Christian Reflections

Itsapwera is a Filipino word for outcast, a person who is rejected either from home or from certain social circles.  If you are Itsapwera, people don’t want to have anything to do with you.

This is the case of the ten lepers mentioned in Luke 17: 11-19. They are outcasts in the fullest sense of the word, from family, friends, society and even from God. In Old Testament times, lepers are banned from joining the community, they are to stay outside the city. They are not supposed to mingle with everyone else.

It is one thing to opt out of society and choose to live in isolation. At least you always have the choice to go back to family and friends whenever you want. But it is an entirely different thing to be told to go outside the city and never come back because you are sick and you are not supposed to be around anyone anymore. No farewell hugs, no human touch, just go, be gone, disappear into oblivion, out into a world of loneliness all on your own. If you are lucky, you might meet other sick people there and maybe you can huddle around and form your own community, a band of outcasts nobody wants to have anything to do with.

Then Jesus came around. With one word, he healed them all.

Aren’t you just glad that in the bleakest of circumstances, Jesus always comes around and turns everything upside down?

Note: In Cebuano,  itsa means “to cast out or throw away;” pwera means “to exclude.” Taken together, ITSAPWERA means “to get rid of the person by throwing him out.”