As we mentioned in a previous post, there were three types of miracles the Jewish leaders taught that only the Messiah would be able to do: (1) cast out a mute demon, (2) heal a man born blind, and (3) heal leprosy. We have already seen how he did the first two. In this post, we’ll see how he did the third.
The healing and cleansing from leprosy is found in three of the gospels: Matthew chapter 8, verses 1-4; Mark chapter 1, verses 40-45, and Luke chapter 5, verses 12-16. In these passages, Jesus encounters a man with leprosy who asked Jesus to heal him. Jesus does and tells the man to go to the priest so he could be pronounced clean and then enter back into society.
Then, Luke records another encounter for us in chapter 17, verses 11-19. Here there are ten lepers. They do not approach Jesus, but yell to him from a distance asking for healing. They head to the priest and are healed along the way. One of them returns and falls at Jesus’ feet praising and thanking him.
What about the healing of leprosy was considered so profound? In the Torah, it appears that God alone inflicts leprosy on a person:
“Then the LORD said, ‘Put your hand inside your cloak.’ So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow” (Ex 4:6).
“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.’ So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back” (Nu 12:14-15).
“They confronted King Uzziah and said, ‘It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the LORD. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the LORD God.’ Uzziah, who had a censer in his hand ready to burn incense, became angry. While he was raging at the priests in their presence before the incense altar in the LORD’s temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead. When Azariah the chief priest and all the other priests looked at him, they saw that he had leprosy on his forehead, so they hurried him out. Indeed, he himself was eager to leave, because the LORD had afflicted him. King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house—leprous, and banned from the temple of the LORD. Jotham his son had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land” (2Ch 28:18-21).
And in the Tanakh, it stated that no person had ever healed an Israelite from leprosy; only God himself had sone so. Because of this, the priest to whom these men presented themselves must have been taken aback to hear their stories of healing by Jesus as it was his belief that only God could heal leprosy. Unfortunately, we don’t have a record of his reaction.
Jesus was the only person who would touch an unclean person and not be afraid of becoming defiled himself. Why? One reason could be because of what the Law said about the sin offering.
“Whatever touches any of the flesh [of the sin offering] will become holy, and if any of the blood is spattered on a garment, you must wash it in the sanctuary area.” (Lv 6:27).
Did you catch that? As far as I know, this is the only thing that makes something else holy. Normally, the Law stated that anything unclean would make something it touches unclean. Here, it is just the opposite. That is why they had to be so careful about handling the sin offering. As Jesus was our sin offering, it seems what he touched became clean. In this instance, the leprosy (being an uncleanness of the skin) became whole (cleanness of skin). I find that remarkable.
There are some translations which state Jesus was “indignant”? The NIV is one of the few who translates the word to “indignant” rather than “having compassion.” There has been much debate about this. However, Jesus did have compassion or else he would not have healed. Yet, it may be that he could have become indignant because the man said, “if you will” which implied doubt on the man’s part that Jesus was willing. Jesus responded that of course he was willing and healed the man from his leprosy. If he was indignant, this did not mean he was not also compassionate. Otherwise, the man would not have been healed.
Leprosy was a very devastating disease. It wasn’t just the physical part where a person’s skin literally came off a person. It was that no one would touch a leper. Can you image going for years and years without any human contact or touch. For Jesus to touch him when he was a leper was probably more moving than we can ever imagine.
Why did Jesus give the healed leper a strong warning not to tell anyone except the priest? There are perhaps three important reasons to consider:
1) Publicity over his healing might hinder Christ’s mission and divert public attention from his message to them. Such publicity is what, at times, forced Jesus away from the more populated areas.
2) It was important that the priest pronounce the man to have obtained a genuine cure so that there might be no prejudice among the Jews against its being a real miracle. Possibly, if the man did not go at once to the priest without delay, evil-minded men might prejudice the priest and prevent his declaring the healing to be true because it was done by Jesus.
3) Jesus did not want people focusing on the miracles themselves, but rather on the message he was proclaiming and the death he was going to die.
Why did the one leper come back to Jesus and the others did not? There are likely several reasons, but for this man who was a Samaritan, he had no priest to go to in order to show he was healed. The only place to go to have recognition of his cleansing was the one who had performed the cleansing. It is likely the others were Jewish and would go to the temple to receive their cleansing and be allowed back into society.
This does not excuse them from not returning to be thankful but could be one explanation for why this one man returned: not only because he was thankful, but he had no other person to present himself to for recognition of his cleansing.
So, we have seen Jesus perform three miracles that Jewish tradition stated that only their coming Messiah would be able to do. Yet, the Jewish leaders still did not believe him to be the Messiah. Why? Perhaps we should reverse that question and ask why do we not believe when we have this same level of evidence?
Ponder that and see if you can come to the same realization of who Jesus really is that his man did. What did he do? He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. Jesus is waiting for this moment from you so he can wrap you in his arms just as you are. He is the sin offering. His touch will cleanse you. Are you ready?
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Visit Books & Words to Inspire by Randy C. Dockens