JESUS HEALS A MAN WITH LEPROSY
Luke 5:12-16
Key verse 5:13
“Jesus reached out and touched the man, ‘I am willing’, he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him.”
Reach out and touch someone. Go ahead and do it. Now how did you feel? How did you think you made someone else feel? Or think about if we never had any kind of contact with anyone. What if we never touched anyone or were touched? This would make us feel lonely. There was once a study done on two babies. One baby was handled normally, touched, hugged and kissed. The other baby was hardly ever held, and was rarely hugged and kissed. They both grew up quite differently both socially and mentally. I’m sure you can figure out for yourselves which one lived a normal life and which one had many social problems and psychological problems.
God made us to be social creatures. We need to be touched by others, and to have contact with others, physically and socially. We especially need to experience this healing touch from God, the touch that heals our diseased and dying souls.
Today we will study about a man who probably wasn’t touched for a long time and who hadn’t had social contact for a long time, because he had leprosy, a fatal and highly contagious skin disease. This morning, let us think about what the willing touch of Jesus meant to this man with leprosy and what it means to you personally. May God bless each of you to experience the healing touch of Jesus in your life.
Part 1. “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” (12)
Let’s read verse 12, “While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.’” What is leprosy? It is a contagious skin disease that in Jesus’ time was incurable. Leprosy is caused by a bacterium that spreads across the skin, creating sores, scabs and white shining spots. The most serious problem, however, is the loss of sensation. Without the ability to feel, lepers injure their tissue, leading to further infection. This is because your skin acts as a natural barrier against disease. When this disease took over a person’s body, their skin would literally rot away and they would lose all sensitivity. Deformity, muscle loss and paralysis were the signs of late stage of leprosy. It could take years but eventually one who contracted the disease and became covered with leprosy would die because he would be overcome by the flesh eating bacteria.
The author of this gospel, Luke, who was a doctor, described this man in more detail than the other gospel writers, Matthew and Mark . They said he was a man with leprosy. But Luke describes this man as “covered with leprosy.” This means that from the top of his head to the toes of his feet he had all sores covering him. In Biblical times, God had given the Israelites laws to keep in order to have order in their society as well as keeping their society healthy both spiritually and physically. In the law one who had leprosy was banned from society because of its contagious nature. They had to live in quarantine in leper camps, far away from society. They had to wear torn clothes and keep their hair unkempt and cover the lower part of their face. If he happened to go into town to beg for food, he would have to keep himself at a distance and if he saw anyone approaching he must cry out “Unclean! Unclean!”
We live in a society that is very image conscious and appearance conscience. We want to appear beautiful and handsome and cool and we want to impress others by ours clothes. We know what it is like to have even a small pimple appear all of a sudden on our nose or face and how self-conscious we are about it and how we try to get rid of it in a hurry. Many teenagers and even adults still suffer from acne that still appears and won’t go away after many years. Yet all of this is nothing in comparison to a person who has the ugly disease of leprosy that disfigures their face and body with grotesque sores that slowly and eventually eats their flesh away.
Not only did this disease of leprosy destroy the person’s outward appearance, it also destroyed their inner person, that is, how they viewed themselves and life. These people were social outcasts. They could not be accepted by society because they were labeled as “Unclean.” This was the label given to them. Most people were horrified of them and rejected them. Some might have condemned them saying that they had leprosy because they sinned against God. Others might have said that God hates them and he cursed them that is why they have leprosy. These people with leprosy could risk being stoned if they tried to come to the towns to beg for food because people feared that they might become contaminated.
Imagine being in such a situation like this man with leprosy. You are rejected by society. You are labeled a threat to society even though you did nothing wrong. No matter how hard you try to keep up your outward appearance, you are unable to do so, as your skin slowly rots away. You have no real hope or future because you have a terminal disease. You live the rest of your life as an outcast, isolated and separated, watching as you see yourself slowly become filled with leprous sores that eventually cover your whole body with your skin falling off. Everyone avoids you and stays far from you, even your friends. Your parents and your family can only view you from a distance because they don’t want to become infected. As you see them, they cry and weep over your shocking and grotesque appearance. You feel miserable, ugly, and you are labeled “unclean” by the Law of God and by society. What a life.
Sin can be compared to leprosy. It makes us unclean by the Law of God. When we sin we experience a dirty feeling inside, we experience shame and guilt and we feel helpless, hopeless, ugly and grotesque and sometimes just plain miserable. Like leprosy, we have no control over its spread and control it takes over our lives. Just as leprosy makes one insensitive to touch as it increases over the body, the more we sin, the more we become insensitive to others and to God. We hurt others when we sin against them and we make God grieve and hurt God when we sin against him. Sin isolates us from people causing many relationship problems among friends and family. You have heard others say, “We just can’t get along! I can’t stand to be around him!” or “I really can’t stand her! She’s a real snitch.” Sin breaks our relationship with God so we feel the emptiness and meaninglessness of life. We feel confused about life and have dark thoughts. There is no human cure for sin. Sin leads to death and God’s judgment.
Now let us get back to this man who was covered with leprosy. Let’s look at his faith. We would not think such a man had faith. We would think he would have just given up on life. But he heard about Jesus. He heard all the wonderful healings that Jesus had done. He heard about the power and authority of Jesus teaching and that he gave orders to evil spirits and they come out! Up until this time, this man had lost all hope. But when he heard about what Jesus was doing, hope sprang up in his heart and he courageously and taking a risk, went to find Jesus.
Let us see how this man reacted when he saw Jesus. Look again at verse 12. It says that when he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and he begged him, ‘Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean!’” How humble this man was! He was self-conscious about his appearance. He was ashamed of his appearance. He was desperate for healing and desperate for help. His going to Jesus was a sign that he was crying out in his soul for the mercy of God to help him. “Lord, if you are willing…” He really wanted Jesus to be willing because he knew only Jesus could make him clean. “Jesus, please be willing to make me clean! Pleeeease!” He called Jesus “Lord.” He believed Jesus was the Lord, he didn’t call him “Rabbi” or Teacher” but he called him “Lord.”
But he didn’t know how Jesus would react to him. Everyone else had to reject him because he was a man covered with leprosy. Everyone else had barfed when they saw him and said, “Go way from us you unclean monster!” Would Jesus barf, too? Would Jesus react the same way they did? This man with leprosy could only go to Jesus by faith believing that Jesus was different, that Jesus would not reject him. Like this man, no matter what our sin is, no matter how ugly and grotesque we feel inside and no matter how others have treated us, we can believe that Jesus is different. Jesus is full of compassion and love and he will accept us just as we are. He will never drive us away no matter how much we have sinned in the past. Jesus said in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.” He earnestly wants to help us and heal us. However, we must come in faith, even if it is small faith. Then God will reward us in the best way he sees fit.
Hebrews 11:6 says, “That without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek.”
Part 2. Jesus Touched and Healed the Man with Leprosy (13-16)
Now let us see how Jesus received this man with leprosy. Let us read verse 13, “Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. ‘I am willing’, he said. ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him.” When others had rejected this man and ignored this man and kept their distance from this man because he had leprosy, Jesus reached out his hand and touched this ugly and disgusting looking man. Jesus risked being infected. Even though Jesus is the Holy perfect God, he is still man here. He still had flesh and blood like you and me. He has the possibility to become infected with leprosy.
But Jesus could not ignore this man’s faith and desire to be healed. Jesus could not turn this man away. This is because Jesus did not see him as a dirty and unclean and grotesque creature. Instead he saw him as a human being created in the image of God whose soul was crying out for help. This touch of Jesus really shows us the mercy and compassion of God. For us to touch someone we have to overcome many barriers. We can be hesitant to touch someone, especially if they are a stranger or even if they are younger than us or older than us. We might think, many things, “Should I shake their hand? Did they wash their hands? Do I really want to get to know this person?” We can easily judge by outward appearances. Sometimes we do not want to touch others because we don’t want to open our lives to anyone. We want to remain reserved.
Many people are concerned with their own personal space, also. “Don’t get too close to me man! Don’t invade my personal space!” When someone has a cold we try to stay clear of them so we don’t catch their cold. There are many barriers: cultural barriers, negative past experiences with others and rumors that might keep us from touching others or being touched and I mean that not just the physical touching but self-revealing, that is exposing ourselves and getting to know others in friendship. But look at Jesus, the Holy God became flesh, reaching out and touching this man, exposing himself to this contaminated man with leprosy, not only to heal him but to begin a personal relationship with him and bring salvation to this man.
Isaiah 52:10 says, “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” God laid bare his holy arm in flesh form through Jesus Christ. Now Jesus is reaching down low, baring his holy arm and humbling himself to touch and restore this broken man who came to him just as he was by faith. Even right now as we hear about Jesus in this passage, Jesus is reaching down to touch you through this word and to accept you as his child. All you need to do is come to him and accept him.
None of us can sincerely deny that they don’t need Jesus. Somehow and in someway, we feel unclean inside because of our sins. Jesus came to accept sinners just as they are. So when we want to come to Jesus, we should not try to be perfect, because Jesus knows that we are not perfect. We should come to Jesus like this man with leprosy did in our dirty sins and expect Jesus’ help because Jesus turns down no one who comes to him. I’ll say that again: Jesus turns down no one who comes to him
What happened after Jesus touched this man with leprosy? He said “ ‘Be clean!’ And immediately the leprosy left him.” The power and authority of Jesus’ words healed this man. The power and authority of Jesus’ love made him clean. Now this man could have a new life and a normal life again. This man came to Jesus by faith and Jesus in his love reached out to touch and heal him and cleanse him. This cleansing is symbolic of how Jesus cleanses us from sin when we go to him believing he is the Savior of the world who died for our sins and rose from the dead.
When we know our sinfulness before God we should not try to think we can make ourselves clean by changing our clothes or using a new kind of soap or shampoo. We might make a decision to be kind to others and smile a lot, but this cannot make us clean either. We cannot make ourselves clean by any kind of religious works or by trying to be moral. Only through personal repentance and our faith in Jesus’ blood shed on the cross can we experience the cleansing power of Jesus. What does it mean to us that Jesus makes us clean? It means all our sins have been washed away and forgotten by God. So you don’t have to remember or keep a record of your past sins and mistakes because Jesus doesn’t.
Look at verse 14, “Then Jesus ordered him, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.’” Jesus wanted this man to return back to be a normal part of society. But he still needed to do it the right way as prescribed by the law of God. He must show himself to the priest who would then give him a certificate saying that he was officially clean by law. This certificate would confirm the fact that he was cleansed and was not a threat to make anyone unclean. This event could be like a celebration of what Jesus had done for him.
Jesus had told him not to tell anyone about what he did. I wonder why Jesus told him not to tell anyone. Didn’t Jesus want all the lepers of the world healed? Didn’t he want all people who were sick with diseases healed? Of course Jesus wanted all to be healed. But Jesus knows the hearts of all men. Later in Luke chapter 17 he heals ten men who had leprosy when they called out to him, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” But out of the ten, only one came back to thank Jesus! It was only to this one who came back that Jesus said, “Your faith has made you well.” It was that one person who was cleansed because he came back to give God thanks for his wonderful love, mercy and grace.
So Jesus knows people’s motives. He did not want people to just come to him to be healed of their physical sicknesses and diseases. He wanted them to be healed of their sin sickness. He wanted their souls to be healed. He wanted them to acknowledge that he is the promised Messiah and Savior of the world who came for them personally. He wanted them to be right with God and have assurance of their eternal salvation.
Look at verse 15, “Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sickness.” This man who was healed of his leprosy could not contain the good news of what happened to him. Good news spreads fast. I am not sure if it was the man who was healed who was the one who spread the news or if it was one of his relatives. But however it was done and by whoever, it spread. And this was great news!! No one had ever heard of a man who was covered with leprosy from head to toe of being healed. Remember, there was no cure for leprosy. It was a dreaded disease and a fatal disease. Now people heard of the man who had been healed and saw his before and after photograph on the evening news and on all the internet news sites.
How did Jesus react to these growing crowds who came to him? Look at verse 16, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” Jesus did not get a big head swelled with pride. He did not let the situation control him and say, “My fans!! My fans!! My public!!” He did not come to do what they wanted of him. Instead he went to God the Father in prayer, and quite often as Luke, the doctor wrote. I think Luke being a doctor was very busy and he saw how Jesus handled his busy life. Jesus went and prayed and quite often, away from others. I think this is the way we should handle our busy schedules in the 21st century. We should not let everything get to our heads and overwhelm us. We should not give into the demands of others all the time. We should not also try to be superman or superwoman. We need a quiet time to listen to the Lord in prayer, like Jesus did quite often and be refreshed and renewed by God. Psalm 47:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God.; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
In this passage, we saw the gracious and merciful healing touch of Jesus upon a man who was covered with the fatal disease of leprosy. Like leprosy, sin makes us unclean before God, is a fatal disease that destroys our relationship with others, cuts us off from God and condemns us to hell. Yet Jesus the Holy God reached down from heaven to touch us in our dirty sins and to heal us. Let us give thanks to Jesus who reached down to us and touched us to heal us.