(5-8 minutes, easy setup)
Learners will listen to how one ministry provided care to lepers.
For more information on this story, please see David Nasser’s book, A Call to Die.
Ask learners: When you think about Mother Teresa, what comes to your mind about the kind of ministry she did?
After listening to a few answers, share: One of the main ministries of Mother Teresa was her ministry to lepers in India. Her ministry had a "House of the Dying," where lepers and other people with serious diseases were brought in their final days. At the House of the Dying, the staff would do what they could to comfort the dying in their final hours—serving them hot food, giving them what medical attention they could, and providing them clean clothes to wear (Nasser, pp. 118-119).
Mother Teresa once said, "The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted," (brainyquote.com). Throughout history, lepers have been unwanted, cast aside, and considered outcasts in whatever culture they were in because of the contagious nature of their disease. Remind learners that even though leprosy is not common in the twenty-first century West, there are certainly groups of people who would still be considered outcasts and even unwanted. Discuss: What are some examples?
Explain that today's study focuses on a man, who was outcast from society because he was both a leper and a Samaritan, who encountered Jesus. Say: His encounter with Jesus left him changed, and his status as an outcast made him all the more grateful for Jesus' healing.