And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.”
Sin, like an incurable sickness, ravages our lives. Its highly contagious nature allows it to spread at any moment through normal life activities. The sickness of sin, once contracted, spreads generationally like a gene-altering invasion. The tentacles of its reach seek to infect every area of life. Those infected by it no longer can relate to society normally. Relationship with God is severed.
In the natural and in many ways, sin looks a lot like leprosy. Leprosy as referred to in Scripture included a myriad of skin infections seen as incurable. The social implications included an inability to be touched by others and the requirement of announcing the condition to others through the word, “unclean.” Contracting leprosy meant the end of the opportunity for having children. It meant an inability to worship in the temple. A slow and terrible death was certain, and the shame of the disease made life unbearable.*
Sin does these things to us, but much worse. The separation introduced between us and others and us and God is incurable and cannot be ignored. We cannot enter God’s presence, and nothing we can do can change this. Unlike leprosy, death does not even provide an escape from the reaches of sin.
The leper in the days of Jesus’s earthly ministry had to announce ”unclean” whenever near people without the disease. I wonder how many times we announce, “sinner” when in God’s presence? Too often, when made aware of or reminded of our own sin, we either attempt to hide our sin from God, or we hide from Him all together. This hiding leaves us diseased and distant.
Scripture tells us that healing comes through confession to others (James 5:16). How many times do we sit with someone we trust and tell them, “I’m a sinner.” Like we do with God, we hide our sins and our selves from each other, allowing the sin to fester and spread.
Jesus was willing and able to heal the leper. He is willing and able to touch us and heal us as well. The contagion of sin and leprosy do not touch Jesus. Jesus touches people and healing spreads from Him to us. It has the potential to spread between us, from friend to friend.
Today, take a step.
Maybe today the one step God wants you to take is to look into the eyes of our compassionate Savior and say, “I’m a sinner! Heal me please O Lord!” Perhaps God wants you, as His hands and feet to this world, to touch someone else. Maybe God wants healing to spread through you in the way that sickness and sin once did. Perhaps the compassion of Jesus that brought Him to touch the outcast is available for you today (it is). Maybe God wants you to find a trusted brother or sister in the Lord and declare, “I’m a sinner!” Perhaps God wants you to create a place of compassion for someone else to do the same.
Whatever the step, ask God to direct it. Take a moment to take that step. Invite Him to speak. He will.
Life is a long road. Walk it with Jesus. Take a step today… just one is fine.
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*Leon, Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew. Pillar New Testament Commentary (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1992), 187–190, and Keener, C. S., Matthew (Vol. 1, Mt 8:1-4) (InterVarsity Press, 1997).