Typhoid Mary

In the early 1900s there was an outbreak of typhoid fever in New York, and an Irish cook gained notoriety for spreading the disease.

The antibiotics that cure typhoid hadn't been developed, so Mary Mallon's cooking caused repeated outbreaks and several deaths. But because she appeared healthy, Mary refused to believe she was a carrier.

After apprehension and three years of forced isolation, Mary was released based on her promise to never again work as a cook. 

However, five years later she caused an outbreak of typhoid and two deaths in a maternity hospital while cooking under the alias "Mary Brown." This time she was sentenced to isolation for the remaining twenty-three years of her life.(1)

Typhoid Mary makes me think of those who stubbornly deny that they have a terminal disease called "unbelief," a disease they spread to others around them. In fact, they are more than sick. Scripture says they're already dead in their sins.(2)

But unlike Typhoid Mary, they can be fully healed:

"He [Jesus] personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. " 1 Peter 2:24

I'm rejoicing today that I've accepted the cure and I'm no longer an "unbelief carrier." How about you?

Resources: Typhoid Mary and 10 Things You May Not Know About Typhoid Mary.

(1) Some believe that Mary would have stopped cooking if she'd been trained in another profession, so she may not bear the full burden of her choices (Typhoid Mary: Villain or Victim). But Romans 1:18-22 says that's not true for those who carry the disease of unbelief.

(2) Ephesians 2:1-5: "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."

Bible Love Notes