Tag: leper

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Luke Devotionals

More than willing

Jesus and leper

When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’s knees and said, “Go away from me, because I’m a sinful man, Lord! (Luke 5:8)

I found Peter’s words above interesting. He spoke almost like a leper.

Lepers were required by God’s law to say to anyone who came near them, “Go away from me. I’m unclean.” (Leviticus 13:45-46)

But in Luke 5, a leper actually drew near to Jesus and said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus was willing and cleansed the leper of his disease.

More significantly, by his grace, he cleansed Peter and the paralytic of their sins.

And in Matthew’s case, Jesus was not only willing, he actually went chasing after Matthew.

In the same way, Jesus chased after us. Though we had gone our own way, treating Jesus like a zero, he went to the cross for us, paying the price for our rebellion.

Now when we come to him asking for mercy, as with the leper, Jesus says to us, “I am willing. Be clean.”

Therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

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Matthew Devotionals

When we are “unclean”

Throne of grace

Right away a man with leprosy came up and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Reaching out his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, “I am willing; be made clean.” (Matthew 8:2–3)

Leprosy was a terrible disease in Israel. It made people “unclean,” outcasts from society, and as such, they were banned from God’s temple. (Leviticus 13:45-46, Numbers 5:2-3).

In that way, leprosy is a picture of sin. It makes us spiritually unclean and breaks our relationships with God and others.

But the man in this story approached Jesus and said, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

And in his mercy and grace, Jesus touched him and said, “I am willing. Be clean.”

Often times after we sin, we wonder if God could possibly forgive us, if he could possibly accept us after what we’ve done.

And so we come before him trembling, saying, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus says the same thing to us as he said to that man.

“I am willing. Be clean.”

So, children of God, let us approach his throne with confidence, knowing that we will receive mercy and find grace in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

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Leviticus Devotions

A God who understands

Leviticus

Last Sunday, one of our preachers was giving a message on Mark 1:40-42, in which Jesus healed a leper.

And since I was going through Leviticus anyway, I decided to look again at the passages on the lepers. And in chapter 13, verses 45-46, it says something very disturbing.

The person who has a case of serious skin disease is to have his clothes torn and his hair hanging loose, and he must cover his mouth and cry out, ‘Unclean, unclean!’

He will remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He must live alone in a place outside the camp. (Leviticus 13:45-46)

Granted, for health reasons, this was undoubtedly necessary for the sake of the community.

But to a person seeing this for the first time, it would be easy to think, “This is so heartless. To be outcast, living alone, treated as unclean, totally despised. How could a loving God allow for this? Doesn’t he understand the devastation it would cause to the one with the disease?”

But as I read another passage the preacher brought up in the message, something profound hit me. It was Isaiah 53.

Talking of Jesus, it says,

He was despised and rejected by men (as was the leper),
a man of suffering who knew what sickness was (as the leper did).
He was like someone people turned away from (as they did the leper);
he was despised, and we didn’t value him (as was the leper).

Yet he himself bore our sicknesses,
and he carried our pains;
but we in turn regarded him stricken, (as was the leper)
struck down by God, and afflicted (as was the leper). (Isaiah 53:3-4)

In short, when Jesus came, he experienced all the pain and hurt that the leper did. But more than that,

he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds.

We all went astray like sheep;
we all have turned to our own way;
and the Lord has punished him
for the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6)

In Mark, the man said, “Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus said, “I am willing, be clean.”

In the same way, to a world crying out in desperation, “If you are willing, you can make us clean,” Jesus said, “I am willing.”

And he went to the cross, paying the price for our sin.

That is truly amazing grace.