GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 5:12-13
Jesus Heals a Leper
(Matthew 8:1-4; Mark 1:40-44)
12 Another time, while Jesus was in one of the towns, there was a man covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”
Matthew tells us that this miracle took place just after Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount, while he was returning to Capernaum (Matthew 8:1, 8:5). The identity of this town depends somewhat on the unknown location of the Sermon on the Mount. If it were Mount Hermon to the north, then this might have been Korazin, north of Capernaum (Jesus says he performed miracles there, Luke 10:13). Or it might have been Magdala or Gennesaret if the Sermon had taken place on Mount Tabor (Jeremiah 46:18).
Most readers of the Bible understand that leprosy was a word used in ancient times to describe any number of skin diseases, not necessarily leprosy or Hanson’s disease. In this case, however, Luke tells us that the man was “full of leprosy,” which seems to be a medical assessment that he was covered in the infection of traditional leprosy.
While Jesus was in the town, the man arrived. Lepers were required to stay outside towns and villages, and they had to announce their presence to travelers. This man seems to have seen Jesus and boldly approached him. Perhaps Jesus was on the outskirts of town. But no matter where this took place, the man knew that Jesus could heal him. We don’t know how he got his information, but he had faith. He shows it with his statement: “You can make me clean.”
The man didn’t even ask Jesus directly to heal him. He simply said, “You can make me clean.” Once the infection came, a leper’s whole life was that of an outsider, a man unclean. He could not touch anyone, or be touched. He could not be hugged; he could not receive any affection. Some men went mad. Some took their own lives. Others lived a quiet, sad, and lonely life. But with Jesus, there is hope for everyone. No one is outside Jesus’ power to heal and to save.
13 Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be made clean.” Immediately the leprosy left him.
The power of Jesus is in his word. The touch had nothing to do with healing the man’s leprosy. But the touch from Jesus wasn’t without meaning. Jesus did what no one else could do. This man had not been touched by anyone besides lepers—and perhaps, not even by lepers—for years. As he knelt (Matthew 8:2), Jesus touched him. “Be made clean.” And he was.
Luke had just reported to Theophilus that Jesus forgave Peter his sins (Luke 5:8-10). But a Gentile like Theophilus might think, “Talk is cheap. It’s easy to tell a man he’s forgiven. What about telling a sick man he’s cured?” Well, as diseases go, there’s little that’s more destructive than leprosy. It was, in many ways, the cancer of its day, but mixed with the social stigma of a politician caught up in a sex scandal. The person’s name was ruined. He was forever an outsider. This is what Jesus healed; he made the man clean again.
What sin terrifies you? Maybe you don’t have a sin that would be disastrous if made public. But then, maybe you do. Maybe there’s something lurking around down in the locked strongbox of your thoughts, or up in the attic of your memory, which tortures you. Jesus offers forgiveness even for that. You are clean in Jesus. Confess the sin! Go to your pastor, tell him you want to confess something privately, and understand that he will show you the grace of God. He will not put a burden on you for some penance you need to perform—not if he is a true minister of the gospel. He will guide you as to what the fruits of your repentance might be. But mostly he will show you that repenting of a sin means turning away from it, and turning to God. Jesus is powerful and able to save, and more than that: he is willing.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota