Make Me Clean

Series on Luke

III The Initiation

B The Authority of His Ministry

3 Over Defilement

Text: 5:12-16

Introduction

Since 1995 approximately 18 million people worldwide have been cured of leprosy which is now called Hanson’s disease. Although the forced quarantine of patients is unnecessary in places where adequate treatments are available, many leper colonies still remain around the world in countries such as India (where there are still more than 1,000 leper colonies), and elsewhere in the Orient, Africa, and even Europe. Leprosy was once believed to be highly contagious and sexually transmitted. It was highly feared., and still is by the uninformed. Today we know that approximately 95% of people are naturally immune and sufferers are no longer infectious after as little as 2 weeks of treatment. The Hebrew word for leprosy is not a precise medical term referring to a specific disease . Rather does it seem to refer to a whole range of disfiguring conditions that resulted in exclusion. Today there are about thirty disfiguring conditions which can be confused with early and late Hansen’s Disease. Biblical “leprosy” could also involve clothing and leather garments according to Leviticus 13:37-48; maybe it was a form of mildew. In Lev.14:37 it could even affect walls of buildings. Lepers were excluded from the congregation unless cured and pronounced well by the priest. This reinforces the idea that the Biblical references were referring to various diseases of which Hanson’s disease was only one. Whatever health benefits this exclusion may have brought it would be a mistake to think that this is the primary reason for the directive. There were many temporary as well as permanent reasons for exclusion from the congregation. These included bodily discharges including menstruation, disfigurement including castration, illegitimacy, sexual sin including homosexuality and prostitution, contact with a dead person, certain nationalities like Moabites or Ammonites and various other sources of uncleanness. The emphasis on purity was to remind the people that God was in the midst of them, and although these imperfections were not the result of people’s individual sin, they were the effects of the entrance of sin into the world. Thus purity is the main issue. The difference between the Old Testament and the New is not that purity is less important, but rather that external symbolic physical purity has passed and we are concerned in the Church with moral and spiritual purity. Jesus was actually teaching this in our text. We see three important things here, trust, tenderness, and testimony.

I Trust

In verse 12 we read, While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Notice the trust of the suppliant. Today most people would say that God certainly would do it, if He could. In other words He has the willingness, but they wold doubt His power. This man, like many others in the gospel narratives, does not doubt for a second that Jesus can do it. His only question is, will He? Most of us are familiar with Jesus’ words when the disciples prevented the children from coming to Him. He said in Luke 18:16 and 17, Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. What the leper in our text displays is that childlike faith. When children are asking their parents for something they rarely doubt that the parent has the ability to do what they are asking. Their entire focus is on persuasion, and making their parents willing to do it. When we, as parents, find the request beyond our means, we have to explain with patience and difficulty why we cannot do it. In a word, the leper is ready for the kingdom because he has that attribute of trust like a little child. Jesus rewards his faith.

II Tenderness

The tenderness of Jesus is shown in verse 13, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. We should understand that Jesus was not preaching what the religious leaders wanted to hear, He was not entertaining the right group and He was not healing the right people. When he touches the leper He violates every religious protocol. The man was unclean, untouchable, excluded from the congregation of Israel, and regarded by many as a sinner who was responsible for his own affliction. In John 9 when Jesus heals the man blind from birth, we read in verses 1-3, As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. It was the common belief among the people in Jesus’ day that there was a direct correlation between sickness and sin in a man’s life. We see this also in the case of the accusations made by Job’s friends at an earlier time. In any case Jesus is tender and compassionate and he cares more about the man than the rules. The rules will pass away but the man will live forever. Jesus cares more about the suffering than His own reputation. Christian people who work in leper colonies report being ostracized themselves. Those who have tried to organize Christian ministries to Aids patients have met the same prejudices and fears. But Christians have cared for centuries about this kind of suffering and have carried on Jesus’ compassionate and tender ministry, and we should too. About 65 years ago a Reformed Presbyterian Doctor named John Taylor started an orphanage in Bhogpur, India with 12 children. It was started for the children who were orphaned by separation from parents who had leprosy. Today their are 660 children with and extension in Roorkee, and the kids are given a full education through High School. Many of them have gone on to professional futures in India. This is what can come of Christians showing the compassion of Jesus.

.  III Testimony

Now Jesus has a mission for the healed leper in verse 14, Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.” There are two parts to the mission. The first part is that he should not tell anyone. Again Jesus is concerned with the spread of His fame. The reason is that the surging interest and pleas of the people will impede His mission to preach the kingdom, and upset His time schedule. It’s not that He doesn’t have the power to alter things, but rather that He wishes to fulfill the Father’s plan and carry everything out according to the eternal plan. Publicity makes this more difficult as we see in verses 15 and 16, Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. The second part of the leper’s mission is to follow the legal requirements of the Old Testament. Any leper presumed cured had to be authenticated by the priests. Jesus is not concerned as much with the compliance as he is with the effect of it. The priests will probably question the man about his deliverance. It was not an everyday occurrence. Thus, it is a testimony that will confront the religious leaders with who Jesus is. It will either persuade them to take a greater interest, or it will harden their attitude and ultimately lead to Jesus’ appointed death on the cross. That is the ultimate goal of His ministry as the Lamb of God and so it is an important request. Sometimes in Scripture there are small historic references which we are apt to gloss over. One of them that invites speculation is in Acts 6:7, So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. One wonders if among those priests who later believed in Jesus there might have been one who confirmed the healing of the leper.