Leprosy and Sin

We next see Jesus encountering a leper in Matthew 8:1-3. And since I already blogged about this over a year ago, I’ll just repost it now.

In Biblical times leprosy was a dreaded disease. It affected skin and nerves, flesh and bones. A leper could have oozing sores and gross disfigurements, especially in the face and hands and feet. Lepers were shunned, driven from society, forced to live outside the community, and denied human contact with non-lepers. And you can well imagine how they smelled!  And when they encountered anyone while walking down a road, they had to cry out “unclean, unclean!” That’s why when a leper approached Jesus in Matthew 8:2 and said, “Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,” Jesus’ reaction was so astonishing.  The first thing he did was touch him!  Then He said, “I will; be thou clean.”

Oh, how much this tells us about Jesus! About His heart. His kindness. His love. His mercy. He could just as easily have healed the leper with a word.  Only a few verses later in Matthew 8:5 He does just that for a centurion’s servant. 

Since the Bible is full of types and shadows it’s easy to see that leprosy symbolizes sin. We are all spiritual lepers, and Jesus wants to make us clean, too. And He’s not afraid to put His finger into our puss-filled sores. He’s not afraid to touch the dirty, the defiled places within us. He’s not afraid to look upon our poor spiritual deformity. In fact, He delights in it, delights in healing us, delights in making us what He always envisioned us to be. The wonderful thing is this: God sees us for what we really are, but loves us anyway. And He loves us not because we’re good, but because He is good.

We might as well settle this once and for all. We’ve all sinned and fallen short.  We all need a Savior. Could there be anyone more wonderful or tenderhearted than Jesus? We need not fear committing everything to Him.  And when we do, He will begin to make those ugly wretched places in us, beautiful.

The question is, do we have the courage to let Him?

Until next week,

Sylvia