Bible Studies
Ses'khona # 3We Are Here ... to Reach Out to Those Needing Healing
Bongiwe Dumezweni
Luke 5:12-16 & 8:43-48
AIDS Bible Studies
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Group Sharing
Take ten minutes to allow three group members to share experiences this last week when visiting a home care or hospice centre or listening to someone infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS? What did you learn from that time?
Today we meet Jesus as he reaches out meaningfully to two people with incurable diseases. We will explore the topic of healing in its various dimensions.
It helps us to better understand the encounters between Jesus and the infected man and woman, if we know the Old Testament laws that governed the behavior of the Jewish people. The biblical term "leprosy" covered a number of skin diseases, not only the leprosy of that day.
Read Leviticus 13: 38, 42 - 46 and 14:1-2, 8-11.
1. In what ways are the circumstances of the person with leprosy in the Bible
similar to the circumstances of the person living with HIV/AIDS and in what
ways are they dissimilar?
Read the story of Luke 5:12-16.
2. From what you know about the Jewish law what impresses you about how this
leper approaches Jesus?
3. Can you imagine this man needing a healing other than physical healing? How
were the man's needs for different kinds of healing met by Jesus' actions and
words?
4. In what ways have we made those living with HIV/AIDS outcasts? How can we
demonstrate a willingness to reach out to them as Jesus did?
Read Luke 8:43-48 and Leviticus 15:25-28 for background information.
5. a. Imagine yourself being sick for 12 years with an incurable disease. How
will this impact on your relationships, employment, future choices etc.?
b. How was this woman's experience over the 12 years similar to a person living
with HIV/AIDS?
6. a. Why might she have wanted to approach Jesus secretly? What issues of
secrecy do we face with HIV/AIDS?
b. Why did Jesus expose the healing of this woman, especially realising the
stigma attached to the disease? Why might it be important to help those living
with HIV/AIDS go public?
7. Each word that Jesus spoke had healing implications: "Who touched me?" "Daughter", "Your faith has healed you", "Go in peace." What would each of these words mean to the woman?
8. What dimensions of healing does a person who is HIV positive need? If there is not physical healing, how do we help them to be emotionally and spiritually healed?
Group Commitment
Decide as individuals to take up the challenge of befriending one person who is terminally ill (preferably with full-blown AIDS), either in your immediate community, or in a hospital ward or hospice where you can regularly visit her or him. Community volunteer programmes at local hospitals are a good resource to assist you to meet a person with AIDS.
Commit yourselves to reporting about your first meeting with this person within two weeks. Pray for one another now for courage to live out the love of Christ. Ask God for wisdom to know how to make friends with this grieving and dying person.
Prayer
Take time today to thank God for those medical scientists around the world who are motivated by compassion for people with AIDS, in their efforts to find a cure for the disease. Pray for the grace of Jesus to be on their work, so that a speedy cure will be found.
Before the Next Group Meeting:
Think about the question, "What about those times when God chooses not to heal?"
Go back to the story of the leper. He knew that Jesus could heal him; his question
was whether or not Jesus was willing to heal. What if Jesus' answer had been
"no"?
Two examples you could look at are the death of David and Bathsheba's son in
2 Samuel 12:13-25 and Paul's "thorn in the flesh", 2 Corinthians 12: 6-10. These
are discussed in the companion Daily Bible Readings.
Our next study will look at gender perceptions. Please bring in magazine clippings illustrating male/ female roles in the family and society.
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