The city of Jerusalem surrendered to the Babylonians in the year 597 BC. About ten years later Zedekiah, a mere puppet king, foolishly rebelled against the Babylonians and a second siege followed. The temple and much of the city were destroyed and more Jews were deported to Babylon.

The devastation was something which Judah had brought on itself because of its blatant infidelity to God. Judah was to have been a country religious by essence, dedicated to the one true God. Without the practice of religion Judah was like a river without water, an orchard without trees, a marriage without love. By abandoning God the country had lost its identity.

And yet all was not lost. Subsequently prophets would preach a message of hope. The hope of the future was realized in the person of Jesus Christ. He was the great healer as in today's gospel. The leper was an outcast, like the Jews who had been deported. Jesus cured the man out of a motive of compassion, but the cure was also a sign that Jesus had come to heal the world of the wounds of sin. His form of healing was to reconcile us with God.