Tue, 21 November, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.

Luke 5:12-16

¹² While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” ¹³ And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately the leprosy left him. ¹⁴ And he charged him to tell no one, but “go and show yourself to the priest, and make an offering for your cleansing, as Moses commanded, for a proof to them.” ¹⁵ But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. ¹⁶ But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

Jesus is confronted by a leper. A leper was ceremonially unclean and had to stay away from people in order to not contaminate others. If you touched leper, you would be disqualified from worship until you were ceremonially cleansed.

What does Jesus do with this leper? Does He keep His distance and keep His ceremonial cleanliness? What does He do? Much to our surprise and most likely the shock of everyone present with Him, Jesus touches the leper. He actually puts His hand on the unclean leper, and in so doing, Jesus cleanses the man. Jesus could have healed the man in many ways that didn’t require that He touch the man. He could have sent the man to wash in the Jordon, like Elisha did with Naaman. But instead, Jesus touched the man.

What do we learn from this?

Jesus cared about people. He was willing to have contact with those that no one else would touch.

There are people in our world who are “untouchable”. In our normal nature, we shy away from these people and try to minimize our contact with them. We don’t like them, and they know it, for it clearly shows in the way we maintain a “safe” distance from them.

This is not the way Jesus treated the “untouchable” people of His day. He was intimately involved with them. He ate with those the Pharisees shunned, and He touched the leper.

Jesus has shown us that we must be involved in the lives of people who are in need, even if that means we touch the “untouchable”. If they have a need and we can help them, we must be Christ to them and be a part of their lives.

Where is Christ in this passage?

Jesus Christ touched the leper. He touched the man who was unclean in order to cleanse his leprosy. But Jesus Christ has done even more than that. He has taken the very sins of His people upon Himself, cleansing His people from their guilt. He became sin so that we would never know the punishment of God upon our sin.

The one who touched the leper willingly took sin upon Himself, in order that those in need could be right with Him.