Submitted by Rev. Dr. Diana C. Leaf, Chaplain
Immediately the skin disease left him. And [Jesus] ordered him to tell no one. “But go, show yourself to the priest, and, as Moses commanded, make an offering for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” – Luke 5:13b-14 (NRSVUE)
Jesus cures this man’s disease, but he knows that the exclusion he’s faced has probably been more disabling than the condition itself, so he tells him how to demand recognition and restoration to the community by those with power.
To cure, Jesus adds healing, for the man and maybe for the priests, as well.
Disability thinkers and organizations often draw a distinction between the medical model of disability and the social model. In the medical framework, disability is primarily located in an individual body, and all our efforts should be focused there.
Cure is the goal.
If that can’t be achieved, the person too often becomes an object of pity, discomfort, censure.
Far preferred is the social model.
In this framework, disability is located not in the individual but in the society around them.
Individual bodies and their functional differences affect people’s lives profoundly, but it’s society that disables them through policies, attitudes, practices, and the built environment.
The goal is full accessibility to the widest range of shared experience for the widest range of people with the widest range of bodies and minds, regardless of whether “cure” is an option.
Responsibility rests on all, but especially on those with power.
Prayer
Help me build a world where all your people have a way in. Amen.