers.  Everyone else was afraid to do so.  I looked at my arm and it was smooth and ordinary.  My leprosy was gone.  I fell on my knees in worship.  “Who are you Lord?” I asked him from my knees.  “Who are you who can make lepers clean?”

The man told me his name is Jesus.

I walked to Jerusalem to see a priest.  I had to stand far off and call out to someone to get a priest to come to me.  I took some time to go through the sacrificial rituals which are laid out in Lev 14:1-32.  But two weeks later I was able to go home.

I went to see my parents and they were amazed.  We had not seen each other up close in years and we cried and hugged and rejoiced.  My parents wanted to know how this had happened.  They had seen Jesus in Bethany and heard about what he had done.  Yet my parents were not worshippers of Jesus before I came home cleansed and whole.  But when they saw me, they wanted to worship this Jesus as much as I want to worship him.

I returned to my house.  I felt strange coming back to my empty house.  I wanted to have people in it again.  I asked around, but Jesus had left Bethany.  I did find some others who had met him.  Lazarus and his sisters had met Jesus.  Lazarus told me that he had been sick and died and Jesus had raised him from the dead.  He too was a follower of this incredible man.

Lazarus and his sisters thought that Jesus was coming back to Bethany soon.  We waited.  Since I was so grateful for what Jesus had done for me, I decided to offer him hospitality when he entered Bethany again.  It was not long before we saw him.  It was getting close to the Passover and it was hard to find places to stay in Jerusalem, because so many people were coming to the feast.

A few days before the Passover lamb was to be slaughtered, Jesus was staying in my house.  Lazarus and his sisters were there.  While we were all reclining at the table, Mary, one of Lazarus’ sisters, brought out a jar of perfume and broke it open.  She poured out the perfume on Jesus.  It ran over his head and down to his feet.  She lovingly wiped up the perfume with her hair.

It was such an unexpected thing for someone to do.  The perfume expensive and the jar held a large quantity of it.  It must have cost a year’s wages!  There was murmuring from Jesus’ disciples and some wanted to rebuke Mary.  They insisted that the money should have gone to the poor.

But Jesus refused to rebuke the woman.  He commended her.  Imagine that, commending a woman and rebuking men!  Who is this man?  Instead of being annoyed by the waste of perfume, Jesus called it an anointing for his burial.  It is more important to worship this man than it is to serve God by taking care of the poor.  Righteousness has been transformed by this man.

A few days later, this Jesus was arrested and crucified.  I was cut to the heart when that happened and did not know what to do.  But his disciples came to me and told me that he had been raised from the dead.  I know that this Jesus is God’s Messiah.  I want to follow him.

Some people have told me that I should change my name, since I am not a leper any more.  They say, “How can you be known as Simon the Leper?”  I know that many people whom God has spoken to and changed have been given a new name.  I have been transformed by meeting Jesus.  My whole life has been changed.  I am not alone any more.  I am not far away from God and people any more.  I am a man whose desire is to worship Jesus every day.  But God has not given me a new name.

I am happy to still be known as Simon the Leper.  When people meet Simon the Leper they are always amazed that I am not a leper any more.  Each time that this happens I am able to speak about what Jesus has done for me, how he healed me and made me clean.  My name is enables me to continually give glory to the man who is utterly worthy of all worship.

I am Simon the Leper and this is my story.