Tuesday, October 12, 1999
Tuesday, October 12, 1999
Immediately the leprosy left him. And he ordered him to tell no one.
There have always been healers. Some have gotten rich exploiting the pain of desperate people.
Maybe that is why when Jesus healed people he often told them to tell no one. He did not want
to be called "healer"--but rather "teacher." He did not come to exploit, but to explain the Way to
Life.
(Luke 5:13-14
NRSV)
One long hot summer in a place called St. Johns, there came into town a man with a big tent
which he set up at the corner of Lombard and Clarendon, with a sign posted in front: THE
GREAT MARCEL AND HIS FABULOUS SNAKE SHOW. He was dapper and slim, and he
wore a stovepipe hat and a cutaway coat. And when the crowds thronged around the tent that
night and oil torches flickered their light over a lithe young lady dancing with snakes, Marcel told
of his wonderful oil--oil extracted from snakes that cured every human ill. He promised it would
cure corns, calluses, lumbago, colds, indigestion, and was especially potent in dealing with certain
private diseases. Best of all, it was only a dollar a bottle. Everybody agreed it was worth a try,
and for years afterwards nobody could open a drugstore in St. Johns, because Marcel's Snake Oil
was good for everything, and everybody had plenty of it.
God of life, show me where I exploit others, as you help me to do a better job of showing people
the Way to Life. Amen.
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