Matthew 8:1-4
“Cleaned”
Well, in these four little verses there is so much for us to unpack today.
Because as with all the miracles that Jesus performed, there are layers of meaning to them.
Yes, we see that Jesus healed a man who had a terrible disease- Leprosy- and that was a great miracle in itself, and the leper who was healed must have been overcome with Joy, but there was actually a greater Joy that the leper experienced that day, a Joy that wasn’t just skin deep, but an eternal joy which went right to his core.
This story starts by telling us that great crowds were following Jesus.
Crowds were following Jesus all the time, but on this particular occasion, it was some time after Jesus had been preaching on the mountain, he had been teaching them what we now call “the beatitudes”- the way that God wants us to live, and after Jesus had preached the greatest sermon ever told, crowds followed him.
But you have to wonder how many of those in the crowd who followed Jesus that day, were not actually believers, but just curious about this teacher and his teachings, how many in the crowd where just there because of FOMO- fear of missing out, or how many in the crowd where just wanting to see this “great teacher” get his comeuppance, as he was making waves with the authorities, or how many of the crowd wanted to crown this bloke as their rebel leader who would raise alms against the Romans, or how many of the crowd that day, actually listened to the teachings of Jesus and believed that this was the king of the everlasting kingdom, the kingdom that was not of this earth, but was of heaven.
But perhaps a more pressing question about the crowd that followed Jesus that day, is this.
How many of the crowd backed off Jesus when this leper approached Him?
How many of the crowd kept their distance when this leper knelt down before Jesus?
The answer is probably most of them.
Remember, Lepers were the absolute out casts of society, no-one wanted to be anywhere near them, they were treated worse than the healthy unvaccinated people of our society. People didn’t want them in their towns, on their streets….so much so that lepers had their own communities in the rocks on the outskirts of the town, far away from anyone.
They were a problem that no-one wanted to deal with.
And in one sense you can understand why people treated them so poorly, they were afraid that they too would catch this terrible disease and hence become an outcast too. And so, in one sense this quarantine, this separated leper community was good, since it protected the healthy from this horrible disease.
It must have been a living hell for the lepers though!
There were no care measures in place to help the leper, they were just pushed out of society with no hope of a “normal” life. No hope of being able to come back and life in the community. Once a leper, you were scarred for life, physically and emotionally.
Back in the days of Moses, when God’s people lived in the desert, Moses set up a quarantine community for the lepers in his day, and yet the priests would still go out to the community and check on their health, check that they could be brought back into the community. There was always a desire that that the leper would be healed and brought back into the community.
In the days of Jesus, this was not the case. Once a leper, you were tossed outside the community and forgotten about.
And so, you wonder just how many of the crowd who followed Jesus that day actually stayed up close and personal when the leper knelt before him.
We know that crowds are a “funny beast”
When crowds get together, logic, common sense seem to fly out the window- we see that at the footy, normal people, turn into maniacs- mob mentality takes over.
The most famous crowd was the one at the trial of Jesus.
The crowd that day, were so whipped up into a frenzy by the Jewish leaders, that they rather wanted to see a man who had committed murder, released- Barabbas and instead they wanted to see an innocent man hung ……talk about a mob mentality.
Crowds will grow and gather when they are comfortable and being fed what they want to, but as soon as an uncomfortable truth hits them, or it just gets a bit too personal, crowds tend to scatter.
Take for example, this crowd (see picture of Lakewood church)
This is the crowd at Lakewood church in Texas Houston- it has 16,800 seats- it is overseen by a pastor called Joel Osteen.
And boy oh boy Joel Osteen can pull a crowd and why not, listen to what he promises them….
Here is just a few promises that you can read in his book – “the best life now”
“God wants to give you your own house. God has a big dream for your life”
“Perhaps you’re searching for a parking spot in a crowded lot,” Osteen sympathizes. “Say, ‘Father, I thank you for leading and guiding me. Your favor will cause me to get a good spot”
But “when you think positive, excellent thoughts, you will be propelled toward greatness, inevitably bound for increase, promotion, and God’s supernatural blessings.”
“God doesn’t bless mediocrity. He blesses excellence.” So, do you want a new car? Then wash the one you have. You want a bigger house? “Keep it looking nice
No wonder there is a crowd of 16,800 people, who doesn’t want a better car, a bigger house, a car park spot to magically open up for us at Coles car park?
I wonder what would happen to the crowd of 16,800 when Joel Osteen actually started to preach the gospel, you know that total depravity stuff, that sin thing, that need we have for Jesus, that message of the cross, that message of suffering for the gospel? That message that Jesus is our ultimate goal, not a car or a house or a car park at Coles.
Would that crowd start to pull back if Osteen actually preached the gospel? Probably!
Just like the crowd who had the leper approach Jesus- it would just become a bit too uncomfortable- a bit too personal.
And the gospel- the good news of Jesus is personal.
When it comes to Jesus, you can’t just follow the crowd, but you have to make a personal decision.
Jesus wasn’t afraid to get personal with the leper.
Look at verse 3 with me:
“And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him….”
Can you imagine the crowd, as Jesus stretched out his hand and touched the leper?-
There may have been a deep in draw of breath. There may have been a few sighs from the crowd, there may have been a few thoughts in the crowd, which screamed “what are you doing – Jesus? You are touching a leper?- A leper? No-one touches a leper- You are putting yourself at danger!
Matthew deliberately recorded this detail that Jesus touched the leper to make a very significant point.
Jesus had no need to touch the leper in order for this leper to be healed.
Jesus could have healed this leper without touching him, just as Jesus healed the servant of the centurion which we read about a little later on in the same chapter. Jesus just said the word, and the centurion’s servant was healed. Jesus didn’t even visit his house, he didn’t touch him, he just said the word and the servant of the centurion was healed.
And yet here, Jesus deliberately touches the leper and the leper is healed.
By touching the leper, Jesus was showing this: He was showing that He was able to make things which are considered unclean- clean.
In the days of Moses, a leper had to walk about the outskirts of the camp, shouting “unclean, unclean”- as a warning to the community that they shouldn’t approach them.
And so, this leper who approached Jesus was also considered unclean, an outcast of society, but Jesus reached out to this unclean person and made him clean.
Jesus did this all the time.
He went to eat and hang out with tax collectors and sinners, tax collectors for goodness sake, those people who ripped people off, and everyone knew they ripped them off, but no-one could do anything about it. Talk about unclean people- Tax collectors were as dirty as it got. They may been clean at skin level, but their hearts were filthy!
And yet….Jesus reached out to those unclean people, those people that society really didn’t like, whether physically unclean or spiritually unclean.
Even worse, Jesus hand-picked one of those tax collectors, Matthew, reached out to him, made him clean and made him one of his disciples.
Friends, Jesus showed us evangelism 101.
Jesus immersed himself in the uncleanliness of people’s lives and made them clean.
Friends, we have been called to immerse ourselves in the mess of people’s lives in the hope that Jesus will touch them and make the clean.
The perfect God-man- Jesus left his throne in heaven and immersed himself in our mess, he became like one of us to save us.
And so, as a church we pray and ask God, that He will give us the strength to reach out and immerse ourselves in the mess of our community, while at the same time asking that the mess won’t overwhelm us, but instead God will create something beautiful out of it.
I’m not saying we should deliberately put ourselves in danger, but we must help those who no-one else will.
Take for example Martin Luther.
During the outbreak of the black death plague, many people fled to safer pastures, however Luther stayed in his home town to help those who were suffering and couldn’t flee, and he urged other leaders to likewise, although he did encourage everyone to follow their own conscience in accordance with the scriptures.
And yet as we reach out to our community, we must remember, not all will have the heart which the leper had, who knelt before Jesus that day.
Just look at how the leper approached Jesus from verse 2
And behold a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean”
This leper knew he was unclean.
Many people don’t accept that they are unclean. Many people don’t accept they are sinners that need saving. Many people perhaps feel so comfortable in this world, that they don’t feel they need Jesus.
The leper surrendered to Jesus.
Many people just don’t like the word surrender and so they just don’t surrender to anyone, they don’t want to submit to God’s will, they try and impose their will onto others. They just don’t accept that anyone should have authority over them.
The leper didn’t demand from Jesus.
Some people demand things from Jesus before they commit to him.
Jesus, you will open up this car park spot for me, and then I will do your will.
Jesus, you will get me a faster car and a bigger house, and then I will do your will.
When people come to Jesus, we don’t come in a position of bargaining, but just as a joyful surrender, and I mean joyful surrender, to say Lord, I trust you, let your will be done.
There is great Joy as we surrender to the will of Jesus.
When the leper surrendered to Jesus- immediately he was clean.
Look at verse 3 with me:
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, “I will: be clean” and immediately his leprosy was cleansed
This leper trusted Jesus and immediately he was clean, he was healed.
During the days of Moses, it was anything but immediate cleansing. The priest would examine the body thoroughly for dark spots, red spots, they would than keep an eye on the person and monitor them for several days, perhaps weeks, - it would take a long process for the priest to declare that this leper was clean……and yet here when this leper surrendered to Jesus, He was clean immediately.
Jesus showed that the laws which God gave to Moses regarding brining unclean back into the community of God’s people was superseded in the person of Jesus. The laws which God gave Moses for unclean people to be made clean, found its completion and perfection in Jesus.
Jesus not only cleansed this leper at skin deep level, but more importantly at the heart level.
Jesus was showing that he didn’t come to abolish the law of Moses, but to fulfil it.
This is why, after this miracle, Jesus told the leper to go to the temple and offer a sacrifice to the priest, just as it had been written in the law of Moses.
Now, remember this leper wouldn’t have been anywhere near the temple, he wouldn’t have been allowed near the temple- he had leprosy- he was unclean.
But now he was clean, he could go to the temple and that is where Jesus told him to go.
Look at verse 4 with me:
And Jesus said to him, “see that you say nothing to anyone, but go show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them”
Now only when a leper was clean or healed in the day of Moses, could he go and offer a sacrifice to the priest- 2 birds, a piece of cedar wood, a scarlet yarn and hyssop. The priest would then sprinkle the blood seven times on the leper. A lamb would then be sacrificed and blood put on the ear lobe of the leper, his thumb and the toe- perhaps to make sure all extreme ends of his body was covered. The leper would then shave his head, wash his clothes and bathe for 7 days before eventually being allowed back into God’s community.
It was a long process!
And so now this leper whom Jesus touched was clean, he could start that process.
But the question we have to ask is what did Jesus want to prove to the priests?
Well, we can assume that when the leper went to the priest to offer his sacrifice, he would have let them know that once he was a leper, but he wasn’t, once he was un clean, but now he was clean and we can assume that this leper would have told the priest, that it was the person Jesus who reached out and touched him and made him clean.
And so perhaps Jesus wanted to prove to the priests and the leaders of the temple, a few things.
1. It is Jesus who makes people clean.
As people put their trust in the promised Jewish Messiah Jesus, Jesus cleanses their hearts from sin, and brings them into God’s community.
2. Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law of Moses but to fulfil it.
And so, as this leper offered his sacrifice to the priest, the laws of Moses would have been fulfilled, but also superseded, since Jesus had already accepted him into God’s family, and Jesus had already declared this man was clean, before the priest was able to declare it himself.
Jesus wanted to prove- that those sacrifices that the law of Moses required for entry back into God’s community, where one day going to be superseded by the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
Friends, when Jesus died on the cross, he paid the penalty for all your sins, my sins. When Jesus sacrificed himself for us, he cleansed our hearts. He gave us adoption into his family. He took away all our guilt and shame- and as we surrender joyfully to king Jesus and allow him to touch our hearts, we too are immediately welcomed into God’s family.
We don’t need a 7-steps to heaven course or 7 ways to live your best life book, we don’t need to perform any rituals, we just need to trust that when Jesus died on the cross, he did that to pay the penalty for all my sins, to wash my heart clean, to bring me permanently into his family. – It was all done at the cross.
Do you humbly come before Jesus today and surrender to him as king?
Let us pray