For most of the people in this story, life moves on, business as usual. Even in the midst of their problems, their leprosy, their uncleanness, as they tend their flocks or grind their flour, punch their clocks as it were, it's business as usual. And that's what life is like for many of us now. Life for most moves on, business as usual. Shakespeare alludes to this in his play Macbeth.
He writes, "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesteryears have lighted fools, the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle. Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing."
It's just business as usual. We are blinded, and we fail to see what's right in front of us. The invitation for us is to see him, the one who's present with us, and break free from the blinding business of this life that leads to nothing but more of the same.
To see him so that we can see things differently. To see something you didn't see yesterday. The kingdom of God breaking through. And that's not going to be found strutting and fretting this hour upon the stage the way that we do. But it can be found where the one leper found it, at the feet of Jesus. He, the king, is standing among us. He is Jesus. He's the one who has broken into this world and into your world, and he's cleansed you like he did the leper, and he's made you new.
But are you ready to see him? Are you ready to be like that one leper and come to the one who is with us now? The one who has cleansed you now. The one who offers you his kingdom life now. The prayer of my own heart today is that I will come, that we will come. We'll come to the one who has invited us to live with him, the king, in his kingdom right now. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. That's the prayer that I have for my family, for my wife, my daughters, my son. And that's the prayer that I have for you. May it be so.
