The lepers Jesus heals in our gospel lesson weren't always lepers. One of them might have been a carpenter, building homes and workplaces in his community. One of them may have been a fisherman, working hard day after day to provide food for his neighbors. In a better time, one of them could have been a teacher, another a farmer, another a priest.

At one time, the leper from Samaria might have been a physician, with people coming to him every day for healing and health. But now, no one even cared to learn his name. The crowds avoided him. He had contracted leprosy, a dreaded and deadly skin disease. Maybe from a former patient, maybe from a friend. The hands that had once been instruments of healing had become withered extremities that would inflict disease if he were to touch the skin of…