Matthew 8:1-4
Cleansing of the Leper

Q: Have you ever been in a situation where you had to help someone who had a distasteful disease? What was it like? Did you experience Christ in that ministry?

In chapter 8, Matthew begins to relate some of the miracles of Jesus. They are not arranged chronologically, but rather topically.

Matthew is making a theological point in presenting these miracles: Jesus' ministry (prior to the pivotal passion event) is shown to inaugurate the Kingdom of God foretold in the Old Testament. Jesus is the messianic king of Israel who brings about God's reign.

So Jesus:

(a) begins by preaching the Good News that the Kingdom of God has dawned;

(b) teaches the ethical principles of living in this Kingdom;

(c) demonstrates that the kingdom reality of God has come in power via his ministry of healing.

Matthew begins his miracle accounts with the healing of the leper. It is difficult for us to imagine the horror leprosy held for Jewish people in Bible times. Not only did it slowly kill the sufferer (taking anywhere between 9 and 30 years to bring about mortality), it also made the leper ceremonially unclean.

A leper was seen as cursed by God. They were literally untouchable. Many stories recount the way rabbis would run from or even stone a leper because they did not want to be spiritually or physically contaminated by the afflicted person. Healings for leprosy were rare and healing a leper was considered as difficult as raising the dead. Everywhere a leper when he/she had to cry out, "Unclean, unclean". He could only approach as close as 6 feet to a person, and if the wind was blowing towards a person from the direction of the leper had to remain 150 feet away. Leprosy excluded a person from the community of God (Lev. 13:46).

With this background we can see several amazing facts emerge from Matthew's account of the healing of the leper.

1. The leper rand up to Jesus. He actually got in Jesus' "space"! This was unheard of.

Q: Why do you think he broke the rules about approaching people and came close to Jesus? Do "unclean" people feel that we are approachable?

2. He knelt before Jesus. The Greek word in the NIV for "knelt" is prosekynei, which can also mean "worshiped". This is, in fact, the way the KJV and NKJV translate the word. When it is used for worship, the word was only used for the worship of the gods. Christians have traditionally seen this as a witness to the divinity of Christ.

3. The leper phrases the request, "if you are willing". This illustrates the proper attitude in our prayer life and relationship with God. It demonstrates both humility and faith. Prayer is not manipulation of God. It always acknowledges that God is free to act as he chooses.

4. Jesus TOUCHED the leper. This is an amazing act! In the law of Moses, touching a leper made one as unclean as touching a dead body (Leviticus 13). But here Jesus is not defiled, rather his touch cleanses and heals!

Jesus touches the untouchable. There is no one too dirty for Jesus! God does not consider any one too sick, too morally polluted, too outcast to be saved and healed.

Q: Who are the lepers of today? How do you think God would have us respond in those situations?

The healing/cleansing of lepers was to be one of the signs that the kingdom of God had broken in upon the world (Matthew 11:4). Jesus displays his authority and the reality of the Kingdom, and that he is Messiah.

That is why he forbids the leper to tell anyone except the priests about his healing.

The synoptic parallels (Mark 1:45; Luke 5:15) as well as other similar occurrences in Matthew demonstrate that these commands to be silent have other functions--to show that Jesus is not presenting himself as a mere wonder worker...who can be pressured into messiahship by crowds whose messianic views are materialistic and political. Jesus' authority derives from God alone, not the acclaim of men...; he came to die, not to trounce the Romans. The people who disobeyed Jesus' injunctions to silence only made his mission more difficult. [ECNT]

Jesus commands the leper to show himself to the priests and offer the sacrifices Moses required for such a healing. Thus, Jesus uses the law of Moses as a WITNESS to his messianic authority. Paul would take this up in his letters, showing that the Law, in fact, leads people to Jesus.

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