Bible Reading: Genesis 8; Ezra 8; Matthew 8; Acts 8
Matthew 8:2-3 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
Leprosy is contagious. Lepers were secluded from society because of the contagion. They had to live painful, short lives separated from their family and friends. Amazingly, there had been very few reported cases of Leprosy being cleansed in Israel. However, God had made provision for this in the Law of Moses. In Leviticus 14 Moses gave very specific instructions on what a leper was to do in the day of his cleansing. But they had seldom used this portion of the Law. Oh, there had been lepers who were cleansed, but they were not Israelites. Remember Naaman the Syrian general that was cleansed in the day of Elisha? Miriam, the sister of Moses was one of the few who were cleansed of leprosy.
The law of the cleansing of a leper was so rare that the Jews had deemed it to be a Messianic miracle. They were looking for Messiah to cleanse lepers. So when Jesus cleanses this man, he tells him:
Matthew 8:4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.
Jesus did not want the man running around telling everyone what happened. The testimony of Jesus being the Messiah would be powerful when it came from the declaration by the priest that a miracle that only Messiah could do had been done in Israel! Jesus healed the man out of compassion and he did it to be a witness to who he really was. He was the long awaited One! He was the Messiah. He was the One who could cleanse a leper!
Have you ever thought about the fact that anyone who touched a leper would become diseased? And yet Jesus touched the man and instead of Jesus getting the disease, the man was cleansed. This is who Jesus is. In scripture, leprosy is a picture of sin. We are all infected by it. It brings isolation from the people of God and death. If you come into contact with sin, you may catch it. But not Jesus. He touches the sinner and they are made clean! He is the only One who can do that. He is willing to touch you and make you clean. He is able. Will you go to him? Let him make you clean.
In Christ,
Rody
