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Series Theme: Meditations on People who met Jesus

Meditation No. 13

Meditation Title: A Leper

      

Mt 8:1-4 When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. Then Jesus said to him, "See that you don't tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."

 

It has been suggested that despite this being a day of immense communication, many, many people nevertheless feel distinctly isolated from their fellow humans. The need to be loved, accepted and cared for is very strong in us and when that is absent there is a strong sense of loneliness and isolation. People have commented that you can be lonely in a crowded room. For such a person the future as well as the present looks bleak. The cause is psychological and the person in question does not know how to change it. Some even suggest that with the so-called sexual freedom in the West in the twenty first century, the absence and even inability to find love is greater today than ever before. Now we face these things here because this loneliness and isolation is what this leper in our verses today would have faced.

There are disagreements about the nature of leprosy as described in the Bible, but it is probable that it began with pain in certain areas of the body and numbness followed. Soon, the skin in those areas loses its colour and becomes scaly, and then turns into sores and ulcers. The skin around the ears and eyes swells, eye lashes and eyebrows drop out, and fingers and toes can drop off. The throat is affected so the voice can become croaky. The leper also smells badly. It is no wonder that such people were isolated and not allowed to live in the main areas of population. The existence of lepers in both Old and New Testaments is common; Luke records Jesus as commenting, “there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet.” (Lk 4:27) On the way to Judea from Galilee once, we read, “on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him.” (Lk 17:11,12).

The leper would not only have a sense of isolation and loneliness, but also of hopelessness. Such would have been the state of this man who comes to Jesus. He isn't even given a name; he's just one of the faceless, nameless rejects of society that we'd rather forget about because they seem beyond us. The fact that he came at all is quite amazing. Somehow the word about Jesus must have spread even to the leper community. Already the word had spread about Jesus' healing abilities and something in the man rose and he determined to come. His determination is made even more clear when we are told of Jesus that “When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him,” and so this man would have to face the revulsion of the crowds to even reach Jesus.

When he comes, he kneels before Jesus and humbly confesses his belief: "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean” The word clean indicates something of the feeling about leprosy. Those who have been raped testify to feeling unclean for a long time afterwards. These people felt unclean and were called unclean. Imagine working in the garden for a day and getting very dirty, dusty and sweaty – and then being required to go straight into a banquet where everyone is in evening dress – and very clean! That is the sort of comparison that we have here in terms of feelings, but he is so desperate that he dares come through the crowds to Jesus. Nothing will put him off.

And then, wonder of wonders, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. How incredible! Jesus isn't put off by the man's state. In the Phantom of the Opera , the heroine, when faced with the phantom's awful face distortions, kisses him and her willingness to touch him breaks his heart. The need to be touched, accepted and loved is very strong in all of us, and no more so than in the leper. And Jesus touches him! He is accepted. How wonderful. But then Jesus affirms his willingness and simply speaks the words of authority against the disease. What follows is so easily read yet must have been incredible to behold: Immediately he was cured of his leprosy. The skin changed, the voice changed; everything that had been affected by the disease was changed and restored.

Sometimes I feel the Gospel writers want slapping for their brevity, for surely at this point the leper must have been weeping and all the onlookers must have been weeping. I have been around when God does stuff and you don't stand there passive, you are moved, deeply! If you have every watched a film where everything had been going disastrously wrong and then, finally it all works out with a happy-ever-after ending, and found yourself with tears streaming down your face, you'll know what I mean. If you have never known that experience you are to be pitied! It is the awareness of the wonder of the goodness that has entered into this situation. This is a staggering miracle, a wonderful life-changing miracle! And it has been brought with love and compassion.

When we looked at the apostles it sometimes seemed a little academic, the wonder of their lives following Jesus and being changed. Yes it is wonderful, but nothing like what we have just witnessed here. This is heart-stirring, tear-jerking stuff and if we don't see it, it is simply because we don't think and pray ourselves into the situation. We are now encountering people who have got to the end of themselves and have then met the wonder and love of heaven in the form of the Son of God. Let your heart be moved, and if it hasn't, go back and read it all again and pray for revelation. This is the glory of heaven coming to earth and it is wonderful. Appreciate it!