Jesus and the Leper

                   Jesus: Touching the Untouchable

"8 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A man with leprosy[a] came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

3 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”

Matthew 8: 1-4 - Christian Standard Bible

Leprosy in the Bible was seen as a curse from God and with good reason.  When Miriam and Aaron grumbled against Moses, God afflicted Miriam for seven days in Numbers 12.  

"12 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.

3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)

4 At once, the Lord said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them went out. 5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward, 6 he said, “Listen to my words:

“When there is a prophet among you,
    I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions,
    I speak to them in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses;
    he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him, I speak face to face,
    clearly and not in riddles;
    he sees the form of the Lord.
Why then were you not afraid
    to speak against my servant Moses?”

9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.

10 When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous[a]—it became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease, 11 and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed. 12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”

13 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “Please, God, heal her!”

14 The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that, she can be brought back.” 15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.

16 After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran." 

- Christian Standard Bible

Miriam was unclean for seven days even after being healed as was the law. Leprosy was that bad in the Old Testament, and it didn't improve with time. A person afflicted with an infectious skin disease was considered unclean, in Jesus' day anyone with leprosy would have to announce as they walked, "Unclean, Unclean" so that the people could avoid them and not become infected.  This brings us back to Matthew 8: 1-4.

Jesus, by law, had every right to turn the man with leprosy away.  For all intents and purposes, this man was unclean.  Everyone else considered this man unclean. Not just unclean, but undesirable.  And yet, when Jesus looked at this man, he instead, saw a man in desperate need of saving.  Not only because of his skin disease but saving for his heart.  

Something to take note of when Jesus heals a person, he is also usually healing their heart as well.  But here is this man, a social pariah, unclean, and he kneels before Jesus.  He has heard of Jesus and that he heals people, and he knows like the blind man in Mark 10: 46-52, this man realizes only Jesus can heal him and make him whole - not just in body but in heart and soul as well.  

The leper kneels before Jesus, acknowledging he is unworthy and says, "If you are willing."  He doesn't demand from Jesus that he be healed, he recognizes his lack of worth, he knows he is a sinner, and yet, he wants to be healed.  He is humble, he no longer has any pride, at that moment, he is crying out from his heart the cry of Isaiah when he encounters God in the throne room of Heaven, "I am a man of unclean lips" (Isaiah 6:5 CSB).  

Does Jesus send him away?  No, he says he is willing, and he does something no one else has done for a long time to this man - he touches him.  At that moment, the man is cleansed of all leprosy and sin.  He is whole.  

I love this moment.  I can imagine Jesus seeing this man coming.  He already knows this man is coming, he knows he is unclean and that he would give anything to be clean, inside and out. And while others would have turned and gone in a different direction, Jesus meets this man at the point of his need.  

We all have sin inside of us.  We are all struggling with our own leprosy, most of us hide it inside because we think if we hide it, God doesn't see it.  And yet, we hear in the Jeremiah 23: 24, "Can a person hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” —the Lord’s declaration. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” —the Lord’s declaration." (Jeremiah 23: 24 CSB).  Please know that even if you hide from others, God sees you, He knows the deepest darkest secrets in your heart, and if you ask, He is willing to cleanse you today.

In Christ,

Maureen