Verify – lepers sent to the priest

     Vetting the story: credibility among Christians

Here's the story: Luke 5:12. While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." 13. Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him. 14. Then Jesus ordered him, "Don't tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them."

The story is also told in the gospels of Matthew and Mark. It is significant that the same incident is told in three of the gospels.

Frequently we tell this story of the healing of a leper to emphasize the miracle of healing, or of Jesus' compassion for the lowest social class in their culture. Both of which are definitely true and worth focus.

However, my focus in this story is Jesus telling the leper to go and show himself to the priest as a testimony to those responsible for maintaining safety within the social order.

Credibility. The greatest losses suffered by Christianity in my lifetime have been those of credibility. One can probably pick any category of historically recognized Christian virtues and see where Christianity has suffered a loss of credibility in the eyes of the world.

One of those areas is in the realm of miraculous healings. The historical church has a tradition that we see carried on today by the Roman Catholic church of verifying 'miracles' before anyone can receive beatification.

The orthodoxy of Judaism in Jesus' day demanded verification before society could recognize a 'healing.'

There have been hoaxes and charlatans all down through history, and we have plenty of examples in our modern era. Especially prominent in my mind are many of the hucksters of 'televangelism.'

The 'social media' and e-mailings of our present computer age have enabled the spreading of made-up stories and 'healings' around the world in a matter of minutes and hours.

I have been asked, "What does it hurt if it builds someone's faith or brings encouragement to someone?" It hurts the credibility of those who are supposed to be carrying the message of the "Truth, the Life and the Way."

John 3:6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

We are to be bearers of a message of spirit..."God IS spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." John 4:24

The motivations of manipulation are evil! Scaring people with threats of hell, or trying to encourage people with apocryphal stories of miracles are manipulative and not spiritual.

The detrimental effects of misinformation are worse than no information. If there has been a 'healing' then that person needs to get to a doctor to have it proven. If it is a real 'healing' then the proof will be there medically.

When those stories are then repeated it MUST be with the qualifiers and verifiers that will allow skeptics to follow up! 

If it is the hype of 'positive confession' or the 'placebo effect' then it shouldn't be used by Christianity as proof of a God who really can "do great and wondrous things" without any hype or false witness!

Our credibility as His witnesses is the ultimate veracity of Jesus as the Truth to many of those who know us.

"Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay..."