The Heart of Christ for Outsiders

As we look at Matthew 8, we will find three different encounters recorded for us. First, Jesus is approached by a leper. Second, He is approached by a Roman Centurion. Third, He is seen healing the mother-in-law of Peter.

The central theme between these three is that Jesus cares for those who society looks down upon. You see, Lepers were viewed as those who are as good as dead. They were banished from town, the Temple, and their families. That’s easy enough, we think. But what’s so bad about the Centurion? Well, at this time Rome is in control of Israel and the Jews absolutely hate it. They are longing for the day that God will overthrow the Romans and give them their homes back. So, they look at this gentile Centurion as a dog who hates God and is against His people. Okay, but what about Peter’s mother in law? In today’s society, we don’t really pick up the significance here, but in Ancient times, women were looked down on as second class citizens. In Roman Culture, they were simply property of their husbands to do with as he wished. So, what we see is the compassionate heart of Jesus for people who His culture looked down on.

Today, for the sake of time, I want us to simply look at the first four verses which cover the encounter of Jesus and the Leper. And the first thing I want us to see is how they viewed lepers at this time.

Leprousy is a disease that attacks the nervous system in the body which attacks your nerves and will cause excruciating pain and will result in the loss of feeling pain at all. As a matter of fact, there are records of lepers having their fingers or toes eaten by rats while they slept without ever feeling it at all. The damage of this disease would result in severe deformities and would leave lepers limping or crawling as their bodies were harmed by this disease.

In the Old Testament, Leviticus 13-14 gives insight into the treatment of those with leprousy. It tells us that those who are deemed lepers by the Priests, would be decalred ceremonially unclean which meant that they couldn’t worship God in the temple and they would also be banished from their community, their homes and their families. Not only this, but lepers would be expected to cry out, “Unclean, Unclean!” if they were ever remotely close to any who were healthy. Society look down on them as outcasts who were as good as dead, and they thought that leprousy was a cause of God’s judgment upon these people.

This is who we find coming up to Jesus here in verse 1-4. A hopeless, homeless, and hurting man with no one to care for him. I think it is interesting to notice the boldness of this man in even approaching Jesus and it probably wouldn’t be unusual for healthy people to throw rocks at lepers to keep them away from them. I also find the respect for Christ and His authoirty to be interesting as well as he calls him, “Lord.” and then acknowledges that Jesus is capable of healing whatever is ailing him if He simply wants to. Now, what is Jesus’s response to this?

Matthew doesn’t include this information in his account, but Luke writes, in Luke 1:41, “Moved with pity, He stretched out His hand and touched Him and said to Him, “I will; be clean.”

Notice, Jesus doesn’t heal him with just a word like He does with the Centurion’s servant. Instead, Jesus reaches out His own hand and touches this man and heals him. Now, if you’re just a normal person this would be extremely dangerous, you would be declared unclean, and would risk your life! But what we find here is that everything that the Lord puts His hand to is forever changed for the better. Not only that, but we find His compassion here in that He would have been the first loving hand this man would’ve felt in some time.

Well, Jesus heals the man and then does something a little confusing to us. He doesn’t say, “Go tell everyone you meet about this.” Instead He commands him to be quiet, and to go be declared clean by the priest and to offer a sacrifice. The reason for this is that Jesus hadn’t died yet and so, hadn’t fulfilled the Old Testament laws and so this man was still bound to obey the ceremonial laws until Christ fulfilled them in His death and Resurrection.

Application:

Now what does this mean for us? Is there something more here than what meets the eye. Throughout the rest of the New Testament, and event the OT, we begin to find that leprosy is a type of the spiritual sickness of our heart where it talks about us being purified, cleansed, or washed. If we think it was gross to think of rats eating the skin of these people, we also need to realize how horrifying our spiritual sickness is. So, what we find here is not only the heart of Jesus for outcasts, but that we are all outcasts because of our sin. We are cast out of the kingdom of Heaven, but Jesus isn’t afraid of you and me and our sin. Instead, He looks on sinners who come to Him with loving compassion.

So, if you feel like you’re bound by sin. If you feel ashamed of yourself, if you feel like you’re too far gone to ever be forgiven, this text teaches us of Christ’s love for the outcasts. You can come to Him and He will happily show grace to you.

Second, I want us to consider the topic of pain. This person was one who experienced serious pain physically, spiritually, emotionally. And perhaps you have too. Perhaps you’re suffering in some regard and you can’t possible see the purpose of it. Well, here we find that it was the pain of this suffering man that brought him to the feet of Jesus and it was there he felt the loving hand of Jesus rest on him.

Third, concerning those around us who we might be led to think our outcasts. Let us look upon them with the loving compassion of Jesus as He has showed us greater love than we could ever imagine and greater grace than we ever deserved.