When he came down from the moun­tain, great crowds fol­lowed him. And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, say­ing, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, say­ing, “I will; be clean.” And imme­di­ately his lep­rosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say noth­ing to any­one, but go, show your­self to the priest and offer the gift that Moses com­manded, for a proof to them.”
Matthew 8:1–4 ESV

A Bro­ken Man

We can live our lives dis­con­nected, bro­ken, or sep­a­rate. We can bear the stigma of a cer­tain con­di­tion that keeps us at odds with our com­mu­nity. We could be the recip­i­ents of some­thing unfair. We can think that we are alone and unloved, for­got­ten by society.

This leper found him­self in that con­di­tion. He could never face peo­ple again. Lep­rosy was a seri­ous phys­i­cal con­di­tion, but it also had seri­ous soci­o­log­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal impli­ca­tions for the indi­vid­ual. This man was ostra­cized from soci­ety, left to wan­der, and forced to announce his arrival when­ever he showed up anywhere.

A Desire For Restoration

This leper was not just ask­ing for phys­i­cal heal­ing. He was not just look­ing for the Mes­siah to ‘fix’ his prob­lems. He was ask­ing for a restora­tion that began first in the phys­i­cal, but then moved to emo­tional and relational.

Inher­ent in the leper’s ques­tion to Jesus, is a desire to be accepted and loved. He pro­claims, “Lord if you will,” reveal­ing his deep inse­cu­rity and inabil­ity to be accepted and loved. If Jesus wanted to heal him, then this leper would feel like there was finally some hope. This leper wanted to know that Jesus was not just pass­ing out ‘heal­ing’ indif­fer­ently to who­ever needed it, but that he had Jesus’ atten­tion and compassion.

Trans­for­ma­tive Healing

When Jesus says, “I will,” He is say­ing that He accepts this man. He is say­ing that His inten­tion is to restore this man more than just phys­i­cally. Jesus cares about this man emo­tion­ally and psy­cho­log­i­cally. He is restor­ing his mind, will, and emo­tions. He is tak­ing him from the state of an out­cast to a per­son accepted by the community.

A fur­ther point in this story is that Jesus sends him directly to the priest, so that the priest can ver­ify the heal­ing. Jesus is really ask­ing this man to enter back into soci­ety, through the pre­scribed laws of that soci­ety. Jesus is try­ing to legit­imize his re-​​entrance into com­mu­nity. Jesus knows what is required to re-​​enter com­mu­nity, to go back to friends and family.

Reflec­tion

1. As Christ-​​followers, His Body upon the earth, how do we hear the cry of the bro­ken around us? Does our com­pas­sion lead itself to action?
2. Are we engag­ing with the mir­a­cle that is demanded of us? Are we will­ing to accept and love as we bring Christ’s heal­ing to the world us? The issues are never what are just on the surface.
3. Are we seek­ing to bring restora­tion to the indi­vid­ual? Do we have that individual’s best inter­est in mind?
4. How do we accept restoration/​healing as a spir­i­tual com­mu­nity? Do we we believe that people’s lives can be changed by Jesus? Are we ready to assim­i­late that change?