Episode 20 Transcript
[00:00:00]
Abbie: Welcome to your daily bread with co hosts, Abbie Stasior and Hannah Calhoun. We're here to be your weekly source of spiritual nourishment, guiding you to find food freedom in a deeper connection with Christ.
Hannah: As we explore the intersection of faith and nutrition, these bite sized episodes will help you heal your relationship with food and your body through practical advice, biblical wisdom, and heartfelt encouragement.
Abbie: And as a disclaimer, we are not pastors, but passionate registered dietitians and sisters in Christ, offering our insights to support you on this faith filled journey to a healthier, more fulfilling life. Join us by taking a seat at our table as we break bread and allow God in to break the chains of diet culture.
Hannah: Today, I'm going to be reading the story about the 10 lepers. so I'm gonna read Luke chapter 17 verses 11 through 19. Now on his way to Jerusalem Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee as he was going into a village and Ten men who had leprosy met him.
They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, Jesus, Master, have pity on us. When he saw them, he said, Go show yourselves to the priests. And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him.
And he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner? Then he said to him, rise and go, your faith has made you well.
So, my pastor talked about this, um, back in January. And first of all, you know, leprosy was a death sentence at the time. Now it's, you know, there's treatment for it and stuff, but it's a bacterial infection. And these people who were lepers had to be completely outcasted from society. They couldn't be with their families anymore.
It was like quarantine to the max, but like forever until you died. Very, horrible. Like if we thought that the COVID quarantine was terrible, you know, being locked in your room for a couple weeks until you were, you know, negative, like these people, if they got leprosy, could not be in society, could not be with their families anymore.
And they had to cover their faces. They couldn't get near people. If somebody came near them, they had to shout that they were unclean so that the person wouldn't get closer. Like, and this was a death sentence. And I'm like, Thinking, like, picturing these people who, who saw Jesus and, and said, Have pity on us, like, Jesus, Master, have pity on us.
And they, they took that leap and recognized Jesus for who he was. And asked him to have pity on them. Like, when, in this world, there is sin, there's disease, there's death. And God has the ability to heal us if it is in his will. First of all, One point that my pastor noted was that there's two ways that God heals.
He heals people on earth and he heals people in heaven. Some people will be healed on earth and some people will be healed in heaven, but God will heal his people and sometimes it's not in his plan for people to be healed of certain things, certain people to be healed of certain things on earth, but, and these ten lepers didn't know if, if he was gonna heal them, but they cried out to him anyway, and You know, a lot of us are so burdened by whatever condition we have on this earth, like whether it's problems with our gut or maybe pre diabetes or maybe, you know, issues with our joints or we have high cholesterol or whatever it may be.
We're so burdened by it, and we almost just accept it as, like, part of life. But when do we ever cry out to God, begging Him to, to heal us? Like, do we do that? And, you know, of course, in this story, we see, like, ten of them were healed and only one came back
Abbie: and
Hannah: threw himself at Jesus feet and thanked him.
And, you know, it was the Samaritan, which, you know, is, like, a whole other point in the story, but So my question for the listeners is, and for us, is do we cry out to God to heal us? You know, why or why not? And then if he does choose to heal us on earth, what would we do? Would we be the nine lepers who carried on our merry way, went back to our family, did whatever we wanted to do now that we were finally healed, or would we go back and throw ourselves at his feet and say, thank you?
And glorify him, because if that's not part of our plan, then of course he ain't gonna heal us. You know what I mean? Like, like, that has to be part of our plan, and, I'm also thinking, like, how all of this was coming up for me in my head, like, as my pastor's preaching, and, like, These people were outcasted from society and, and this can also relate to like weight stigma in general, like these people were discriminated against because of this illness that they had and people are discriminated against because of their weight.
Um, There's another, uh, passage in Leviticus, uh, 13, 45 through 46, that talks about people with leprosy, and it says anyone with such a defiling disease must wear torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of their face and cry out, unclean, unclean. As long as they have the disease, they remain unclean.
They must live alone. They must live outside the camp.
I'm like thinking of people in larger bodies who we kind of treat like lepers in society and you know, I know people in larger bodies who have literally said like, yeah, I just wear these like ugly baggy clothes because nothing fits me and I'm like reading this like that the lepers have to wear torn clothes and like have their hair be unkempt like God forbid that people insist in this society.
You know, take care of themselves and dress up and look cute. Like, people are like, Oh, you're just so happy to be obese, and you're just soaking it all up and promoting obesity. It's like, no, these people don't have to, like, have their hair unkempt and be wearing these baggy clothes just because just to show how upset they are that they're fat.
Like, They can still, you know, be, wear beautiful clothes that they feel comfortable in, they can still put makeup on, they can still do their hair, and it doesn't mean that they're just, they're just, you know, promoting obesity, they're just living life. We don't know if they're What they're going through or the reason for why they're in a larger body, we don't know.
Maybe they're trying to engage in healthy habits or maybe they're doing so already and they have been for years. We don't know. But we don't have to, like, throw these people to the side and act like they're unclean. Like lepers. And not associate with them. , and force them to be unkempt, , and, , I was like, wow, we literally treat fat people like their lepers in today's society.
Almost like it's, it's contagious. And then we mentioned in another episode when we talked about shame, how people feel like if there's a picture of a thin like model girl, you know, eating a cheeseburger, it's like, oh my gosh, so cute. Posting it on Pinterest. If there's a picture of a fat person eating a cheeseburger, people get so offended and they'll be like, that's America.
Yeah. Literal picture of America. And it's like, that could be both of those people's first meal of the day for all we know. But people get so uncomfortable seeing, like, a fat person eat. It just blows my mind. It really, truly does. So, yeah, there was a lot here with this story of the 10 lepers. And, you know, some of us are, are, are struggling with not being happy in our body size.
And, and, you know, maybe, maybe we need to give it to God. And then my question is, Let's say, you know, God snaps his fingers, you wake up tomorrow, your, your body is different. Your body is suddenly your dream body. What's your next plan? Are you going to put on that red dress? Are you going to go back on your dating app?
Are you going to, is that your plan? Or are you going to figure out how to glorify God better now in, in your dream body?
Abbie: Hmm. Oh, Anna, you're just dropping so many truth bombs, uh, very, very convicting to others. There's so much. The first thing that I was thinking of. Number one, God's mercy, his goodness, his grace.
He's just so good. And he was willing to heal all of those lepers without any expectation or like his motivation for healing was not to get recognition from them. Obviously the one coming back, like, yes, you know, glorifying God in that, that's what we are, are called to do, but he still took mercy on them.
He still loved them, still healed them, showed them compassion and kindness. Without getting recognition and kind of with the risk. of not receiving any, any thank you afterwards. So how often are we not doing something because we know, oh, they're not going to be grateful if I do that act of kindness. I'm not going to go out of my way for my coworker because I'm probably not going to get a thank you.
It's like, no, we're still, like, we, if we are modeling Jesus, we should still be, Helping people without expecting a thank you or recognition. and when you were talking about not being healed on earth. So, um, have I told you this? I don't think I've even told our listeners either that I have a bone tumor.
Oh, I did not know that. Oh, hello, hi. Okay, not to drop that mid episode, but um, I do, we probably need to have a whole episode of, but I mean, I have been praying for, for healing. They, you know, doctors think that it's benign. I was diagnosed like during COVID. I just like slipped in my apartment in my socks.
It was very weird. I was like, do I have osteoporosis? Like, why did my bone break so easily? They're like, no, levels are fine. Calcium's good. Vitamin D's good. Good. Uh, but you have a bone tumor and that's why your leg broke so easily. So I've been praying for healing and, um, the Lord showed me that I will be healed.
And it, but it might not be on earth, but I will be a leap, leaping like a deer in heaven one way or the other. Um, and I since have, it's not that I like never pray for healing anymore, but it's like after I got that, I just feel very settled in my spirit and very content of like, I don't need to be pleading with God every single day or praying and fasting for this miracle healing because I'm good.
And what God told me is, um, and this is very similar to. The chosen. I'm going to link up the clip in the in the show notes because there's one clip in the chosen where little James, one of the disciples goes to Jesus and says, Hey, you're sending us all out two by two to go heal people. I'm hobbling over here.
How can I be healing people if I haven't been healed? And Jesus says to him, little James, I haven't, number one, I will heal you, not right now, but trust that you will be healed. But I haven't healed you yet, healed you yet because I trust you. I trust you to still praise me, to still have faith in me.
without experiencing this miracle. So I felt like God was really speaking to me through, through that. And he trusts me to still have a testimony and to still have faith in him without seeing that miracle. Um, yeah. So, and I feel like it goes back to, uh, for, or sorry, second Corinthians chapter 12, where it says the
Hannah: apostle Paul and the thorn in the flesh.
Yes.
Abbie: Like he pleaded like remove the storm from my side. Sometimes God's not going to do that. Um, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses in insults and hardships and persecutions in difficulties for when I am weak.
Then I am strong.
Hannah: Yes. Yes. And that that's actually was in my notes as well. And, you know, my pastor had talked about how God can permit us to continue life with a bodily affliction to keep us humble and dependent on the Lord. Yes. You know, and, and, you know, like we we've mentioned, faith is to believe something without seeing.
And so, you know, if, if, If we have something we're praying for healing we're praying for healing number one We know and we trust that god's gonna heal us as soon as we get into heaven when we are in our heavenly bodies we are made whole in christ in the presence of the lord, but You know Maybe it's a test for us Maybe it's a test for us to not see healing on earth and whatever it is.
We're going through So that you know our faith can be strengthened You know?
Abbie: Yeah,
Hannah: so You Yeah, you know, Jesus, Jesus is, is the great healer and at the end of the day, like maybe this isn't relatable for people who feel like they're fine and dandy, which, you know, can't relate. I feel like I got a million things going on, but you know, but we, at the end of the day, we all have a terminal illness called sin and we are all going to die because of sin, you know, so it's.
Jesus is, he's the great healer, he's the great physician, and he's also the great savior. So we have to run into his arms and trust that we will be healed, maybe on this earth, but definitely in heaven. And you know, not be afraid to cry out to him and ask for him to heal us if it's in his will. Yes. For our, for our lives on this earth.
There's so much here, um, but we, we hope that this provided insight, um, and, and when you read about the lepers, the poor lepers and how they were, um, outcasted by society, think about, think about how you're treating, uh, different members of society today, especially those in, in different body shapes and sizes.
Um, And don't be afraid to cry out to God for healing.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of your daily bread. We hope you found inspiration and practical guidance to nourish your body and soul. Remember the journey to a healthier relationship with food and a deeper connection with Christ is ongoing and we're here to support you every step of the way.
Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast. So you never miss an episode. And if you've been blessed by our content, please consider sending this episode to a few friends that need to hear this message. And we also invite you to leave us a review your feedback and support being the world to us and really help the show.
As we conclude today's episode, we encourage you to take what resonated with you into your quiet time with God, allow God to reveal to you any changes that you can make for his glory, trusting that you are fearfully and wonderfully made in his image. Stay tuned for our next episode where we'll continue to explore how God's word helps us heal our relationship with food in our bodies Until then may you find both physical and spiritual nourishment and may you be filled with his peace and joy.
God bless