Jesus spoke volumes by his basic acts that defied tradition and commonly accepted practices. Jesus knew how to cross over social and religious taboos better than anyone. And yet, He always seemed to do it with a bigger purpose than showing off. Jesus sought to make a statement, set people free and transform the world around Him. Jesus would do incredible miracles and then discourage the person healed from talking about it.
Some of the most moving stories in the Bible are the accounts of Jesus healing and interacting with lepers. Just before the last week of His life, Jesus stayed outside of Jerusalem in Bethany. He spent some time at the house of Simon the leper. Obviously, this man wasn't still a leper. More than likely, he was a former leper whom Jesus had healed.
Jesus made quite a statement by staying at the house of a former leper just before the beginning of Passover. Most Jews saw leprosy as a punishment for sin, a sign of God's disfavor. And they certainly wouldn't want to be connected with leprosy or risk becoming "unclean" before the Passover, one of the most important religious festivals of the year. Yet, Jesus walked among the outcasts of society without a care in the world.
Unlike most diseases, leprosy was not treated by doctors. It was thought to be a curse directly from the hand of God. There was no cure. Instead, the priests were responsible for monitoring the progress of the disease and keeping the ritual purification of the law. When they walked down the street, lepers were required to yell, "Tame, Tame", which means unclean. People would walk on the other side of the street and avoid them. Many lepers lived outside of cities in leper colonies although some did live within cities. Jesus' association with lepers would have been considered highly unusual for a religious teacher.
I love the story in Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45 and Luke 5:12-15 where Jesus heals a leper. Jesus not only healed the man. He also touched him. I wonder if this was the first human contact that the man had experienced since he became leprous. Most people wouldn't touch a leper because it would make them ceremonially unclean. And many people feared catching leprosy even though it can't be easily transmitted.
Jesus touched the untouchable and did not become unclean. Instead, He touched the unclean and purified them. Some might say that Jesus risked ceremonial uncleanness and broke the law by touching the leper. But I believe that He demonstrated God's love and thus fulfilled the spirit and purpose behind the law. How can He who is pure by His very nature ever be defiled by the leprosy of another? This miracle is just a foreshadowing of what was to come as Jesus died to forever cleanse all mankind of sin and redeem them from death.
Leprosy eats away flesh causing one's appearance to be drastically changed. It had a social stigma attached to the disease. Many lepers experience such deadening of the senses that they couldn't feel pain. They were viewed as the walking dead among the Jewish people.
John Gill wrote in his commentary on Luke 5:12-15, "There is one thing in the law of the leprosy very surprising, and that is, that if there was any quick raw flesh, or any sound flesh in the place where the leprosy was, the man was pronounced unclean but if the leprosy covered his skin, and all his flesh, then he was pronounced clean: this intimates, that he that thinks he has some good thing in him, and fancies himself sound and well, and trusts to his own works of righteousness, he is not justified in the sight of God but if a man acknowledges that there is no soundness in his flesh, that in him, that is, in his flesh, dwells no good thing, but that his salvation is alone, by the grace and mercy of God, such a man is justified by faith in Christ Jesus."
There is a difference between being healed and being made clean. As Gill pointed out, you could be completely leprous and declared clean. The law demonstrates our complete dependence on God to be made clean. We must come to the realization that there is nothing good and holy in us apart from God. Only as we see ourselves as completely leprous can we become clean by relying on the touch of God to purify us. If we think that we can be clean on our own, we deceive ourselves.
Jesus maintained the ritual purity of the law by encouraging the leper to go show himself to the priests and to offer the necessary sacrifices. He warned the man about the dangers of continuing in sin. Jesus also encouraged him to keep silent. This may have been for several reasons. Jesus may have done this in order to honor the role of the priests as declaring someone clean. Wanting to avoid mass hysteria, Jesus may have encouraged the man to keep silent so that He could go on to other towns without being overcome by crowds. And Jesus knew that the priests might refuse to declare the man clean if they linked the cure to Him or if the whole region knew about it before the priests could make their declaration about the man's condition. Regardless the reason, Jesus followed the law while fulfilling it in a way that the priests could never do following the traditional methods.
Jesus did not keep His powers to Himself. In Matthew 10:8,He told the disciples to go out and cleanse lepers. Today, we as the Church are called to go among those who are outcasts, hurting and lonely. We are called to find those who feel like the walking dead and help them discover true life in Jesus. Who can you touch with the love of God in your everyday world?
God reveal to us how we can be used to cleanse, heal and bring life to those hurting in the world around us. May we never declare unclean what You have purified by Your work on the cross. May we not be like others who fear those who go through life with some stigma attached to them. May we dare touch them and make them clean by Your power. May we take our position as co-laborers in Your work as You refine all things and make the world as You originally intended it to be. May we have Your eyes and be willing to be Your hands to a needy world.
