Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Merciful (07/25/24)
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TITLE: Mercy With Skin On, a Monologue | Previous Challenge Entry
By Laurie Kiel
08/01/24 -
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Mercy. I was so familiar with that word. The word permeated my world, for my brother Lemuel cried for mercy day and night. At least I think he did, for I could only hear his plaintive cries from far away. A heartbreaking distance away.
I remember the day our lives changed.
"Father, you can't banish me from the family,” Lemuel begged. “I’ll have no one without you, Mother and Sarah.”
"You won't be alone," my father gruffly told Lemuel. "You'll have plenty of company -- since you'll be living with those who have the same ... condition as you." Father choked on the words. He would not look my brother in the eye. But he finally spit out the words "with the other LEPERS.”
My beloved brother a leper! How did this happen? I prayed for Jehovah to have mercy on my brother, but nothing. The heavens were as brass.
My father forbad any of us to show mercy to Lemuel. I wasn't even allowed to give him a good-bye hug.
I've never been able to touch my brother again.
Mother and I wanted to show Lemuel mercy, we craved to show him mercy. But we couldn’t.
One word reverberatedthrough his existence.
UNCLEAN!
He and his friends were commanded to announce their presence by the warning "Unclean! Unclean!"
But then one day, I heard new words come out of my brother's mouth.
"Jesus, son of David, have mercy on us."
Jesus. Mercy. Yes, I had heard about this Jesus. Mercy with skin on. The Pharisees didn't even know the meaning of mercy. But Jesus was different, he lived it.
He had mercy on the woman caught in adultery.
He had mercy on the Canaanite woman whose daughter was demon-possessed. And he had mercy on the blind beggar Bartimaeus. I heard that Bartimaeus had cried the same words as my brother would later utter, Jesus, son of David, have mercy.
If Jesus could heal a blind man, could he heal my brother? The leprosy in my brother deadened his nerves so he could no longer feel. Lepers would sometimes step on a burning coal and not feel it and would then lose a foot.
In the same way, I had acquired leprosy of the heart. My heart had become deadened by the lack of mercy shown to my brother--I didn't even feel pieces of me falling away.
And then, and then...
And then Jesus touched my brother. Nobody ever touched my brother. (SHAME IN HER VOICE) Including me.
And through the loving, compassionate power pouring out of Jesus, my brother was healed of his leprosy!
And I realized that the leprosy of my heart had also been healed--my dead, numb heart was brought back to life through that merciful Jesus.
Jesus
Mercy with skin on.
Mercy toward my brother
Mercy toward me
LOOKS AT AUDIENCE
Mercy toward you
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Great thoughts here.
Blessings